Last I wrote I left off just arriving in Hanoi,
Vietnam.  I originally planned on spending 9 days in
Vietnam, but it was 16 days by the time I finally left
the country.  This is a huge email so I am leaving
Cambodia and Thailand for another.  So here is the
summary:


Summary
--------------------------
I spent 4 days total in Hanoi eating great food,
meeting other travellers, taking pictures of the
locals, and shopping for souvenirs.  Spent 2 days on a
boat in Ha Long Bay where the rock formations form
2,000 beautiful islands.  Visited Hue in the center of
Vietnam where I rode a scooter around and visited the
citadel.  Spent 3 days in Hoi An, a quaint city along
the river with beautiful colored lamps coloring the
streets at night and where everyone has suits or other
clothes tailor made at unbelievably cheap prices and
good quality.  Met some travellers and had to stay
longer to hang with them.  Spent 2 days in Nha Trang
meeting locals and travellers and hanging out on
Vietnams best city beach.  Spent 5 days in Ho Chi Minh
City (Saigon).  I was least impressed with Saigon; big
city and seedy backpacker area.





The Whole Story
------------------------------

I spent 2 days in Hanoi wandering about the old city
taking in the charm, eating excellent food, and
meeting lot's of travellers.  Hanoi is a sprawling
city, but most everything of interest, including the
old city, is located around or near a small lake near
the center of town.  The area around the lake is lined
with restaurants, bars, and shops some of which occupy
older colonian style buildings.  The lake has a small
island with a temple on it.  In the old town starting
north of the lake, are narrow market streets jammed
with souvenir shops, guesthouses, and local market
shops.  Scooters and cyclos pack the streets during
the day, but luckily clear out by night.  All day
there are locals carrying baskets (one in front and
one in back hung off a pole that rests on their
shoulder) wearing the typical cone shaped palm leaf
hats.  They carry fruits, vegetables, and often
beautiful fresh cut flowers and huge lotus blossoms. 
The local Vietnamese fruit called "Dragon Fruit" is
particularly interesting to see and even to taste. 
This is all interesting just to wander around and
watch the people shuffle around and see what comes by.

On the 3rd day (Friday June 15th) I took a 2 day boat
trip to Ha Long Bay where nearly 2000 limestone
pinnacles, similar to those in Yangshuo China, jut out
of the beautiful blue waters of the bay, each it's own
little island.  We had a group of about 10 on the
boat.  Kim, a swedish girl, Bridgette, an english
girl, and Jean Pierre, a Swiss fellow, were on board
whom I had met the night before.  We all had a nice
time seeing the sights, stopping at a huge cave in one
of the islands, swimming off the boat, and then in the
evening we stopped in a cove surrounded by islands
jutting up and spent the night there after we had an
excellent seafood dinner.  The view of the islands
silhouted by the moonlight was beautiful and I was
struck by the stillness and silence of the night. 
Next day we went swimming after dropping some people
off at Cat Ba Island and then headed back to Hanoi.

I spent 2 more nights in Hanoi shopping for cool
wooden laquer(Sp?) with gold leaf plates and
figurines, took pictures of anything interesting I
could find, visited Temple of Literature, and had more
excellent food with friends from the boat and
otherwise.  Actually, I met an American fellow and his
friends and we ate the most amazing meal the night I
left.  We all ordered and shared our food.  I must
admit that it was close to the best meal on the whole
trip!  Hear that Than!  If you ever go to Hanoi, don't
miss out on a meal at Season's of Hanoi.  It was set
in a beautiful redone French Colonial mansion and had
the feel and taste of a 5 star restaurant but the
prices were only about $3 for each entree! 
Unfortunately, I literally had to leave 10 minutes
into the meal to run and catch my train!

So on the 19th I arrived in the city of Hue which is
about halfway down Vietnam near the coast.  The city
really isn't too interesting.  The restaurants and
guesthouses were nothing to write home about and other
than the citadel and some temples, the city consisted
of mostly just shops selling common goods for the
locals of little interest.  I spent one day driving a
rented scooter all over in the scorching heat and
visited the citadel.  It was once an amazing walled
complex, but today only a few buildings remain while
the rest are simply foundations surrounded by weeds. 
Due to the heat I failed to visit any of the tombs or
temples just outside the city.

The next day (Tuesday June 20th) I ventured on to Hoi
An which must be the cheapest place in the world to
get tailored clothes which seem to rival in quality
anything you can find in the West ($25 for a suit!). 
It is also known for it's quaint streets lined with
shops selling beautifully colored Vietnamese style
clothe hanging lamps.  The street lights are even
similar lamps.  So at night the streets are lined with
shops displaying hundreds of these lamps creating a
beautiful array of colors.  All this lies along the
lazy river where locals are seen paddling small boats
with fish and vegetables to sell at the huge local
market.  There are plenty of good restaurants (Alittle
touristy, but not over done) to relax and have some
great seafood dishes or to taste the local fried wheat
noodle with pork dish called "Cao Lao" (Good stuff).  

Most every male foreigner is having a suit made and
the women just go crazy and have any number of suits,
dresses, skirts, etc... made for themselves; I met a
New York designer in Hue who said the quality of work
in Hoi An was excellent and they work amazingly fast
(Suit is ready the next day or even possibly the same
day).  I was surprised the night air wasn't filled
with the sound of the all night work of the tailor's
sewing machines rushing to finish the orders for the
next day!

I was only supposed to be there 1 day, but I kept
extending it since I was having a good time hanging
out with a group of Aussies and Kiwis I had met there.
 It was 3 couples and myself and we had a blast.  

The second day there we all visited the ancient Cham
ruins in the jungle set around some beautiful hills. 
The Cham society is long gone and these are their few
remaining evidences.  These hindu/buddhist ruins were
mostly rubble with little detail left to appreciate. 
I suppose having seen so much over the past year
didn't make me appreciate things much more.  So we
were there only a short time really.  

The supposed last night I abandoned my plans to leave
at the last minute and ended up hanging out till the
wee hours of the morning with my friends.  I caught
the bus the next evening on June 23.

The bus to Nha Trang was most unpleasant though.  The
roads were incredibly bumpy, the seats were impossible
to find comfort in to sleep, and the air conditioning
was turned off shortly after we started on the trip! 
So everyone on the bus was assuming various yoga like
positions to get to sleep, but all of this was mostly
in vain and we all arrived tired in the morning.

Nha Trang has the best city beach in Vietnam and is
about half way between Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An, so
many tourists stop here along the way.  I was hoping
to go on to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) the same day, but
opted to rest.

I slept late, visited the beach, did some shopping,
and then spent the evening at the Rainbow
Bar/Restaurant on the beach.  This is where most
backpackers go to drink, eat, dive, relax on the
beach, and play pool.  That night I talked with a few
travellers and a couple locals.  The next day was the
Half Year holiday in Vietnam and most people go to the
waterfall to relax.  Nghi, one of the locals, invited
me to go with her and some others in the morning.  So
she picked me up on her scooter in the morning and we
met her friends and another traveller for breakfast. 
We ended up just going to the beach and relaxing
though.  

On Monday the 25th I went on to Ho Chi Minh City. 
HCMC is bigger, busier, and more modern than Hanoi. 
The streets are clogged with thousands of scooters and
motorcycles driving in as much order as a mass of ants
marching towards food!  It is absolutely amazing how
everyone (including myself) crosses the street not
paying much mind to the chaos and the traffic just
flows around you on all sides as you make your way to
the other side.  The city isn't fantastically modern
by any means though.  There are some nice shopping
streets and new shining buildings, but this is all
thrown in with the dreary old cement buildings lining
the streets all dirty and dingy with motorcycles, food
vendors, and various people just standing outside
their shops blocking most every inch forcing the
pedestrians to walk on the street.

As a side note, I noticed old "American War" bunkers
all over Vietnam and was particularly struck by the
circular cement bunkers still standing here and there
within HCMC, usually on some busy street with a nice
park behind it or a new building next to it!  Nobody I
met really seemed interested in discussing the past
though.  I don't think the younger generation thinks
too much about it.  Nghi's father fought with the
Americans, but she said little else.  And nobody
seemed to care if you were American or not; you are
just another foreigner to them. 

The backpacker area of HCMC is pretty seedy. 
Actually, Nha Trang and HCMC both had plenty of
incidents of people being robbed.  I had 50,000 dong
taken (about $3.50).  After that, I was ready to leave
the place.  I did visit the War Museum which showed
some really interesting war photos taken by photo
journalists who put themselves in harms way armed with
only a camera!  I also went to a dance club, played
pool, bought CDs for only $1 (This is the place to get
cheap CDs), got my Cambodian Visa, and otherwise
explored here and there.  Friday June 29th I took a
bus on to Phenom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  I
realized I had lost my customs form somewhere along my
trip through Vietnam and the driver of the bus was
pretty concerned.  Actually, one of the tourists on
the bus said her friend had to pay $180 to replace
hers.  Yikes!  The border guards are particularly
corrupt in Vietnam.  Luckily, the driver called his
friend who had a friend working at the border and when
I arrived I paid $15 under the table to get a new
form.  So I passed through with no further problems.

Wow that was long.  Hope you found it interesting.

Cheers,

Chris