Several times in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) we almost got killed by speeding motorbikes.
During our two weeks in the country we did not encounter any negative sentiment because we were Americans and were at war less then 40 years ago. However, when we visited the War Remembrance Museum it was a different story. The museum spoke of the horrors that the American force inflicted upon the innocent Vietnamese people. This of course is only half of the story, but it was valuable to view from a different prospective.
Outside of the museum we played badminton with the cutest girl in Asia. She was hysterical laughing at Seth’s shoes.
Benjy showing her sister the pictures.
During the war Cu Chi was a communist stronghold outside of Saigon in Southern Vietnam. The Vietcong built an elaborate maze of underground tunnels that they lived and fought in for 10 years during the war.
They would travel over 6 miles in one night though the tunnel to go and fight the Americans/South Vietnamese. Seth made it 20 meters.
A little to much city life and traveling we decided to treat ourselves to some beach time in Mui Ne. Mui Ne had beautiful sand dunes
Great beach
And surfing...kind of.
We don’t have any pictures to prove it, but Hanoi was a truly beautiful city. Constructed with mostly French architectural style, virtually every street both wide ‘Parisian’ boulevards and small hectic Asian alleys are lined with trees. Hanoi acted as our home base for our two Northern Vietnam excursions.
First we took an overnight train to the mountain town of Sapa. We spent two days hiking with a local guide through the mountains and countless rice paddies.
We spent the night in a local Hmong families home.
The Hmong people were very friendly and welcoming to visitors.
We actually were invited and went to a traditional Hmong wedding.
Our next excursion was to Halong Bay, probably the best known tourist site in Vietnam and a natural marvel. There are more than 3,000 islands that shoot out of the bays calm turquoise waters. We spent our first night on Cat Ba, the only inhabited island in the bay. Early in the AM we hiked up to one of the islands viewpoints.
The rest of the trip was spent relaxing on a junk floating around Halong Bay
The exchange rate in Vietnam is 17,000 dong to the dollar. We were in fact Vietnamese millionaires many times over.
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