The Big Trip Report Number 12 - Good Morning Vietnam - Wed, 02 Apr 2003

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So here we are back on the road again for leg 3 of the trip - South East Asia this time. We have just arrived in Cambodia after 4 excellent weeks in Vietnam. Great people, great scenery (despite all the napalm and agent orange), great cheap food and cheap beer - what more could you want?
We started off in Hanoi, famous for Ho Chi Minh and Jane Fonda. Jane's not here any more, but Uncle Ho is. He's on display, stuffed by the Russians in a mausoleum (like Lenin and Mao - what is it with these deceased communist leaders?); and his image is everywhere, in peoples' homes and on postcards and t-shirts. Incidentally Jane has left a legacy. There are groups of Vietnamese women aerobicising in all the parks.
We used this busy city as a base to explore northern Vietnam. First was a boat trip on picturesque Halong Bay - a plethora of limestone pinnacles rising out of the still green water (featured in the film Indochine). We spent a night out on the water, which was very peaceful. Unfortunately it was still winter in northern Vietnam so too cold for swimming, but it was really atmospheric. Next we went north to Sa Pa, a cold French colonial mountain resort near the Chinese border. From here we went on a 3 day trek with our 19 year old guide to the more remote countryside. We stayed in a tiny village with her family, in their modest 2 room house. They were farmers and incredibly hospitable and generous. There were no other tourists to be seen. After eating great home cooked meals and drinking copious amounts of home-made rice wine with her family, we were such a novelty that the whole village (we do not exaggerate) came round to see the 'big noses' (that's what they call us). They wanted us to hold the small babies, we think it is for good luck, but almost invariably the kids start crying! We are like scary monsters. It was a great experience and a chance to see the real Vietnam. It is the only time we managed to get away from the ubiquitous vendors trying to sell everything from pineapples to postcards.

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Vietnam is a crowded country (population about 80 million). Nearly everyone gets around on bikes and motos, swarms of which manage to negotiate busy intersections with no traffic signals, with surprising grace and ease. Crossing the street requires a leap of faith, you just start walking and somehow they all just miss you! It is also amazing to see how much they can fit on these vehicles, a family of four sit quite happily on one bike, or maybe 20kg of rice (no SUVs here).
Nearly all the people we have met have been very friendly, and many speak pretty good English; and often French too dating back to the French colonization (there are gazillions of French tourists here). Like China, superficially anyway, this does not appear to be a Communist country. We have also been impressed by how hard the people work - whether in the rice fields (both women and men sometimes carry 60kg/ 130lb loads!), shops or hotels.
From Hanoi we took the comfortable sleeper train to Hue (say hoo-ay), the former imperial capital of the country, although it was mostly bombed to shit in the “American War”, as it is known here. We spent a day touring some infamous war locations including Ke Sanh, Doc Mieu and the Rockpile. We also went inside a three km tunnel system (23 meters maximum depth!) built by Vietnamese villagers to live in for five years during the war and escape the American bombs.
It is amazing how normal and green the countryside looks now considering the decimation caused by explosives and Agent Orange only 30 years ago. Unfortunately, however there are still millions of unexploded devices, so de-mining teams are still working to clear the land every day. Also the US Army MIA units are still here looking for any remains for US soldiers. However most of the bones they find belong to Vietnamese.
Next stop was Hoi An, an old trading port and one of the few places you can still find traditional Vietnamese architecture. It is also a shopper’s paradise, being filled with tailor’s shops cranking out quality made to measure clothes in any style for next to nothing! Even shoes and velvet suits. Also there are great handicrafts, different from things we had seen elsewhere in Asia. So we came, we saw, we shopped, took a boat trip and left with considerably heavier backpacks!
We foolishly decided to take the night bus to Nha Trang. 12 hours with our knees pressed up to our chins as the bus bumped and lurched along over the endless roadworks. The seats didn't recline one inch and there were no headrests! Fortunately, Nha Trang's claim to fame is it's superb beaches so we spent the next day recuperating on sun loungers gazing groggily out at the clear blue sea.
Dalat, our next destination, was another French hill station. It was built to escape the Saigon heat in summer. We spent a day out touring the countryside with the 'Easy Riders' - motorbike guides on 125cc bikes (not quite Peter Fonda but good fun anyway). They are all mad as hatters in this town. We have seen the Crazy House (a Gaudi-esque creation), the crazy monk (Yoda on acid) and the crazy poet (think Vietnamese Kerouac)!
So then it was time for Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City even though Uncle Ho never set foot in it), the largest city in Vietnam. The main attraction is the War Remnants Museum, or the Museum of American War Crimes as it used to be known. Pretty disturbing stuff. We were here in Vietnam at the time the US and UK invaded Iraq, it certainly makes one question the wisdom of these adventures and gives us more sympathy for the Iraqi people.
Our time in Vietnam is now up, so we decided to escape by the Martin Sheen route up the Mekong to Cambodia. However, instead of Colonel Kurtz and natives firing arrows at us, we found all the kids in the villages along the riverbanks deliriously happy to see us, waving hands (and sometimes even willies) at us and yelling hello. The times have changed.
So that brings us up to date and to Cambodia, of which we will tell you more next time.

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