Winter's World Tour

Hue was once the ancient capital of Vietnam and is also famous for being the birthplace of Hoi Chi Minh's father who worked here as a teacher.

The perfume river runs through the city and is a very useful landmark, Hue is quite compact and easy to orientate yourself around. The old citand Imperial citadel are on the North bank of the river whilst most hotels and restaurants are on the South bank. There are some large and impressive building if not slightly imposing but beautiful arcitecture and eyecatching. It was a grey and drizzly day when we arived and I think it gave Hue city a bit of grim feel to it. As with all other Vietnamese cities motocyles and cyclos were plentiful.

Our hotel was on the South bank close to the perfume river, as we'd arrived late in the afternoon we took a cab to The Imperial citadel and Forbidden Purple city. The former imperial seat of government and Hue's prime attraction, it costs 55,000 dong to get in which a first I was a bit surprised at the front of the building it didn't look that big but it is very decieving because as you go through the gates you realise it is actually a great sprawling complex of temples, pavilions, moats, walls, gates, museums and galleries. It would take all day to see it properly but we only had a couple of hours so had to do an abridged version.

The citadel was badly damaged during the war when it was shelled by the Viet Cong and then bombed by the Americans. As a result, some areas are now only empty fields, bits of walls, and an explanatory plaque. In some places you can still see the bullet holes in the walls. There are some buildings intact and in great condition and renovation works are also being carried out. It's amazing to imagine what it was like only a 80 years ago a beautiful and magical sprawling city with charming traditional Vietnamese features.

Opposite the Imperial Citadel stands the largest Vietnamese flag in the world!

Entrance gate to the Imperial citadel front view and back view

Archways destroyed by gunfire and bombs[/i]

We had a break from trains today and instead took a 3hr bus journey up the Vietnamese hills through stunning scenery to the ancient capital of Hue! Pronounced hway.

The view was amazing beautiful bright green moutainsides and shimmering blue ocean as we drove along winding roads towards Hue.

If any one has seen the Top Gear Vietnam special we stopped off at the same places to take Photo's of the coast. We stopped a couple of times to take photo's at viewing spots.

Locals have set up stalls selling food and trinkets at these stopping points and they also control the toilets for a small price. The scenery is gorgeous but you don't get much peace since you are set upon from the moment you step off the bus by locals trying to sell you whatever they can convince you to buy! However, the scenery is so beautiful you won't even notice being harassed that much.

Leaving Hoi An and Danang

Beach on the way to Hue

View as seen in Top Gear where Jeremy and the boys stopped off with their motorbikes

The gorgeous mountain coast roads

Another overnight train journey took us to the UNESCO world heritage town of Hoi Anh. The train stopped at Danang at 6am we then had a one hour bus journey to the town of Hoi Anh.

Hoi An is absolutely gorgeous, the old town is pedestrianised and is the main focus of attraction, so colourful and filled with beatuful historical buildings of local and foreign influences. Known locally as Faifo, Hoi Anh was habour town and an important trading port during the 16th & 17th Centuries, it mananged to escape the destruction of successive wars and retains a beatiful sense of Vietnamese history. Hoi An is famous for 2 main things the first being tailor shops of which there are many in this tiny town and the second is great food!

There were so many beautiful clothes shops, shoe shops and craft shops on every street. I was trying to be very good with my money as I have a long way to go yet on my travels so I refrained from going to the tailor shops or buying too many crafts for me to carry around in my back pack but I definitely want to come back here one day with an empty suitcase and fill up on all the beautiful things of exceptionally good quality!I found a tailor shop named after me!

The sights and colours of Hoi Anh were just amazing and I just wanted to take photos of everything. The interesting things to see and do included the Japanese Bridge the oldest Japanese style covered bridge in Vietnam, there is a tour of all the historical buildings, The market in Hoi An is worth a visit, there are even Cookery classes and beaches not too far away.

There are beautiful cloured lanterns everywhere you look in Hoi An. In 1998 the town residents decided to revive the traditional practice fo using cloured paper lanterns and once a month a beautiful "lantern festival" takes place, the old town is closed to motorcycles and all the residents of the town turn off their lights and hang coloured paper lanterns on their porches and windows. Lanterns are also floated down the river. The town takes on an incredibly romantic feel in the ensuing quiet and the glow of bejewled lanterns of all shapes, sizes and
colours. A truly beautiful, romantic and magical place to visit!

Tonight I was very excited about my first journey on an overnight sleeper train to Nha Trang. We left Ho Chi Minh City at 8pm the sleeper train was split into compartments of 4 bunks there were about 6 or 8 compartments to a carriage. They were quite basic but not too bad, each compartment had a sliding lockable door and a table, and you could turn the light off as each bunk had an individual reading lamp, you were given blankets and a pillow that were clean. There were shared toliets and bathroom's at both ends of each train carriage.

Food wasn't provided on this train so we had to bring our own dinner. Because Vietnam had previously been a French colony a lot of French influence is still around to this day and you can by baguttes and lauging cow cheese pretty much eveywhere! So guess what I brought with me on the train journey? Yep lots of mini baguttes with laughing cow cheese!

The journey wasn't bad and I managed to get some sleep there was only one incident when the train stopped suddenly and jolted us quite violently but no one fell out of bed. And obviously the sound of the train is quite noisy but after a while it kind of lulls you off to sleep and because you have your own compartment you don;t hear much noise from other passengers. Although it's lucky that we knew everyone in our compartments because if you were travelling by yourself it would seem quite lonely and isolated if you were sharing with 3 other foreigners and you'd be trapped in that compartment with them for the whole journey, you can;t walk up and down the train into other peoples compartments so it's not very sociable for lone travellers.

We arrived at Nha Trang at 6am and were given a bit of a shock as everyone was still in bed and we had about 2 mins to get up, get dressed pack every thing into the suitcase and get off the train before it left the platform. Our tour leader was meant to wake us up half an hour before we were meant to arrive at the station but I don't know what happened! Luckily we all managed to get off in time. But next time we'll be more prepared!

Nha Trang is a seaside town on the South Central Coast of Vietnam, our hotel was a short 10 min bus journey fro the station and was situated a short 5 min walk from the Main beach. Our hotel was gorgeous had a fantastic breakfast buffet with both Western and Asian choices and a gorgeous swimming pool! At 6am we were very early and our hotel rooms were not ready until the afternoon. We had a trip booked at 9am a local guide was planing on taking us to a private beach for the day. So we had 3 hours to kill we had breakfast and wandered around down to the Main beach.

Not far from Nha Trang is the island resort of Vin Pearl there are boat trips available to go over there but we didn't have that much time. At 9am our bus arrrived and our Local guide a lovely Lady called Phong took us on 25 min journey to a private beach that tourists don't know about. It was a lovely beach but because it's mainly for locals there were awnings covering most of the seating areas all the way down to the water's edge. Most of the group were a bit dissappointed since we were all Sun worshipping Europeans we didn;t want to be under cover so we dragged the sunbeds down to any area that had sunlight.

We had a great day on the beach Phong prepared a BBQ and free alcohol and drinks, the beach wasn't as beautiful as the beach or island at Sihanoukville but at least it wasn't too busy and we weren't harassed by people trying to sell things. I spent most of the time swimming in the sea

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This evening we went for a fantastic Italian meal it was the first time most of us had pasta on this trip so we were all quite excited! Then went to a few bars. Nha Trang is becoming a popular tourist destination and it reminded me a little bit of a typical seaside resort in Spain with all the hotels and bars. But still a nice place to visit.

The next day I spent the morning sat by the pool sunbathing and swimming. For the first time I felt like I was properly on Holiday. Although I didn't make it down to the main beach or on any of the boat trips. But in the afternoon the whole tour group took a trip to the Thap Ba Hot Spring Mudbaths the most famous Hot Springs and Mudbaths in Vietnam.

There were communal tubs which fit about 8 people they were filled up with inorganic mud made from rocks and volcanic ash it was a mint green colour and smelt like Eucalyptus. After bathing in mud we went for a mineral shower and a soak in the hot mineral springs it was lovely and such good value at $12 USD bargin and worth a visit if you come to Nha Trang.

Day 1

We embarked on another 7 hr bus journey to the city of Saigon or as it is known today Ho Chi Minh City, where we will spend 2 days, lose five members of our group but pick up 4 new ones. It's sad knowing there's going to be change and we'll have to get to know new people just as we have started bonding with the present group members.

I woke up with an upset stomach this morning and a 7 hour bus journey really was the last thing I wanted to do. We arrived in HCMC late afternoon, our hotel was very close to Ben Tahn Market and the centre so we spent the afternoon just wandering close by trying to get our bearings. Again the traffic was just amazingly horrific and apparantly Hanoi is meant to be worse!

This evening we went to a very Posh hotel called Hotel Rex for cocktails on the roof terrace with the girls who were leaving tomorrow before joining our big group meal with our 3 new travel buddies. We went for dinner at a very dodgy restaurant outside Ben Tahn market. It didn't look clean and the food looked dodgy and we sat in the street. There were things in the menu like pigs intestines and pigs feet. Usually I'm quite up for trying local foods but my stomach just wasn't up for it I had to bail and had my first Pizza since leaving the UK, I was very disappointed in myself and my stomach!

Day 2

Today there was a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels outside the city named after the Cu Chi freedom fighters. This network of over 200 km of tunnels became legendary during the 1960's when they played a vital part in the American War, allowing the Viet Cong to control a large rural area close to Ho Chi Minh City. In their heyday, the tunnels were functioning underground cities. But I decided not to go I still wasn;t feeling very well and I wanted to spend some time in Saigon and see a bit of the city.

Notre Dame Cathedral and another beautiful Buidling in the Government Quarter

I took a walk around the government quarter famous for it's French influnced buildings and made my way to the War Remnants museum. I was interested in visiting the museum as shamefully I didn't really know much about the Vietnam War with America except what I've seen through films.

In the courtyard in front of the museum entrance there is a display of some old vehicles and weapons from the war including a Cessna A-37 of the South Vietnamese Air Force and a US-built F-5E Tiger with the 20mm nose gun still loaded. The tank on display is one of the tanks that broke into the grounds of Reunification Palace on 30 April 1975.

The Ground floor of the museum has an exhibit showing photos of protests and stories and articles from nearly every country in the world demonstrating against the war in Vietnam asking America to pull out and stop the war.

The first floor was mainly a gift shop and the main exhibits were on the second floor. On on half of the floor there was a photography exhibit showing a lot of sad and disturbing photos of children and elderly people being rounded up and looking terrified the captions stated that they were then tortured our muredered by the American army or photos of dead bodies. It did make me cry and outside the room I found a middle aged American lady also weeping and as upset as I was. At this point I felt very angry at the Americans for what they did and couldn't believe the damage they had inflicted on this country.

The west side of the second floor had another upsetting exhibition dedicated to the victims of Agent Orange. Something I didn't know about the Vietnam war was the use of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese by the Americans. They apparently sprayed tons of this chemical over Vietnam trying to flush out the Viet Cong from the jungles. There was a display of a deformed fetus an actual preserved deformed fetus not a model which was very disturbing! And walls of photos and stories of children born and still being born to this day with numerous cases of deformities.

By the time I left this exhibition I had come to the conclusion that this museum was actually pretty biased and extremely anti-American and all the museum seemed to focus on was how bad America was and all the bad things they did during the war. Look how evil they were, look what they did to children and elderly people who couldn't defend themselves. I know America caused a lot of destruction to Vietnam and the war was a horrific event of our modern history but this museum seemed to be more condemning rather than informative.

I'm trying to compare it to a concentration camp I visited in Prague, it managed to convey the story of the prisoners there, their life and treament in the camp and how hundreds of jews were tortured and put to death but it was done in a way that was informative and respectful of the horror that occurred there without damning the Germans. I got the opposite impression from this museum. It's clear that there is still a lot of anger towards America, probably due to the affects of Agent Orange which is still afflicting people today. I think any Americans who visit this museum will probably feel quite uncomfortable.

On my walk back to the hotel I walked past the Reunification Palace. Time has stood still here since 30 April 1975 when tanks of the North Vietnamese army bulldozed through the main gate ending the Vietnam war. The building was once the symbol of the South Vietnamese government, which hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and 58,183 Americans died trying to save. Unfortunately I ran out of time to actually go in and visit.

Reunification Palace