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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