Back in South Nam

Alright, as I am years behind on this blog (in Thailand its actually the year 2550 on their calender so I have a good reason to be behind!), I am going to only do a few posts for all of southern Vietnam. This of course does it no justice but will have to do.

Our first destination in Vietnam was the mighty mighty Ho Chi Minh city. Everyone still calls it Saigon (its name before the north conquered the south and renamed the city after "Uncle Ho", or Ho Chi Minh) so we followed suit. We had a ball here and our only true concern was making sure that the rats didn't crawl over our feet. We had our first cyclo ride and ended up giving our drivers the hugest tip ever as it has got to be the shittiest job of all time. Imagine bicycling fat tourists around all day! Great way to see the city though.

We were fortunate to do a day trip to the CuChi where the tunnel systems are. They were built over 25 years and the tunnels became legendary in the 1960s for their role in facilitating Viet Cong (VC) control of a huge area around Saigon. At its height there were more than 250km of tunnels three storeys deep and included trap doors, constructed living areas, weapon factories, storage, field hospitals and kitchens. Surprise attacks were the name of the game and the VC were able to disappear without a trace leading to the American soldiers saying that they were fighting a ghost. It was great fun to crawl through some of the tunnels, see the smokeless kitchens (they had the smoke from the stove piped through tunnels so the smoke escaped hundreds of kilometers away), watch the war time propaganda (where they glorified the "American solider killers" over and over) and observe how all the "booby traps" worked. We also hit the War Remnants Museum which use to be named the Museum of American War Crimes. The original name was more appropriate. Most of the atrocities shown in this museum the west is unaware even occurred. Pictures of the deformed babies from the use of "agent orange" were particularly horrifying. Agent Orange was a strong herbicide USA sprayed through out Vietnam to kill all living plants, trees etc so that they could eradicate the visibility problem the jungle caused and see from the air what they were bombing. Unfortunately the genetic effects (which were known by the US government) were startling and there now there is a third generation of children born with terrible deformities because their grandparents were exposed!

Next up Mui Ne, a city with a laid back atmosphere and gorgeous beach to match. The sand dunes are enormous and we enjoyed partaking in the sand sledding. The sand formations were beautiful in the contrast of the bright blue South China Sea beside them.

A few days later we found our way to Dalat, a hill station retreat which was one of my favorite places in Vietnam. Dalat is the jewel of the Central Highlands and since I am a sucker for the mountains I soon fell in love with this city. It was once called "Le Petite Paris" and still has a large french influence with great baguettes and a huge replica of the Eiffel Tower! It is the country's most popular honeymoon spot and truly is a romantic city with a huge lake in its center. It was interesting that over 800 000 domestic tourists flock there each year but only 80 000 foreign tourists so we were one of the few white faces in town! Since it was Tet (Vietnamese New Year) festivities were in full swing and we could barely could find a room. We had a great mountain biking and hiking trip to the highest peak in the Central Highlands.

Nha Trang was next on the list and was another beach town on the coast. We enjoyed the warm weather and Air soaked up a nice burn. We only stayed there one full day and hit the highway again.

Stay tuned for part two of Back in Southern Nam coming to my blog very soon!