We flew from Bangkok to Hoh Chi Min City (HCMC), in southern Vietnam. It is the second largest city of Vietnam, Hanoi, the capital in the north, being the biggest. I had visions in my mind of just a load of bikes and traffic, and I was not disappointed. It surpassed Bangkok in terms of crazy motorbike riding, the sheer number of them needs to be seen to be believed! It’s amazing that there aren’t more accidents, especially as there are no real traffic laws.

Anyway, we arrived at our hotel at lunchtime, so had the afternoon to explore on foot a little. We copied the locals in the approach to crossing the busy roads, and that is to just go for it! However, running is the worst thing to do. You have to just edge out slowly and let the motorbikes just go round you. (Running would panic them more than you and probably end up nastily).

The most interesting place we went to that afternoon was the War Remnants Museum. Sabina and I were both a little bit uneducated when it came to the Vietnam War. Neither of us knew the full history of why it occurred and the true nature of the bloodiness of it. Well, the museum gave us a little lesson. It was quite horrifying some of the pictures and stories that we read. It was very one-sided, and portrayed the Americans soldiers in a very bad light. Lots of stories of the child and woman killing and of the thousands of innocent civilians slaughtered. It was probably the chemical weapons they used that had the most lasting impact, of which many Vietnamese still live with today. Anyway, after a grim afternoon learning about more death (we thought we had learnt enough when in Cambodia), we headed back to the hotel for a quick bit of dinner and bed.

The next morning, we had an excursion booked to the Chu Ci Tunnels. This is a network of 200km of underground tunnels that were dug in the late 1960s, and the locals used during the war. Apparently 16,000 people lived down there at one point, although only 6,000 came out alive. The tunnels started about 50km north of HCMC. They varied in depth, but were only big enough to get down in a squatting down position. We sampled a 50m stretch of one of them, and it was quite hard work and very hot down there. (They were obviously built for the locals who are a lot smaller than us!). There were also other holes and shelters they used to hide in during the war, which were interesting to see.

After another night of HCMC, we were looking forward to getting to the coast again, and so set off on another 6 hour bus journey, heading for the town of Mui Ne. The journey was just about tolerable, the thought of chilling out on the beach again was keeping us going. We arrived early afternoon and found a hotel by the bus drop off point. The beach was OK, although nothing like the beaches of Thailand. Mui Ne is known as a windy resort and where people go to do kite surfing. We just happened to turn up the day before a 4 day kite surfing festival / competition was being held. It was pretty spectacular to see them doing it, a mental note was made for me to give it a go someday.

We decided to leave Mui Ne the next day however, as there wasn’t much to do other than watch the surfing as the water was a bit rough for just splashing around in. We had heard good things about a resort called Nha Trang, further up the coast, so got on another 6 hour bus journey heading for there.

This time we arrived in Nha Trang at night time. After getting off the bus, we had the usual pack of taxi drivers hounding us to come and stay at a particular hotel they were commissioned for to take people to. It can be very annoying and it was certainly raging me how after a long journey you get all this hassle. Anyway, Nha Trang was the bigger sister of Mui Ne. There were plenty of people about and the nightlife is much more lively with many bars and restaurants. We spent a total of three nights there, with a couple of days chilling on the beach. A highlight of the stay was a visit to a spa type place where you can take a mud bath. We got into a big tub and they turned the mud tap on and it comes rushing in. After a soak for about 20 minutes, you get and go and lie in the sun for the mud to dry. It’s then a shower and a hot mineral bath and you come out feeling all clean! Bit of a different experience, and all very cheap too!

Whilst in Nha Trang, we were pondering what our next move was to be. The plan was to continue travelling north up through Vietnam, the ultimate destination being Hanoi and Halong Bay. From here we would then make our way to Hong Kong to fly home. However, after speaking to others and reading up, we decided to change route. The weather in northern Vietnam is a lot cooler and greyer. We decided that to end our trip like that would be a bit depressing, and so decided to head back to Thailand and sample a bit more of the weather down there. We are also going to meet up with Mike and Elese for a few days who are on holiday there.

So I write this blog whilst lying on a hard bed on a train journey from Nha Trang back to HCMC. The journey is 8 hours and is actually not as bad as I thought it would be – I’ve even managed a few hours sleep! From HCMC, we fly to Phuket, spend a night there, and then get a 2 hour boat to Krabi to meet Mike and Elese!