We're enjoying Vietnam now that we're in the swing of things here. It has a very different feel from neighbouring laid back Laos, and it is a world from the land of smiles but it does hold its own charm.
There is a big Chinese influence; the most obvious was seeing the Imperial Palace in Hue which was like a miniature Forbidden City – much more attractive in my opinion, green and mostly un-restored. But Chinese style temples and buildings are generally ever present and their shared enthusiasm for building huge Mausoleums for Kings (we viewed a few on the a tour down the Perfume River in Hue) again show the similar Architecture and adoration of their rulers – Ho Chi Minh is just as well loved as Mao! The Vietnamese temperament also reminds me of the Chinese, quite blunt and to the point, I often joke that restaurants must entice people in with their warmth and customer service – "You! Buy something!" When we were in Shanghai we went to a Propaganda museum to see the old Communist posters – amazingly here they are still used & we've seen them everywhere!
As well as the Chinese influence – the French have also put their stamp on the place. Again baguettes lurk at every street food stand! Also the buildings around Hanoi and Hoi An were very European featured, very colonial looking. There are even Notre Dame Cathedral replicas in both Hanoi & Saigon.
We enjoyed Hue, we did a tour of the DMZ which was a day of bus travel and photo opportunities, then the impressive tunnel complex where a whole village hid for the duration of the Vietnam war. The following day was the Perfume River tour, it was really very hot – 38degrees – and the boat was the slowest moving object that I have ever travelled on! But despite the distinct lack of breeze, we survived and enjoyed seeing a pretty pagoda, a traditional garden house & a few Mausoleums all just off the bank of the beautiful Perfume River.
Next on the destination list was Hoi An. A lot of travellers rave about here – and it's easy to see why! A gorgeous riverside setting, a typical mix of beautiful French vs traditional Chinese buildings, an abundance of restaurants selling delicious seafood dishes (can't get enough of the squid!) and the crowning factor – fresh beer for 12.5p a glass!! We indulged in a lot of 'Bia Hoi' and generally enjoyed some relaxing around the town. One day we hired a bike and went on a really nice 5km ride to the beach, which was beautiful & so quiet; we had a walk along the shore (burnt our feet on the hot hot hot sand getting there!) and played some Frisbee in the surf (great gift Lianne J). It was so lovely to have a relaxing day.
The following day was back to sightseeing. We headed to My Son, a Cham temple complex dating back from the 4th Century. It's unknown how they built it, much like the pyramids it seems an engineering feat and nobody knows how they stuck the bricks together, even top scientists can't replicate the technique! Its full of more recent history too – the French found the sight and cut off all the Hindu god heads to take back to France (they are now in the Louvre in Paris!) and there are numerous bomb craters & stories from the Vietnam War.
From Hoi An we embarked on another night bus – this would be our 2nd in Vietnam. The experiences have so far been much the same. A bed on an incline, so you're slightly upright – your feet go under the head of the person in front of you. Its slightly too small – especially for Chris, the pillow is like a rock, the driving includes frequent swerving, the film is dubbed in Vietnamese and played loudly, the horn honking is louder than the movie and mostly continuous! But this delightful experience is cheap and so far has delivered us safely to our destinations! Only one more night bus to go to Ho Chi Minh!
We are now in Nha Trang and after a Discovery Diving Day we have just signed up to do our PADI Open Water Course. We did 2 dives today, once we started to understand how to regulate our buoyancy to avoid floating up or crashing down into Coral then we soon started to enjoy ourselves. We saw numerous fish; to name a few we saw Dory from Finding Nemo, really cool trumpet fish, a school of humbug fish, an ugly looking octopus, lots of sea anemones and lots of coral. It was beautiful and we seemed to get the hang of it enough to sign onto the PADI. So we have lots of reading, DVDs and the day in a swimming pool tomorrow for practice! Wish us luck! Hopefully we'll be qualified divers in the next 3 days!!
Love K&C xxxxx
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