Vietnam part 2

After the Mekong Delta we headed for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) arriving on New Years Eve. That evening we met with some friends and had a good night out enjoying the atmosphere as well as the local beer, rum and vodka...needless to say we woke rather late the next day. We visited the War Remnants Museum which again, like the museum in Cambodia, was very harrowing.

We then headed for Nha Trang where we finally got back into diving after a nine year break. I was pretty nervous about it but we ended up going with an excellent operator (Rainbow Divers) and my confidence was regained instantly. The diving was lovely, visability good on our 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th dives and we saw some interesting stuff; flog fish, puffer fish, cuttlefish, pretty corals etc.

From there we headed to Hoi An, and after a very frustrating day of travel where three different taxi and bus drivers had tried to rip us off before 9 in the morning, we made it to pretty Hoi An. The food was great; white roses - steamed parcels of pork or shrimp, fried wontons and amazing fresh spring rolls. The place was very pretty, with the buildings having a strong chinese influence, although it was very touristy. We also managed to catch up with some travel friends which culminated in late night drinks and almost getting locked out of our hotel (again) - everything closes up so early!

 

Next was a brief stop at Hue where we had planned to visit the Demilitarized Zone which was the most densly bombed area during the Vietnam war (or the American war as it's know to the Vietnamese) but unfortunately the weather had turned by this stage to cold and wet so it just wasn't meant to be - perhaps another time.

We enjoyed Vietnam; the food is excellent, it's very clean, the standard of accomodation is good and the people mostly friendly (apart from the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers). The sad thing is that it's developing rapidly and I think it's charm will dissappear as more and more huge, and very unsightly resorts are built. We are just glad we've seen it in it's less developed state.