Last Minute Musings On Vietnam

I’ve barely had time to think about our upcoming trip to Vietnam. We’re utterly exhausted by all the traveling we’ve been doing through Cambodia. It’s been hard to turn our thoughts forward. Hopefully, our entry into Vietnam won’t be as hard and time-consuming as our entry into Cambodia. I’m going to write an entry about our journey into Cambodia at a later date. It’s quite a story and one that I need to sit down and write about properly.

This year’s trip has been really different from last year’s trip. Last year, we spent a lot of time relaxing on beaches and generally enjoying life. This year has been much more fast paced. We have jam-packed days and for those of you who don’t know, John’s Mom has joined us for three weeks and we are trying to show her as much as possible.

I’m not sure if she’ll be inclined to travel with us again after what we’ve put her through. This has been adventure travel at its best, and there have been days when we’ve traveled for 16 hours at a time with hardly any food. We decided to do all of our traveling overland, which has provided some major excitement, major body aches and pains, a lot of jostling around and some major travel hassles. Every day has been an adventure.

So, with all of this said, I’m not really sure what to expect from Vietnam. I expect to see lush green rice paddies and farmers working in their fields in their funny conical hats. We’re excited for Ho Chi Minh City. We have a tour of the Mekong Delta planned. John and I are really interested to see the tunnels of Cu Chi that the Viet Cong built to avoid American soldiers during the war. We are also looking forward to hitting the beach side town of Nga Trang for some more R&R. I have high expectations after Sihanoukville.

Moira will be leaving us in HCMC (Saigon for those of you who aren’t up on your geography). I’m definitely looking forward to sampling some authentic Vietnamese cuisine. I wasn’t overly impressed with Cambodian dishes, but I’ve harbored an intense love of Vietnamese food for years.

I’m particularly interested in the Vietnamese arts of silk-making, lacquerware and paintings. I’m a complete art buff, and I hope it compares to the art I saw in Ubud, Bali which completely blew my mind. One of these days, I’m going to take a few weeks on my own and take some courses, especially when I go back to Bali.

John and I are looking forward to traveling by train along the coast from HCMC to Hanoi. We’re planning on stopping at several sites along the way. I’m most excited for Halong Bay at the moment. It will also be interesting to see how the cities have developed since the war. I’m wondering how Americanised the culture has become. And, of course, I’m looking forward to people-watching. I can never get enough of it and I always have a great time chatting with the locals.

PS This is an old entry from a week ago. We’ve been constantly on the go and I’m still having issues with blogging. We’re actually leaving Saigon toda.