Some countries in Asia: 30 years of war and 16 years of tourism

It is true that finding yourself in a country that has had the upper hand on France, the USA, China, Cambodia and Laos during close to 30 years of perpetual war with the help of notorious allies such as the USSR, one can easily overwhelmed. Let's label this country Vietnam!!! The picture is brighter now that it rhymes with amazing landscapes, good-hearted travelers and astonishing national pride.

Sarah, Nis, Sandra, Boyan, Simon and Noga on the Mekong

I had only six short days to spend in this socialist republic, along with my darling Sandra, once we joined Simon. He got there earlier due to his early final exams. We chose to tour only the south because of time constraints. Our port of arrival was Ho Chi Minh City. The urban area is big, but on can get done with the sight seeing pretty quickly since everything of interest is concentrated in the central part. Simon had already found some friends there. They were Israeli and went by the name of Sarah, Noga and Nis. They are great people and we spent most of our time grouped together.

Our first activity was to ride a boat through the waters of the mighty Mekong River. The main activity to be attended to on the river was the floating markets. We were told that this form of shopping is so common that we can find everything from fruits to coffins on these floating stores. The pineapple you see here costs about a quarter!!! The four hour trip through the calm water ended up with a bus ride to Ben Tre, which is the closest city to the biggest floating market in Vietnam.

On the next day our feet brought us back to Ho Chi Minh where Sandra and I had enough time to catch up on the things all the others saw before our arrival in the city. We went to a village called Cu Chi. It is particular because it is home to a long system of underground tunnels that leads to premises such as sleeping rooms, kitchens and so on.

The people from this village have lived underground for 26 years in order to hide from invaders, mainly French and Americans. We crawled through some of the enlarged tunnels (for tourists) and saw plenty of booby traps and battle fields where big craters have appeared due to heavy bombings.

My personal highlight at this little village was the arms depot. For an exhorbitant price I could pick up a genuine AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov's greatest curse to the world, and shoot at far away objects.

In the after noon we went to the war museum where my girlfriend apparently discovered the trgedies of the world. The museum was home of the stories of the war and was crowned by the Pulitzer winning photograph by Nick Ut of the little girl running after a napalm attack. The stories and pictures exposed withtin the walls of the museum filled a canvas that turned out pretty ugly at the end of our visit. This war caused close to a million and a half deaths, most of them in ways more inhumane than any westerner can conceive as possible.

The next day, our feet brought us to the golden beaches of the coast along the East China Sea. We got there late but had time to go for a midnight swim along with our new amigo Tom. In the morning we rented a motorbike for every two people and headed off to the countryside.

The way was paved but the panorama was all about sand dunes, cliffs, islands, cows accompagnied by the sweet smell of the ocean. The ultimate activity was to slide down the sand dunes with the help of the kids waiting around for the tourists with their crazy carpets. The day long trip was absolutely amazing. I had never imagined that deserts existed in South-East asia. The sky seamed to be so high and completely out of reach.

we got fed with crab and drank local whisky with natives pic nicking along our road. Viet Nam number one indeed!!!

Is it the Sahara? ...Still Viet Nam, amazing a?

The dunes were the last activity with our Israeli friends. Goodbyes brought promises to write and to stay in touch. But somehow, these promises sadly fade away with time. But this blog post is a nice tribute to my travelling friends who are lucky enough to still be backpacking around. LeChaim!!!

Our last stop with Simon was in the mountainous region of Da Lat. Motorbikes, again, brought us to a temple, a dam, a nice waterfall, and around the charming city. We didn't have much time to spend there, barely a day. We left for HCMC in the morning with Sandra. It was the last time I would see Simon in what now becomes forever. He will continue this trip for another three weeks, making his way into Cambodia before going back to Hong Kong. There he will work at CALYON, a respected french corporate and investment bank.