Saigon again!
For some reason I can only post a blog in Saigon one can only speculate why.
So I've done a round trip. 3 and a half weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, its not nearly enough time to enjoy the sights of sounds of both these countries but I've managed to see and do everything I set out to do. Since I last wrote to you I spent almost 24 hours on a bus, which covered almost 800km. The buses here only do about 60km an hour so its very amusing (NOT!) when after spending 20 hours on a bus, you are told there are only 30km to go but it will in actual fact take 2 hours to reach our final destination because of the traffic and state of the roads! But still its a good way to see the countryside and meet some interesting people.
On the bus from Nha Trang to Saigon I met yet another mad australian, this time from Tasmania, who had been travelling on and off for 11 years. He retired and then just took off leaving everyone at home, and did he have some stories! I was really amused by some of his stories and some of the places he had been too, but then he started talking about how much he liked John Laws and well I had to dump him then. But even putting on my headphones did not deter him from talking to me, I felt like saying don't you get the hint!
Anyway he told me lots of really interesting facts about Vietnam which included the fact that the Australian govnt sent over thousands of gum trees after the war had finished to help refolliate the country because of the devastation of agent orange. So on the road to Saigon there are forests of gum trees, its very odd. He also told me how rubber was made which is a very labourious process and how rubber came to Malaysia, which is now the biggest exporter of rubber in the world. Apparantly some Lord from Kew in England stole some seedlings from the Amazon in Brazil for his gardens and then, when some bug wiped out the plantations in Brazil, he took his seedlings to Malay and the rest as they say is history. Got to love imperialism!
Yesterday I spent a glorious day on the Mekong Delta watching life move past at a slow rate. Its beautiful along the river and far less touristed than most other places I"ve been to in Vietnam. The Delta branches off into many island inlets and you could spend your life on a boat watching life go by. It was interesting to talk to people in the SOuth because they have a far different version of history than people in the North. Our tour guide, who was a catholic and trained with the SOuth Vietnamese army (but he never fought), saw the war as a civil war between capitalism and communisim and was quite clearly anti-reunification. When we questioned him about the use of chemical weapons he said "well they had to flush out the north somehow and it was the only way". I found it a little unnerving to say the least, that anyone could support the use of chemical weapons, especially given the effects it had on innocent people and the generations still suffering because of it. But then he wasn't personally affected so maybe it would have been different had his family been hit. Alot of the information you get in Vietnam about the war is one sided, but alot of horrific things happened here. You never hear about what the North Vietnamese army did after victory in 1975, and they commited some terrible acts of revenge on the SOuth Vietnamese. As usual, however, the Americans offered amnesty to the officers in the South Vietnamese army, but not to anyone else, so it left many ordinary people suffering the consequences of supporting the American war.
Having said that the North Vietnamese don't seem to hold any grudges, after all that they have been through they just tell it as it is and say history is history time to get on with life. I think we can all learn lessons from them, particulaly in a world climate which is hell bent on revenge.
My lasting impressions of Vietnam will be the incredible diverse landscape. The mountains in the north, the river delta in the south and the long stretching beaches along the coast. I have also been surprised at the amount of tourists here and also the amount of French visitors. Highlights are definately Angkor, sunset over the lake in Phenom Phen, Mekong Delta and Halong Bay. I have taken many many photos so as soon as I get to London I will be posting a few on the web and if that doesn't work you'll get a few over the email.
I've sampled many of the beers here in Vietnam, as every region seems to have their own brew. I started making a list in order of my favourite ones, I must be bored or very drunk I hear you say! My favourite is Huda Beer from Hue, which also has my favourite cusine in Vietnam, although strangely I had better Hue food in Saigon than I did in Hue. Cold rice paper spring rolls with freshly bbq beef. Yum Yum in my Tum Tum. I've also noticed that the country's cafes seem to only have old George Michael cd's (I"ve heard careless whisper so many times) and that silly Elton John tribute to Dead Di (aggghhhh!) In Saigon they are obsessed with Celine Dion and Britney Spears. When you walk into a cafe they turn off the vietnamese pop and put on george or elton or celine or britney, and then turn the volume up to 11, thinking that this is what we westerner's actually want. Very strange. On one bus I was one, when the driver put on some music one passenger just yelled out "NO NO MORE MUSIC", he had obviously had just about enough as the rest of us had had.
I guess the next time I'll blog is from London or Russia, if it works there. Another communist country, this should be interesting. I am determined to avoid all forms of beaucracy so if I manage to do it, I'll let you know.
For those of you who remember BattleStar Gallactica, that dodgey scifi TV series in the 70's, in the internet cafe they are playing a song which is sampling the them music to the show. Thought I'd finish on that bit of useless trivia.
Take care.
For some reason I can only post a blog in Saigon one can only speculate why.
So I've done a round trip. 3 and a half weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, its not nearly enough time to enjoy the sights of sounds of both these countries but I've managed to see and do everything I set out to do. Since I last wrote to you I spent almost 24 hours on a bus, which covered almost 800km. The buses here only do about 60km an hour so its very amusing (NOT!) when after spending 20 hours on a bus, you are told there are only 30km to go but it will in actual fact take 2 hours to reach our final destination because of the traffic and state of the roads! But still its a good way to see the countryside and meet some interesting people.
On the bus from Nha Trang to Saigon I met yet another mad australian, this time from Tasmania, who had been travelling on and off for 11 years. He retired and then just took off leaving everyone at home, and did he have some stories! I was really amused by some of his stories and some of the places he had been too, but then he started talking about how much he liked John Laws and well I had to dump him then. But even putting on my headphones did not deter him from talking to me, I felt like saying don't you get the hint!
Anyway he told me lots of really interesting facts about Vietnam which included the fact that the Australian govnt sent over thousands of gum trees after the war had finished to help refolliate the country because of the devastation of agent orange. So on the road to Saigon there are forests of gum trees, its very odd. He also told me how rubber was made which is a very labourious process and how rubber came to Malaysia, which is now the biggest exporter of rubber in the world. Apparantly some Lord from Kew in England stole some seedlings from the Amazon in Brazil for his gardens and then, when some bug wiped out the plantations in Brazil, he took his seedlings to Malay and the rest as they say is history. Got to love imperialism!
Yesterday I spent a glorious day on the Mekong Delta watching life move past at a slow rate. Its beautiful along the river and far less touristed than most other places I"ve been to in Vietnam. The Delta branches off into many island inlets and you could spend your life on a boat watching life go by. It was interesting to talk to people in the SOuth because they have a far different version of history than people in the North. Our tour guide, who was a catholic and trained with the SOuth Vietnamese army (but he never fought), saw the war as a civil war between capitalism and communisim and was quite clearly anti-reunification. When we questioned him about the use of chemical weapons he said "well they had to flush out the north somehow and it was the only way". I found it a little unnerving to say the least, that anyone could support the use of chemical weapons, especially given the effects it had on innocent people and the generations still suffering because of it. But then he wasn't personally affected so maybe it would have been different had his family been hit. Alot of the information you get in Vietnam about the war is one sided, but alot of horrific things happened here. You never hear about what the North Vietnamese army did after victory in 1975, and they commited some terrible acts of revenge on the SOuth Vietnamese. As usual, however, the Americans offered amnesty to the officers in the South Vietnamese army, but not to anyone else, so it left many ordinary people suffering the consequences of supporting the American war.
Having said that the North Vietnamese don't seem to hold any grudges, after all that they have been through they just tell it as it is and say history is history time to get on with life. I think we can all learn lessons from them, particulaly in a world climate which is hell bent on revenge.
My lasting impressions of Vietnam will be the incredible diverse landscape. The mountains in the north, the river delta in the south and the long stretching beaches along the coast. I have also been surprised at the amount of tourists here and also the amount of French visitors. Highlights are definately Angkor, sunset over the lake in Phenom Phen, Mekong Delta and Halong Bay. I have taken many many photos so as soon as I get to London I will be posting a few on the web and if that doesn't work you'll get a few over the email.
I've sampled many of the beers here in Vietnam, as every region seems to have their own brew. I started making a list in order of my favourite ones, I must be bored or very drunk I hear you say! My favourite is Huda Beer from Hue, which also has my favourite cusine in Vietnam, although strangely I had better Hue food in Saigon than I did in Hue. Cold rice paper spring rolls with freshly bbq beef. Yum Yum in my Tum Tum. I've also noticed that the country's cafes seem to only have old George Michael cd's (I"ve heard careless whisper so many times) and that silly Elton John tribute to Dead Di (aggghhhh!) In Saigon they are obsessed with Celine Dion and Britney Spears. When you walk into a cafe they turn off the vietnamese pop and put on george or elton or celine or britney, and then turn the volume up to 11, thinking that this is what we westerner's actually want. Very strange. On one bus I was one, when the driver put on some music one passenger just yelled out "NO NO MORE MUSIC", he had obviously had just about enough as the rest of us had had.
I guess the next time I'll blog is from London or Russia, if it works there. Another communist country, this should be interesting. I am determined to avoid all forms of beaucracy so if I manage to do it, I'll let you know.
For those of you who remember BattleStar Gallactica, that dodgey scifi TV series in the 70's, in the internet cafe they are playing a song which is sampling the them music to the show. Thought I'd finish on that bit of useless trivia.
Take care.
posted by Paula at
7:45 PM
