Vietnam!!

So it seemed the entire time i was in Sihanokville in southern Cambodia it rained.. and when i checked the weather map for the next few days it said it was going to rain! So i headed off to the Vietnamese embassy for a 5 minute visa (beats the 3 day visa you get in Phnom Penh!) Afterwards i took a 'moto' (motorbike that you sit on the back of and enjoy the view while praying that you dont crash as the driver is crazy and you have no helmet) to the beach. Even though it was raining the water was so warm so i changed into my bikini and found some locals to swim next to (as the water was rough) and enjoyed the warm water. unfortunately i'd forgotten to remove the giant flashing 'prostitute' sign off my forehead before i got in so i was immediately followed by some local guys who looked at me like a tasty piece of meat.. after a few minutes i got pretty sick of this so got out of the water and moved down the beach!

The next day i started my 11 hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam! The bus had plenty of space though and there were some interesting people on board so when we got to HCMC we decided to find a backpackers together. We were immediately adopted by some Vietnamese who were 'helping' us by showing us the way to the hostel we said we wanted, but interestingly every hostel we went into was 'full' so we tried our hardest to ditch the locals and straight away found a dorm room with space. lesson learnt..

the city of Ho Chi Minh is pretty crazy, there are over 3 million scooters and driving through the city in the bus took us a whole hour. While there is so much traffic though it actually makes life not too hard as you just walk in front of traffic and it will part around youlike you are some sort of magical rock in a stream. Its the only way to cross the street here and so long as you make it obvoius what your'e doing and give them enough time to swerve they dont mind at all.

Our first day in HCMC the two canadians and one kiwi i was with went on a walking tour of the city to see the reunification palace, recommended by Lonely Planet. NOt sure why it was recommended as it was pretty boring and eventless.. so after that we headed to a market, had a quick look around and a local lunch of 'pho' or rice noodle soup which is yum (the locals eat it a lot), and then off to the war remnants museum, which was funny in that it sought to paint america as an evil wrong-doer, while giving the impression vietnamese soldiers almost werent involved in the war and obviously did nothing wrong at all! americans were torturers and evil, while the vietcon were freedom fighters and hero's...

was pretty tired after that so Brendan (one of the canadians and I) went and had a $8 massage.. gonna miss the cheap massages over here when im home!

the next morning i was up early to find we had a bus booked to see the Cu Chi tunnels out of HCMC. On the way we stopped at a village the government had set up for the war injured and agent-orange people, (they didnt say iton the tour but it was clearly to keep them away from society!). The people made a living out of making some beautiful artwork and bowls etc. but it was all a bit of a sad tourist show for me. many of the people would be more than capable of holding down a normal job if it werent for the fact that the vietnamese considered them disabled and thus unable to work!

Anyway the tunnels were amazing. We learnt about how the Vietcon had lived underground in elaborate tunnel networks for months on end to outwit the Americans in so many ways. in one place the americans built their base on top of an existing tunnel network so at night teh vietcon would sneak out and steal guns and ammunition, then shoot the baffled americans! they also took the tyres off tanks etc. and made sandles out of them, which were actually better than the american boots for the climate as it rains a lot in vietnam. they would sneak out and shoot americans, then put the shoes on backwards to run back so the americans were always tracking them in the wrong direction. they also found all sorts of ways to get rid of sniffer dogs which tried to find the tunels, by putting american shit on teh hatch to confuse the dogs, laying traps and putting chilli on the hatch to scare the dogs and ruin their noses. its amazing how well they did considering they had nothing and the americans had so much tecnology.

at the end of the tour we got to go through a section of the tunnels, which were so low even i had trouble crouching over and walking through. every 30 metres there was an air vent which they had turned into escape hatch for the benefit of the tourists. I had a headlamp so could see easily but not many people managed to make it to the end of the tunnel! Scary to think the vietcon managed to live in the tunnels for so long.

Anyway the next day Brendan and I headed on a bus to the beach town of Mui Ne. After much wandering we finallyfound a bungalow on the beach and spent the afternoon enjoying the warm warm water. The next day we rented scooters and headed out to the Red Sanddunes to fly down on plastic sheets. After working our way through a hoard of kids and paying two to take us down (and being sworn at by other children we didnt give money to!) the kids walked us to a good spot and set up the boards for us to fly down. The kids were really cool (though sad they are not in school) and boarding down was a bit of childish fun.

After much more time on the scooter, riding along to the most beautiful sunset i enjoyed my 3rd swim for the day and crashed into bed exhausted! This morning I had a chill out day, reading my book , walking along the beach and enjoying many swims. Fortunately Mui Ne's surrouding sand dunes andhills seem to make the rains avoid the place so it has been beautifulhere. although i did manage to quite badly burn my arms on the scooter yesterday.

Anyway tomorrow i am catching a bus off to Dalat where apparently it rains alot and reaches the 'pleasant' temperature of 15 - 25 degrees! Gonna get the jacket and beanie handy i think as anything below 25 now and im cold...

hope all is well back home

much love
Ingrid