Sigon to Hoi An
I hope I am not boring you all too much with my drivel.
Saigon is a great town, and it is quite something to just wonder around watching people going about thier daily lives. It still freaks me out a little being propositioned by professional women on the street corner, but a simple no thank you with a smile and they leave you be.
We spent a few days in Saigon, wondering around and in the evening playing silly games with the vendor children selling books, postcards, chewing gum, and plates of spring rolls that looked as though they were fresh last year.
We made a trip to the chu ci tunnels round Saigon, which were used by the Viet-Cong to great effect during the war with America. Crawling along these tunnels was very different, and it has to be said rather nerve racking. The tunnels themselves are may be at most two feet high and very long. We crawled along about 70 meters of a section of tunnel leading into an old command bunker. It was so close and humid, the dark oppressed and you could imagine the fear the Americans would have felt as they tried to enter these enclaves. Knowing that round any corner there could be a trap or a rifle waiting.
Wolf shot of a few rounds on an M60 heavy machine gun to pass the time.
It is the kind of thing that rambo or arnie carries round. And the amount of noise it made was astounding. Walking back from the shooting range you could hear the gunfire cracking in the distance through the jungle, and unsettled every one we were traveling with. The life of a soldier is not for me. You get to play with some big toys, but at the end of the day, it is all for a reason.
After Saigon, we headed out to Delat, in the central highlands. At 1500 meters up the coolness of the air was a relief. In the evening we even had to wear jackets. The scenery is in some respects very reminisant of Scotland, except for the Vietnamese, the sun, and of course the bamboo.
We spent a couple of days there visiting waterfalls, and local tribes.
Avoiding the local motor cycle guides generally communing with nature. A couple of university students from Delat befriended us and every evening we would go out for dinner, and drink incredibully strong coffee. We would talk about Vietnamese culture, and in return the wanted to know how to sware like sailors. So being the good sararitans were are, we obliged.
From Delat we went down the coast to Nha Trang, which is very much the
party town of Vietnam. And the only reason we had to leave in the end
was that it was so dam expensive on our very limited budgets. We ran into almost everybody we have met so far on the trip, and each time it was insisted that we have celebratory drinks and dancing. The diving in Nha Trang is supposed to be pretty god, however we decided to wait until we hit Thailand as it is supposed to be that much better and we have plenty of time there.
We are in Hoi An, a town filled with tailors. At every corner we are offered suits, shirts, dresses(!), and anything else that could be sown.
We arrived in Hoi An after a 12 hour night bus journey. And were immediatly tricked into buying shorts and shirts. They did a great job and it is quicker to have clothes made for you here than it is to wash you own.
That about bring us up to date, next we head to Hue, then Hanoi.
So take care everybody, and have fun.
