Viet Nam (Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh)

Both stays were relatively short due to my desire to leave Viet Nam and make my way into Cambodia. Only stayed a day and a half in Nha Trang, even though I had originally planned to stay longer. Ireland played England in the six nations rugby but didn’t manage to stay up late enough to be able to watch the game, was too drunk at that stage of the night! The next day we went on a boat trip to visit three islands off the coast of Nha Trang. We started jumping into the ocean from the top of the boat after a few early morning tigers. It was great fun until I realised my camera was still in my pocket! Damn I loved that Cannon camera. Unfortunately it didn't dry itself out. Other than that incident it was a wonderful day out on a boat with music, beer and a great atmosphere.

Quite annoying with respect to the camera but worse things can happen on a long trip so not to worry. We boarded another night bus to Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon), which was certainly an interesting one. The bus driver floored it and was overtaking trucks and such. I played chess with a guy called Vernin who actually turned out to be quite the bullshitting talker. The game finished up at about 04h00 with him yapping on and procrastinating over rather straight forward chess moves. Eventually I won. Tried to get to sleep after taking some valium but that was impossible with the maniac driving the bus - noticed that the windscreen was severely cracked when we stopped during the night so that didn't inspire any confidence! lol

Ho Chi Minh was crazy and I thought the traffic in Ha Noi was bad. Again I travelled with my Irish friends (Danny, Joe and Shane). Accommodation was more expensive than when I was in Ha Noi but it wasn't too bad, something like $3 or $4 a night I think. My impression of Ho Chi Minh is probably somewhat tainted - firstly we arrived at circa 06h00 and so were all tired. Secondly, the time I spent there was too short. I think I only skipped through the city in about two or three nights.

We visited the Củ Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh (near Cambodian border) one day to do something touristic. The tunnels were much smaller than the tunnels at the DMZ and actually had been widened twice for tourists. Fun to visit but to be honest I was starting to tire of hearing about the Vietnamese war at that point. The visit to the temple was short, the purpose of which was to witness the midday service. The ceremony was interesting to watch, especially with the traditional dress and the formal nature of proceedings. The elders sat at the front of the group and it was easy to distinguish the hierarchy as a result.

Other than that we met other friends (Andre from NY and Louise from the UK) we met in Hoi An and Nha Trang again. Therefore we partied some more before I left to Cambodia. The Irish guys stayed around for a tour on the Mekong Delta but I decided to do that again the next time I visit Viet Nam - along with Ha Long Bay and Sa Pa. Viet Nam is such a wonderful country though strangely the stories I have heard from fellow travellers have been very varied. It seems people either love or hate Viet Nam but I would certainly consider a return trip there.

Unfortunately uploading of pictures will have to wait until I arrive back in Malaysia. At the moment I'm in Bali, Indonesia, and will stay in Indonesia for another two weeks before returning back to Kuala Lumpur. I left my laptop with a friend there and will be working on getting this blog of mine up to date when I return. I'm planning on going to Perth in November, the flight is quite cheap at about 50 Euro so I'm probably going to hang out in Malaysia until then. I can live cheap and there is plenty of wonderful Indian food! Yeah! I'll update this entry further when I get back to Malaysia. So for now...

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit