Saigon, Mekong Delta, Phom Penh

On my first day in Saigon i explored the city, the re-unification palace, war remnants museum, various parks and pagodas. The War Remnants museum was a superb if graphic and depressing. Outside were some planes, vehicles, tanks and equipment used in the war. Inside there were loads of displays of photos from the war with written explanations as well. I spent 2 hours looking at photos after photo of Americans G.I.'s committing war crimes, of casualties and corpses, of victims of bombs, napalm and agent orange, of the horrendous conditions of the war and generally of death, destruction and suffering. It also reinforced to me how pointless the war was. To top it off next door was a mock of of the Vietnamese prison and interrogation facility that existed on the Phu Quoc island. That had vivid explanations of the torture techniques used on the Vietcong there, as well as more photo's of victems (of living and the dead). I continued the war theme with a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, this was one of the main things i wanted to see while i was out there. The complex of tunnels spread over 250 km and are now a big tourist attraction. I learned about there history and structure which was interesting. We were shown the air holes and secret enterances to the tunnels whioch we would have missed if we weren't shown them as they were very well camoflagued. We were then allowed into a loop of the tunnels which was about 100 meters long and only involved the top tier of the tunnels. We were told they had stopped sending people to the lower levels as the lack of air and the tough going meant that a few peopl ehad died of heart attacks down there. They are also filled with poisonus snakes that the Americans put there to kill the vietcong in the tunnels. The strech of tunnel we were allowed in had been 'made more confortable' for tourists (for example there were regular emergency exits) but was still very small and hard going, far more so then the Vin Moc. I either had to squat walk which was painful or crawl - which was painful - and i was happy to get out. A large proportion of the tunnel is still in tact but there are still loads of booby traps so obviously you wouldn't have wanted to go down there!!!. The trip finished off at the firing range where people could shoot AK's, M 16,s and a range of other rifles and machine guns.

The next day i left HCMC for a 3 day trip of the Mekong Delta. It was as i expected, strictly regimented with not a lot of time to linger but we got to see coconut candy workshops, noodle makers, rice makers, crocdile farms, and had a few boat rided up the tributaries so I saw a lot more than i would have if I had tried to do the delta on my own. Instead of going back to HCMC at the end i got the boat to Phom Penh. It was a long journey battling up the Mekong but it was a nice change from the bus.

I've spent 3 days in Phom Penh. On the first day i went to Tuol Sleng prison (S-21) which was once a secondary school (much like Forest!!) before the Kymer Rouge turned it into a interrogation center/ prison where thousands were either torutured to death or sent away to be executed. When it was finally liberated there were only 7 survivors out of the orignal 20,000 inmates. AS you can imagine it was not a cheery place but was not as bad as i thought. there were displays, photo's and other information that showed what went on there and more generally about the Kymer rouge. I spent the next day walking round the city visiting the main attractions, wat's, the palace etc. Today I rented a bike and cycled out to the killing fields which oddly enough wasn't a water park. IT was where the inmated of S-21 and other areas were taken to be executed. They were blind folded, made to kneel down then a guard would hit them on the back of the neck with a hoe or another blunt instrument, then their throats were slit and they were thown into mass graves. They exhumed just under 9,000 bodies and the area now just looks like it's covered in bomb craters. Tomorrow i'm off to Siem Reap to do Ankor wat - no prisons!!!

Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat

So after Hue i headed off to Hoi An, a quiet town made famous by it's tailoring. Here you can pick up a tailor made suit for less than $100. You can get anything made, shoes, dresses and jackets and proved to be too much for some female travellers, one girl i met spent over 200 euros buying 5 pairs of shoes and several dresses!! My highlight of Hoi An was the variety and cheapness of the food and the dirt cheap beer. From sleepy Hoi An i headed to the coastal resort of Nha Trang. Did a boat trip on what turned out to be a 'party boat'. We did some trips to local islands, did a bit of snorkeling/jumping of the boat, enjoyed the happy hour on the floating bar (floating in a rubber ring knocking back pretty foul rice wine). Also met a group of pro-Aussi footballers which was sweet so was out with them and the rest of the tour group that night. The trip also included a superb buffet lunch which i made the most of!! There were some good bars and clubs in Nha Trang as well so i went was out till late most of the nights i was there. Then went to the mountain town of Dalat, not a long journey distance wise but due to the terrible roads it was a long journey and felt more like an off-road adventure than a bus ride. Dalat was a nice change to the rest of Vietnam being much cooler. There were some terrific bakeries selling bread, cake and pastries for nothing. Got a bike out one day and cycled around but nothing to do in the evening so only spent 2 nights there. I'm now in HCMC (Saigon) which is very similar to Hanoi in terms of traffic noise and pollution. Been gone 8 weeks now!!

Hue

After the Ha Long bay tour i went back to Hanoi for 2 days. But after having been with loads of people for the last week i got a bit bored. I bought an open-bus ticket to get me to Saigon stopping at Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang. Although i bought a seated ticket i some how ended up on the much more expensive sleeper bus for the 13 hour journey from Hanoi to Hue (for no extra cost) which was pretty cool. On first day in Hue i got a motorbike tour of the city and beyond. It was fun and i saw lot's of stuff but it was hard work making sure he didn't rip me off. Today i did a tour of the Demilitarized Zone which involved some army bases, monuments, bridges and a lot of time in the bus. However the main reason i did the tour was to visit the Vinh Moc tunnels. Basically during the Vietnam War the Americans launched a 24/7 bombing campaign of The Ho Chi Minh trail and laos to prevent the liberation army (vietcong) moving troops and supplies though the country by bombing the crap out of them. This bombing campaign lasted several years and I think cost the Americans $2 million a day. So to escape the bombs the Vietnamese built a vast tunnel network under ground that included meeting rooms, living quarters, hospitals and bomb shelters. The tunnels are very small and some go down to over 20 meters but they were pretty cool. Unfortunately, the tour there was fairly brief so we only got 20 minutes inside the tunnels. It was more than enough for some other people though!!!

Ha long bay, Cat Ba

Spent 2 nights in Hanoi seeing the sights and went out both nights as well which was good fun. A crazy city but i'm enjoying it so far. However i just got back from a 3 day 2 night tour of Ha long bay which was awesome. So on the 4th i got a bus down to Ha long Bay and then boarded my junk. It had 3 levels, the lower one was the rooms, the middle was the dining room and the upper was the sun deck. So we set off and a nice lunch with lot's of seafood and went straight to a cave. I was dissapointed with this bit as it had been very built up for tourists, there were loud speakers telling you to be careful, through your rubbish in the bin etc., the paths were all concrete, there were tourists stalls and women trying to sell you water. The cave was pretty big but was filled with blue, yellow and green lighting, those penguin bins you used to see in leisure centers and they's even added a few artificial fountains..... no idea why. Also the traffic was just as bad as in hanoi with loads of junks trying to get a space in the pier. It was uphill from then on though. We left the masses and slowly cruised through the bay which for those who don't know consists of thousands of huge limestone 'islands' that tower out of the water like submerged mountains and cover nearly 1,500 square km. The weather was stunning so we could just lie on the loungers on the top of the junk and just admire them as we slowly cruised along. It was pretty sweet. We then went to a floating village and got some kayaks and paddled around. Myself and 3 others paddled to a huge cave and went deep inside climbed to a high rock and just watched the sun light far away. We then went back to the boat left the harbour and spent 3o mins jumping of it into the water and having a little swim. Fortunately, there was a really cool group of people on the boat so we spent the evening drinking, doinG a bit of amateur kareoke, looking at the stars, the other boats and the silohuettes of the cliffs.

The next day we went to Cat Ba island, the only inhabited island in the whole bay, and climbed a large hill in the national park though the jungle to the top. At the top was a 20 meter high tower (very rusted) that we could climb which offered spectacular views of the island. we spent the afternoon on a very nice beach, swam out to another island, and otherwise just chilled out. We went out againg in the evening and ended up going back to the beach for a swim at about 1.30 in the morning.

Today was spent getting back to Hanoi. Overall the trip was another highlight of my travels beautiful sights, cool people, well priced, great weather and i didn't have to look at my lonely planet guide once which was a welcome change of pace.

Hanoi

well i've been travelling for a month now which is pretty neat - seems to have gone very quickly. Hit a low the other day when i went into a (rubbish) internet cafe to sort out my photo's and ended up losing all of them.... except for the few on facebook. Especially gutted about the tubing photo's. I lèft Vientiane yesterday, and undetered by the typhoon, headed for Vietnam. The bús journey was a bit of a mission. From leaving my guest house in vientiane to arriving in the hotel in vietnam took roughly twenty-six hours. however true Lao P.D.R. style (Please Don't Rush) it involved a lot of waiting around. The worst bit was when we stopped for no apparetn reason at a small deserted cafe between one-thirty and 6 in the morning which annoyed me bit. The border crossing was a nightmare, firstly because on the laos side it was chaos to get the passport stamps to leave, secondly beacuse the communist vietnamese have excessive bureacracy and wanted extra money for stamps and things on top of the visa fee everyone got in advance, thirdly because we were close to the typhoon it was lashing it down with rain and so we got very wet running from the bus to the offices and fourthly because they checked our passports a million times. For the first few hours in vietnam all we could see was the aftermath of the typhoon - lots of flooding - fortunately the roads were not affected. I'm, now in Hanoi which is a million miles away from compartively sleepy laos. unfortunately by the time we arrived in hanoi it was dark and because of a massive festival on at the moment the old quater where the hotels are was packed with stalls people and motorbikes. Fortunately, a woman met as at the bus station to advertise her hotel and took us there. We got quite a good deal as well. Traffic in hanoi is ridiculous, bikes, cars and buses not to mention pedestrians do what they want when they want and love the horn. the result is a very crowded, very noisy and very poluted city. very lively though. I', probably going to do a boat trip of Ha long bay and then head south.