Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi late afternoon, ditched the bags and headed out to explore.

Back to the chaos!

How Random anyone for meat?  We didn't think so ...

We decided to get a birds eye view from this coffee shop,  it was amazing watching the traffic at work.

Getting busier as  night falls on Hanoi!

We set off early morning to Ha Long bay before the weather changes!

Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful city in Vietnam, it has an old town which is a World Heritage Site.

The Old town has some  beautiful buildings, this is the Japanese Bridge which was built in the 1600's before they left the city 40 years later.

We hired bikes to get around Hoi An in the mayhem traffic.  It was a good way to see the sights and even biked to the beach for the day.  As the traffic has no rules you just had to keep going through junctions without stopping which goes against all we know back home.

Hoi An is also famous for its silk, you can get anything you like made to measure in a day or two by its renowned taylors.

Yalys was Marks choice of taylor for his suit.

Check out what he picked for his suit lining lol!

'Mai' Kates tailor at work on one of Kates dresses.

You pick the type of garment you want, the material you like and they do the rest!

Kate wanted to bring Mai home - she was fab!

In the heart of the city is the Old Town,  full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled shophouses, which is particularly atmospheric in the evening as the sun goes down.

The lanterns are everywhere and  it is nice to sit & watch them come alive as the sun goes down.

The Old town lit up at night.

This is a little culture show in the old town which had the locals laughing.

Which lantern to pick!

An Bang Beach is 2.5km away from town so we biked it there.

We hadn't expected such a beautiful beach.  Definitely worth the chaotic & bumpy bike ride!

This may well be up there with one of favourite beaches!

Night Train to Hoi An

Our next destination was some way north. Since we hadn't been on a sleeper train in Asia, we thought we might as well give it a go!

 As we booked late we could only get what they call 'hard sleeper'.  This is 6 bunks per cabin on a hard bed.

This is the tiny corridor that fit Mark snuggly. 

This is our cabin and we were on the bed above Marks head which is the middle bunk.  There are no seats only the corridor to stand.  We shared our cabin with a Vietnamese couple with a baby we managed to discover was 6 months old by sign language as they spoke no English lol!

Well into the 15 hour journey they were sharing food with us and even bought us breakfast, trying to make us feel as welcome as possible!

Five hours into the journey the lady under Kate got off and  a Vietnamese man got on , probably about 11pm by now.  The man woke us all up after a couple of hours loudly talking in his sleep seeming very distressed- it was a bit scary. 

When light arrived about 5.30am we got to se a bit of the countryside.

We finally arrived after 16 hours to Da Nang - our stop, followed by a 40 minute taxi ride to Hoi An we were shattered but it was an experience!

Mui Ne , Vietnam

 Heading north from Saigon we caught the bus to the seaside resort of Mui Ne, well away from the chaos and traffic in Saigon - phew!

Its has a stunning coast which is really popular for kite surfing.  Its hard to see how all the kites don't get tangled together!

The waves were great fun, Mark is doing his David Hasselhoff impression ;-)

Mui Ne  is a fishing village and we saw this trail of round fishing boats. They were like baskets getting pulled along by a boat with an engine (ish).

Each little boat has a fisherman in it. Some were asleep!

Our room was lovely with a sea view from the balcony.  A very lucky find.

We couldn't resist a little bit of fun when the maid left her hat behind ;-)

Well if Kate has to do it so does Mark !

The hotel owners were fantastic.  John from Australia and his Vietnamese wife 'Twee', who spent most of her life in California  after fleeing the Vietnam War were great hosts.

Eight of us went for a meal for Johns birthday to a local seafood restuarant (someones house lol) for a feast!

Twee (in white) picked the catch of the days for us.

The King Prawns were delicious & the Aussies even taught us to peel them properly lol!

They were a lovely bunch of people & we ate together for the next  3 nights getting some fantastic local food and learning about Vietnam from Twee.

We were sad to leave such a friendly place :-(

Saigon & Cu Chi Tunnels

After getting a bus from Phnom Penh we arrived in Saigon, South Vietnam 8 hours later.

Saigon is crazy busy, definitely gets first prize for the highest number of mopeds we have seen so far.

You can see them in the background all waiting to go, crossing the road is an experience.

With only one full day in Saigon we decide to organise a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi area of Saigon used during the Vietnam War. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat against the Southern Vietnamese & American Army.

You can see how small the tunnels were as this man gets into a well disguised entrance.

This is an American M41 tank destroyed by a delay mine in 1970.

These are an example of  booby traps that the Viet Cong had set for the enemy, you wouldn't fancy falling into this!  There was of different styles of traps set up all over the jungle.

This probably wouldn't kill you but would lead to a nastily infected wound.

The tunnels were originally thought to cover 171km , they have preserved a 100m section for tourists.  'Slim Jim' the tour guide said the tunnel had been made 'king-size' for the tourist!

American soldiers used the term "Black echo" to describe the conditions within the tunnels. For the Viet Cong, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, spiders and mosquitoes. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle.

Sometimes during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels, especially malaria, which was the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds.
The tunnels were pitch black inside and had 6 exits along the way for the tourists, Mark took the first exit, Kate went onto the end through the different levels ;-)

This is an example of an underground kitchen, the chimney for the fire would be maybe 20 metres away so the smoke could disperse without anyone noticing.

The cross section of the tunnels shows the different levels, they went over 18m underground and even had their own water supply. Its no wonder tthe Viet Cong were impossible to find.

After we got chance to fire an  M60, American Machine Gun.

Mark saved 1 last bullet for me to fire :-)

After the tunnels we visited the War Remnants museum.

It was  very interesting  if not a little one sided information on the Vietnam War. 

This picture says it all , there are many mine & Agent Orange victims around.

The Killing Fields (Choeung Ek)

Choeung Ek, the site of a former orchard and Chinese graveyard about 17 km south of Phnom Penh is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former inmates at S-21

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.

The skulls & bones have been organised into different section, gender, ages and types of bone. 

There are 17 tiers in the buidling.

The lowest tier has personal belonging ie clothes found at the site.

This was a horrible site at Choeung Ek, a tree used to beat children against.

Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government  to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones, teeth and clothes still litter the site.

Both S-21 & The Killing Fields had a great impact on us and was a very sombre experience.  The Cambodian people continue to amaze us with their resilient nature after such suffering.