Vietnam week 1

I haven't written on here for a while so lots of catching up.

Spent 3 days in Saigon visiting the sites to do with the Vietnam war - including the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong hide out in the Mekong Delta. Facinating to see how they managed to live in such cramped, underground conditions for so many years. Also interesting to see the Vietnamese point of view about the war - blaming it on American Imperialism.

I also went to visit a couple of pagodas in the city. Vietnam has a strong Chinese infleunce in its religion and architecture and you could definately see that in the Jade Emperor Pagoda in the city which was really beautiful - dripping in wood work sculpture and efigies.

Had a couple fo good nights out in Saigon with my tour group. The first night we went to this night club called Apocolypse Now (whatever elese would it be called?!). Good club but was slightly disconcerting dancing away on a packed dance floor while two policemen stood guard, standing above the stage on two columns armed with guns!! Apparently to stop trouble - we weren't even supposed to be taking photos apparently. Quite a strange experience trying to relax and enjoy yourself with two armed policemen staring at you from above!!

Said goodbye to Hannah and 6 others on my tour on Friday 24th Oct as that was the day the Cambodia tour officicially ended. 7 of us have carried on through Vietnam so a smaller group.

On the Monday night we took an overnight train to Nha Trang, a beach resort in central Vietnam. We slept four to a cabin and the train had just been refurbished so was quite luxurious. I slept better that evening than I have done in most of the hotels we've stayed in!

We have 2 days in Nha Trang, which was really just a beach resort so itwas a bit of a let down when it poured it down with rain both days!! Spent most of the time getting massages and manicures in the beachside bars as there was no sunbathing.

I was releived to leave Nha Trang on an overnight train on Wednesday night as being at the beach when it rains is no fun, at home or in the middle of the Far East.

We've now had 3 days in a small town called Hoi An which is a former trading port just North of Da Nang so right on the old North/ South Vietnam divide.

The port was used in the 18th Century mainly to export to China and Japan so influenced quite alot by these two countries as Chinese and Japanese families settled here. The port dried up in the 19th Century as the river changed direction nad started to flow through Da Nang. So now its just a really cute, oldy worldy tourist attraction. The town survived bombing during the Vietnam War so looks like it might have done in the 18th Century. You can visit the old trading families houses and thier assembly rooms which was quite interesting.

Mainly, Hoi An is now a big tourist attraction. Its famous for its silk and there are tailors literally at every other shop selling you cheap, tailored clothing. The rain followed us up here on the first day, so I had a bit of a shop til you drop session and had two dresses fitted and made for me. One just cotton, the other satin. They cost $30 USD in total to make so I think that was really good value. Quality is really nice. The tailor even gave me a lift back to my hotel after my fitting as I was late for dinner. That was fun, riding on the back of a moped on these crazy streets!

Yesterday, our crazy Vietnamese tour leader (Thinh), took us on what was supposed to be a pleasant cycle ride through the countryside, taking in the paddy fileds and other sites. The bike ride actually turned out to be seriously traumatic!! We rode through the paay fileds, which were totally flooded out because of the high rainfall. For starters this made it really hard to cycle and VERY muddy. But it also meant that all the local wildlife such as rats and snakes were out swimming through our pathes. Saw a water snake slither right in front of me and a rat jumped straight at my wheels!! But the worst was to come!! We took a turning onto a paddy field and were cycling down until we came to a section that was so flooded, the water from a higher paddy field was flowing with a really strong current across our path and into the lower paddy field opposite, making a kind of waterfall. We decided to cycle through it and totally under estimated the strong current. As we were midway, Thinh suddenly shouted 'snake!!!' which freaked us out so much that the Irish guy, Connor, fell off his bike and got swept into the current - he managed to save himslef and his bike but his flip flops got swept away with the current. So he had no shoes to cycle home in!!

Next on this path were 3 very angry looking water buffalo bulls. Their horns were really long and sharp and they started grunting and flaring their nostrils at us. There was nowhere to run as there was only water all around us and these bulls in front of us. It was honestly one of the most scary moments of my life becuase there was just no escape from these animals. Luckily, they decided in the end they were mosre scared of us than we were of them and they swam into the paddy fields and off our path. I was still shaking a good couple of hours after we'd encountered them!!

Today is our final full day in Hoi An. Took a trip to see My Son this morning. Its an ancient temple complex with the same importance as Angkor Wat. The Champa Kingdom, a people from Indonesia who controlled Vietnam from 4th - 15th Century, built this complex. At the time they were Hindus. The Champa ancestors still exist today - they are called Cham, are Muslim and are a minority people who live in the Mekong Delta. We met them in Kampong Cham, Cambodia where they are well known for silk weaving.

The temples were really atmospheric as they were less touristy than Angkor Wat. The jungle still surrounds most fo them and we had to take a long drive and walk through the jungle to reach them. Up until the 1960s, there used to be more than 70 temples but the Americans bombed them during the Vietnam War as they believed the Viet Cong were hiding out in them. Only 20 are now left.

We leave tomorrow afternoon on a 5 hour bus drive to Hue.