Good Morning Vietnam!

Hello Vietnam! What an amazing, amazing country. I have heard many people complain about Ho Chi Minh City but I think it is one of the most amazing and eclectic Asian cities I have ever seen. Compared to Phnom Penh, Ho Chi is a walk in the park. It is much, much cleaner and there are far less beggars which makes it a little easier just to walk down the street. I feel much safer in this city. The Lonely Planet warns against drive-by bag snatchings so we have been very careful to keep our bags close to the body and our camera straps wrapped around our wrists at all times. Anyway, I think we need to be more aware of getting killed by a motorbikes rather than someone stealing our bags. Consider this - there are 10 million people living in this city....and 3 milion motorbikes! Nick and I tried to cross an intersection for about 5 minutes before we just bit the bullet, stepped out, half jogged, half ran across the busiest road I have ever seen. Somehow; I dont know how, we made it and everyone just misses you by an inch. Traffic lights mean nothing here. Everyone just drives through a red light!

Day one in Ho Chi Minh was spent on an 8 hour city tour. We covered off all the big tourist sights such as the War Remants museum (more gut wrenching stuff as there are hundreds of photos of people affected by the war, poverty and Agent Orange), the Reunification Palace, a couple of major temples and pagodas, local markets and the usual tourist drop-offs where they try to get you to buy crap for exhorbitant prices. It was a good day and we saw a lot in a short amount of time. Lots of walking = a nice cold beer as a reward!

Day two was very special. We went to see the Chu Chi tunnels which are located about 70 minutes from the city centre (always takes longer too because of the grid-lock traffic!). We were very lucky to have an ex-GI as our tour guide. 'Jackie' gave us an incredible explanation of the Chu Chi tunnels and first-hand stories of the Vietnam war. At the height of the war, the Chu Chi tunnels stretched from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) all the way to the Cambodian border and more than 200km of tunnels were dug. Thousands of Viet Cong lived underground in these tunnels for 26 years. Now I have to say that the Chu Chi tunnels are not for the faint-hearted. Despite the fact that the tunnels have been widened for tourists, they are still tiny, narrow and stuffy. I thought I would be fine to go down one of the regular entrances that the Viet Cong used and I am telling you, I would be lucky to fit one leg in there!!!

It was explained to us before we went down that there are regular exits on the right hand side. This was good to know because I suffered a mild panic attack before going in and wasn't sure if I could do it. Claustophobia city!!! I have trouble staying calm in a zipped-up sleeping bag so the thought of a hot, narrow tunnel quite simply was not very appealing at all! Try to imagine a hot baking tunnel with very little breathable air, squatting down and trying to waddle your way through a long, narrow clay tube.......I waited until the person in front of me had moved ahead and then I whipped through there like Speedy Gonzalez! My little legs were moving at a crazy speed as I waddled and waddled and waddled at lightening speed! Poor Nick couldn't get one photo of me! We both emerged unscathed and Nick admitted to finding it a bit much too. Even so, we decided to go back one more time because I refused to leave until we had a photo. I would never forgive myself for not being able to share this experience with others. By the way, that's not a smile on my face, that's me trying to cover up terror!

The Viet Cong built elaborate booby traps to incapicitate US soilders. Such horrifying traps included suspended planks on the ground that were covered in grass. These planks could not be detected by the uninitiated and just look like the normal ground cover. Once you step on the plank, it swings out from under you and you fall into a large trap that has about 50 bamboo spikes inserted into the ground. There were many more awful, awful traps that we can tell you about when we see you. Gruesome.

We watched a woman make rice paper too. It is a really interesting process whereby you smother a glue-like rice substance on a hot plate, roll it onto a tube and then flatten it out onto bamboo racks to dry out in the sun.

We also had the opportunity to go a bit "GI" ourselves while at the tunnels. Nick and I paid to shoot some rounds from an AK-47! Shooting a gun is a lot harder than I thought it would be! Nick was in his element and had a great old time banging out some bullets! More OHS issues here as we were not provided with ear muffs until we demanded them. The gun guy begrugingly stomped off to get us our ear muffs muttering something rude at us as he walked away. How inconsiderate of us to ask for something like ear protection! It was too late by then and we both went deaf in one ear for half a day.

We have been eating 'pho' (Vietnamese noodle soup) every day and everywhere we go in the search to find the best pho and rice paper rolls in Vietnam. We are still searching as we believe it is out there somewhere. I also should never had tried Vietnamese coffee (strong brewed black coffee with condensed milk) as now I fear I may be heavily addicted!

Off to Hoi An we go! Another early rise at 4.30am to catch a 6.30am flight to Danang airport. After a brief flight on Jetstar (crap plane), we arrived nice and early and battled once again with the ever-aggressive taxi drivers. These guys must make a lot of money from people who aren't prepared to haggle. We arrived at our awesome resort which is situated right on the beach. We spent our first afternoon lolling by the enormous pool. We played some table tennis and billiards and went to the gym.

Hoi An is quite simply the most beautiful Asian town I have ever seen. We are absolutely in love with this gorgeous little town. The architecture is exquisite with Chinese, Japanese and European influences. It looks particularly stunning at night. There are over 200 tailors in this little town. They shops are very appealing and it makes us want to get some clothes made but nearly everyone we talk to has advised against it if you are fussy about quality. The shops here sell beautiful scarves, asian purses and bags, laquer goods, wooden items and of course, lots of clothes.

Hoi An lays claim to having some of the best food in all of Vietnam. We plan to test this claim and embark on our own little gastronomic adventure!

We are here in Hoi An for 2 more days then we head back to Ho Chi Minh for one night, fly to Kuala Lumpur for one night (transit hotel), then back home to good old Melbourne. What a trip this has been. I would recommend Vietnam and Cambodia to everyone. We will definitely return here one day. We hope that you have enjoyed our blog. We hoped that it would keep you informed and remind you that we are safe while providing us with a good written 'diary' of our adventures. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.