My last e-mail...I swear :)

Good morning,

After the Mekong Delta, I spent two days in Saigon,
touring around, shopping and getting a feel for the
city.

One of the places I visited was the War Remnants
Museum. I'd been warned about the graphic photos and
the disturbing images but I really don't think that
anything could have prepared me for what was on
display there. I watched a movie on Agent Orange and
the harmful effects it is having on the future
Vietnamese generations; how the US dumped some 70
million liters of the stuff on Vietnamese soil during
the war (as well as 11 other dioxins), how there are
still tons of unopened barrels sitting in the
countryside, slowly seeping their toxic chemicals into
the earth and water supplies, and how people are
dealing with the harmful effects. It was truly
horrifying and I felt ill for the majority of my tour
through the museum. (Pascal, you and Nicole will have
to go when you're here).

The second day, I went to the Cu Chi tunnels which
were about 250km of underground tunnels stretching
from 50km northwest of Saigon all of the way to the
Cambodian border. The tour guide was an older
gentleman who'd fought with the US during the war but
it was interesting to note his respect at the
ingenuity of the Viet Cong in the area, their booby
traps (which were quite gruesome), building entrances
close to the US base as the US would never bomb their
base, etc... He was an interesting person to listen
throughout the day. I climbed into the Cu Chi tunnels
(only 100m remains) to compare with the Vinh Moch
tunnels (The Vinh Moch ones were made by civilians to
protect themselves against the bombings). At the
outset, I had to walk, hunched over so that I was
almost squatting and it only got worse the further you
went into the tunnels. How people, granted
significantly smaller than I, could spend any more
than 5 mins in them is beyond me!! Either way, both
sights were good to get a further appreciation for the
Vietnam war. What I found to be particularly
interesting is that after the Vietnam war, the
population here was just under 30mil, today, they have
84mil people living in Vietnam. That means that
2/3rds of their population is under 30 years of age.
It'll be interesting to see if this baby boom
continues.

The last two days, I've been in Mui Ne on a beach,
relaxing, reading and sunnying myself. Vietnam is
bracing itself for another typhoon, up around Hue/Nha
Trang today or tomorrow and it's raining like crazy in
Saigon right now. I don't imagine that it'll impact
my flight tonight but you never know.

Take care and I'll see you all soon.

Sarah

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Mekong Delta

Good morning,

As I mentioned in my last e-mail, I spent a couple of
days in the Mekong Delta, travelling by boat and bus
to see some beautiful countryside and lots of lush
agricultural area ;) Our first day we drove to My Tho
which is the gateway to the Mekong Delta. We boarded
a boat and toured the Cai Be floating markets, watched
people making rice paper, coconut candy, cycled
through a small village and then floated along small
river canals through other villages. We then
transfered to a larger boat which took us to Can Tho
where we spent the night.

The next day, we woke early and went to Cai Rang
floating market which is the biggest in the Mekong
region. We paddled around in small boats and checked
out the action - it was much better than the market
the day previous - more commerce and a greater variety
of produce. From there, we visited a rice husking
mill and a rice noodle making shop. On the way back,
we stopped in a small village and I attempted to play
a cross between checkers and chess with a local boy
who didn't speak a word of English. He was winning
but I'd knocked off a couple of his pieces when we
left ;) From there, we took a bus and boat to Chau
Doc which is where I got my $5 USD sunset. It really
was fantastic but you'll all have to wait until later
to see the pictures ;) Chau Doc is located on the
border between Vietnam and Cambodia.

The next day, we climbed Sam mountain, actually more
of a hill, for a view of the Mekong and the beautiful
scenery and rice paddies by the Cambodian border.
From there we boarded very small canoe-sized boats
with rowers and rowed around a floating village,
checking out floating fisheries, a minority village
and some temples. The trip back to Saigon was long
but broken up by method of transport, we went boat,
bus, boat, bus. All in, it was about 10 hours back
along pretty countryside. Unfortunately, I don't have
any pictures of the trip back as my batteries died.
I've exchanged e-mail addresses with two people I met
so hopefully I can get some of their photos.

I've been checking out war related historical events
and they are much more somber than the Mekong so I'll
write about them at a later time.

Hope all is well with everyone.
Sarah

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Da Lat to HCMC and then the Mekong Delta

Good morning,

After Nha Trang, I headed to the central highlands
(west and slightly south from Nha Trang) to a MUCH
cooler climate!! The drive was amazing through
mountains on switch-back roads!! I wished a number of
times that we could stop and take a photo.

As I mentioned, Da Lat is cooler but in a nice way,
not like Sa Pa. I actually needed a long sleeve in
the evenings and a blanket at night. The locals were
hysterical though, all of them wandering around in
parkas, wool hats and gloves like it was 30 below
outside or something. I inquired and at its coldest,
Da Lat goes down to 10 degrees ;)

I came to Da Lat with a purpose: waterfalls. Due to
the moutainous region, Da Lat has a number of
waterfalls in it vicinity and it's home to a group of
motorbike tour guides called the "Easy Riders". I
hooked up with a guide named Peter who wanted to take
me from Da Lat to the Mekong and then to HCMC, some
400 or 500km on motorbike. I suggested we try a day
trip and see how I felt, knowing that I wasn't likely
to want to travel in his suggested manner.

We started out at the Datanla falls. They had
something of a rollercoaster down to the falls and
back up which was cool!! I took some pictures,
visited a local minority village and it's 2 story
chicken and then went to the Prenn waterfalls. There,
I saw an elephant (which I could have ridden for
10,000 or just under 1 CDN dollar) but I declined
(though I did get a few photos and got to feed him)
and some crocodiles. From there, we went to the
Elephant waterfalls which were spectacular and
treacherous to walk to. It was a nice day and I
considered hiring Peter for the next day to go to Bao
Cai as there's about 3 more larger falls along the way
to HCMC but I really am not keen on travelling long
distances by motorbike and despite this being the
"rainy season", I was informed that there hadn't been
much rain and thus they weren't spectacular so we
parted ways and I took the bus (a disgusting method of
transport according to him).

I got into HCMC, secured myself a hotel and ran into a
guy that I'd met in Nha Trang. It could have ended
worse than it did - I was home by 12:30pm and up the
next day for my Mekong tour which I'll e-mail about
later. The one thing I will say is that we were
promised a $5 USD sunset and I think they delivered :)

I hope all is well with everyone and I'll e-mail my
final chronicle on my last day here in between
relaxing and getting massaged and a facial - for $5
USD for an hour, who can refuse :)

Sarah

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Hoi An to Nha Trang

Good morning :)

Hoi An was as I'd expected, relaxing and great!! I
spent a couple of days there, a half day at the beach
and "suit creation", a day at Marble Mountains/China
Beach and another day at My Son.

Marble Mountains are exactly that, moutains containing
marble inside. There are 5 of them, named after the 5
elements, fire, earth, wood, metal and water. I
toured around, there was a huge cave carved into the
moutain which was used as a hospital by the Viet Cong
(north) during the war. The area is covered in
pagodas, caves and splendid views of the ocean and
city below. It's also supposed to be a spiritual
retreat for monks but I didn't see many :)After, I
descended and went to China Beach, which is believed
to be where the Americans entered Vietnam. Now, it's
just a beach. That evening, I was wondering around
and came across a local event - my best description of
it is singing bingo. The callers sing words out and
if you get three words in a row, then you win. I
played twice and got two flags (words) but never
managed the third. It was fun to walk the locals - I
was there with two Viet kieus (expats from Vietnam
living in Vancouver) and we had a great time!

Then on to My Son. These are the best set of ruins
that I've seen in Vietnam, though when comparing them
to Angkor, they're rather disappointing. It was a
nice relaxing morning to wander around the Cham ruins.
Many of the previous temples had been bombed during
the war but there were a few still standing. There
was even a hole, about 10 feet in diameter, which was
still very obvious from where a bomb fell so many
years ago.

From there, I caught an overnight bus to Nha Trang,
Vietnam's party-beach town. The overnight bus was
crowded and slow and not nearly as comfy as the train
but time passed. I met up with an American girl on
the bus and we ended up sharing a room for the few
days that I was in Nha Trang.

The first day was "recover from the overnight bus at
the beach day" and then out partying until 1am. The
second day, we did a island boat cruise where they
started serving alcohol at 9:45am. It ended messy but
it was a fun time. We swam, ate, drank, sunned and
relaxed all around. They had a "boy band" which was
horrible and good all at the same time but they
certainly added to the entertainment :) We arrived
back in Nha Trang, I had a dinner of fresh crab and
was heading back when I ran into some friends from the
boat and ended up partying until 2:30am. The third
day, I went diving at 8am. Had two great dives for
$30 USD. The visibility was fair and the fish were
plentiful. Had dinner with an English guy and then up
until around 1:30am. Needless to say, I had to leave
Nha Trang as it was killing me slowly :) Not enough
sleep and too much drinking.

I'm now enroute south to Saigon and then the Mekong
Delta. I've done the math and I'll have 4 or 5 days
and then back to Saigon, 3 days in Saigon and then
home. I'll probably send one more e-mail for those of
you who are getting sick of hearing about my trip :)

Take care,
Sarah

P.S. For all those curious, the suit (jacket, pants
and skirt) cost me $55USD and after a few minor
adjustments, fit fairly well. (I'm happier with the
skirt than the pants). I also bought a corduroy
jacket (love it), a dress and a shirt and a suit for
the boy (which I'm curious to see on him). All in,
I'm about 7 or 8 lbs heavier than when I started this
trip but it was all a good deal :) I keep telling all
of the vendors "No more shopping for me" :)

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Hu�

Good morning :)

I've finally found a place where I can upload my
photos but it's taking forever so I've decided to sent
an e-mail about Hue while I wait ;)

Hue was a fantastic little town on the river. I
rented a bicycle and went to see the old citadel. It
was a pleasant cycle and a nice wander through the old
ruins which date back to the 18th century. The
citadel itself was pretty but a slight disappointment
when compared with the ancient cities in Thailand and
Cambodia. The other side of that is that neither of
those countries have suffered through war for as long
as Vietnam has. After my bicycle ride to the Citadel,
I headed about 5 km southwest of the city to a
beautiful pagoda on the side of the lake. From there,
I cycled a bit further through town, checking out some
more temples and a religious park/alter. It was quite
a nice day on the bicycle but I was definitely in need
of a shower by the end.

The next day, I headed to a further pagoda set around
lily pads and a tomb by motorbike. There are plenty
of temples and tombs around Hue but once you've seen a
few, it's not really worth seeing piles more. I
wandered along the river, had lunch and then went to a
luxurious massage for an hour. They have similar
techniques to those used in Thailand but different all
the same. It's funny because here as in every other
Asian country I have visited, they have a saying "Same
same but different" and it applies to shopping, food,
sights, temples and massages :)

I'm in Hoi An right now and I feel like I could spend
the rest of eternity here. I'm going to relax at the
beach this afternoon after having a custom made suit
ordered for myself. The city has a relaxing, happy
atmosphere and I think that I'll stay a few days
before heading south to Nha Trang as there's stuff to
do and a beach a short distance away.

For those of you who have been curious, I've managed
to get a few photos up on the internet (it took 5
attempts and 2 hours of internetting) but they can be
found at the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/decouvert.sarah I may add
more later but for the majority of the photos, you'll
have to make time to visit with me;)

Thank you all for writing and I apologize about not
always being ableto get back right away.

Miss you all,
Sarah

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Ninh Binh and the DMZ

Good morning to all :)

I made it to Ninh Binh on the bus, secured myself a
hotel and headed off to the Tam Coc caves (about 8km
southwest of the city) on bicycle. I met up with two
local ladies who told me they'd take me to the caves.
We ended up at one of the ladies houses' and rented a
boat. (I left my rented bicycle at her house). We
paddled away and landed somewhere. They told me that
I had to walk up a hill, away from them, to get to the
caves and I was worried that they'd leave me there and
keep the bicycle so I didn't go to the caves :( I
don't know what their plan actually was but they were
annoying about a tip the whole way back in the boat.
I passed the "actual" place to catch a boat to see the
caves on my way back but didn't feel motivated to get
on a boat and see the caves.

The next day I went to see Ken Ga which was supposed
to be a floating village (Pascal - don't bother) and
the third day, to kill time, I went to see a cathedral
in a nearby town. The scenery around Ninh Binh is
beautiful and there are few tourists but I wasn't
wholly impressed with the sights. I then caught a
night train to the DMZ on a hard sleeper with a
British guy. This time, it truly was a hard sleeper
(a wooden plank with a straw mat on it). We had an
entreprising conductor who sold us the staff quarters
for about 6 CDN each so we slept well :)

I had a tour of the DMZ and spent the night in Dong
Ha. It was truly hard to imagine the war as there's
overgrowth and vegetation everywhere. My guide was
particularly informative, supported the south and
still believes in two separate countries for Vietnam.
I found it interesting how the north fighters have
received all of the glory and the south fighters have
received no recognition, despite the unification of
the country. The Vinh Moch tunnels were interesting.
It was 25m underground at it's deepest points and
people lived under there for 3 years, as many as 300
at a time. It was clausterphobic feeling after about
a half hour in the tunnels.

I have since made my way to Hué but I'll saved that
for another e-mail as I don't want to go on forever :)

Miss you all!!
Sarah

Tug - I've written you a postcard but you're not on
Canada411 so I need your address if you'd like to
receive it :)

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Sa Pa to Ninh Binh

Good morning,

The night train to Lao Cai was surprisingly
uneventful. It was a noisy night but I slept
reasonably well considering it was a hard sleeper :)
From there, I took a bus through mountains and rice
paddies to Sa Pa. Sa Pa is surrounded by mountains,
the tallest in Vietnam being right nearby, and many
ethnic minorities. I arrived on a Sunday to see the
market. The place was swarming with Black H'mong
which are an ethnic people who'd come to Sa Pa for
market. I had a wander around and spent most of the
day hiding from the rain.

My second day, I hiked to Cat Cat and Sinh Chai
villages nearby. These are also inhabited by ethnic
minorities. During my trip, I met up with a Korean
who works in Vietnam. We chatted and then had lunch
together. Our lunch was delicious - Vietnamese hot
pot and we were given "wine" to drink. Wine is in ""
because it was like drinking straight vodka. Mine had
bees at the bottom (good for women) and his had
snakes. It's comparable to the tequila with worm but
they fill the bottle with whatever item it is. I have
photos to show later.

My third day, I went to see Tam Bac waterfall. I
hired a motorbike to drive me the 11km. During the
drive, it was raining, cloudy and cold but when we got
to the waterfall, there was a short break in the
clouds and I got some good photos. I had also
planned on hiking Fan Si Pan mountain while in Sa Pa
but the weather was horrible (cold, damp and wet every
day with near constant cloud cover). It wouldn't have
been worth the effort. I left earlier then I'd
planned - I just couldn't get the dampness out of my
bones or my clothes.

Took a night train back to Hanoi this morning and had
quite an effort getting myself organized at 5am. I
missed a step and fell off the train, scraping my arms
and legs beautifully. I then planned to take a train
to Ninh Binh but the lady at the counter said there
wasn't a train there. I took a cab to the other train
station; no train so a motorcycle took me back to the
original train station. I then had to renegotiate a
price to the bus station. I didn't get on a bus until
almost 9am this morning after spending twice as much
as the bus fare to get to the bus station!!

I'll be spending a few days in Ninh Binh and then
heading further south. It's been described as Halong
Bay with rice paddies instead of water and so far, I'd
have to agree.

Talk to you all soon :)
Sarah

Tug - I have the photos on CD but every internet cafe
I've checked here doesn't have a tray for the CD.
I'll send some soon....I promise :)

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Hanoi, Halong Bay and beyond....

Good morning to all ;)

I hope that you've had a lovely Thanksgiving long
weekend (for those in Canada anyway). I haven't eaten
my Thanksgiving meal but I can guarantee there will be
either rice or noodles and NO turkey :)

I can't describe Hanoi well, other than I get lost all
of the time (Tug, I honestly feel like you, every
street looks new all of the time!!) and there's loads
of traffic. (One motorbike for every three people).
I planned a Ho Chi Minh day on Wednesday (I think). I
visited the mausoleum and his former house on stilts
(he lived next to the presidential palace, in the
gardner's hut) and had hoped to get to the HCM museum
but alas, I couldn't find it!! I wandered the
streets, looked at the map, kept searching but it was
no where to be found by me ;) I gave up and started
walking back to the guesthouse for a shower and got
myself lost two more times....I feel like I'm in the
Bermuda triangle of Vietnam :)

I'd been debating about heading off to Halong Bay/Cat
Ba Island on a tour or footing it on my own. I
decided on Wednesday night that I'd do it on my own
and then I tossed and turned all night, worried that
there'd be no one to share costs with to visit the
islands, etc... So I awoke at 6am, dressed, showered
and booked a tour with the guesthouse where I was
staying. I was on a bus at 7:30am that same morning
on a 3 day tour!!

Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island can only be described as
beautiful, awe-inspiring and just plain fantastic!!
There are around 2,000 islands, plus caves and grottos
in the bay and it was very pretty taking the boat
through the bay. We stopped and toured a cave,
continued our journey and then anchored for the night,
had a swim and a kayak. It was very peaceful after
Hanoi. We arrived in Cat Ba Island in the morning,
went for a hike in Cat Ba national park. It was a
grueling hike up with a beautiful view at the top. I
don't think I've ever sweat that much!! (Tug, if you
remember the spiders from Honduras, we passed a number
of ones that looked quite similar. I have a good
photo of one.) We then had lunch and headed over to
Monkey Island, where they had monkeys and a beach. It
was quite pretty and we did get to see monkeys fairly
close up. (I think they get fed daily so that they
come down which I don't agree with). Dinner and then
there was a parade on the island due to the full moon.
Everyone was out with drums and masks, parading up
and down the main drag. It was quite a spectacle.

I've arrived back in Hanoi, booked a overnight train
ticket to SaPa in the northwest and am heading out in
a few hours. I've booked the train on a "hard
sleeper" - we'll see how hard it is after 9 hours
tonight ;)

Thanks for everyone who's written and I'll e-mail
again soon!! Hope that you all enjoyed your long
weekends :)

Sarah

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Arrival!!

Good morning,

For all those curious, I have arrived safely, despite
the Typhoon Xangsane hitting the day before. The
weather in HCMC doesn't seem to be hugely affected
but who am I to truly comment ;)

The flights were long and uneventful - Pascal, if you
haven't booked your flight, I recommend Air Nippon
more than Air Canada as you have your own personal TVs
for those sleepless nights ;)

I had planned on working my way north and then flying
back south but now that the typhoon has hit the center
of the country, I might fly north and then head back
south slowly to give the region a change to settle a
bit.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Sarah

A few first impressions;

1. It's no wonder there's supposed to be something
like 8 accidents a minute in Vietnam - they're crazy
drivers!! More crazy than Thailand or Cambodia,
everyone just goes wherever, whenever and the biggest
vehicle has the right of way. In addition to
navigating other cars & bikes, pedestrians just walk
out into the mix. I've already seen my first accident
and I've only been out of the hotel room for 3 hours!!
2. Oil painting seems to be a big thing...not sure
why!!
3. Everyone seems fairly nice/friendly, even the
motorcycle taxi people.

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Pictures Southeast Asia

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