Lessons learnt (the dark side of the world)

The last week or so has been filled primarily with visits to memorials to the Vietnam war and the Pol Pot regime.   But back to where i left you all i headed from Hoi Ann up to a very cool place called Delat which the guidebook described as the home of kitsch in Vietnam and they weren't wrong filled with lakes with swan shaped paddle boats for two a cable car to a lake you can take a leisurely cruise on etc.  But primarily the place just had a nice friendly atmosphere the hotels had the best beds and full cooked buffet breakfasts eaten with the hotel hosts who were great conversationalists.  So i really enjoyed my couple of days there I didn't do a lot just visited the local market and on a walk about town to try to find the cog railway i ended up at a chairlift that i took out to lake where i spent a really enjoyable couple of hours with a Scottish couple i met there.

Never did manage to work out what these were supposed to be

Strictly cheesy

And one for all you honeymooners out there

Getting there involved my longest trip for awhile 8pm to 1pm the next day, overnight was understandably boring but the day trip was interesting leaving at 8am arriving at 1pm and covering 130km. We didn't actually  stop for any significant length of time the whole way, the road was just so bad that we actually drove at an average speed of about 30km an hour with the highlight being 15 minutes reversing back down the dirt track after the driver took the wrong fork at some road works.

Delat was like the greenhouse capital of the world these went on for miles

Vietnamese version of a car park (NB Vietnam has about 20 million motorbikes for 86 million people)

Leaving Delat was back down to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City depending on who you listen to) this supposedly 6hr journey (according to the travel agent) took 10hrs due to a lot of road works including one lot that we had to wait 1.5hrs at.  So i arrived in Saigon tired from a long day and as has been standard practice on this journey went out for a walk around the bars and restaurants to see if i knew anybody this time it took me about 5mins to run into a group of South African girls i had been traveling with up in the north if Vietnam so i hung out with them the next few days that was Friday i had planned to hang out in Saigon for only Saturday and Sunday then head off Monday but two of the girls that were on the boat trip up in the north of Vietnam had there birthdays on Monday night so i was convinced to stick around for the party.   (A bad idea as it turned out as i partied way too hard and the resultant sore head on the following days tour was not at all enjoyable).

In the wee small hours when everybody needed a hug

Saigons sights are pretty much all focused on the Vietnam war and particularly the nastier side of that was with the recreation of the tunnels (Chu Chi) focusing on the man traps that were deployed by the Vietnamese and the other major draw card being the war atrocities museum where the old maxim that the winning side writes history applies.  So it is fairly unique around the world in giving a very anti American view of history.
However no matter who tells them the reality of war is never nice to read about and despite all the propaganda (that only a communist government like Vietnam can come up with and still think that anybody will believe) the facts behind what happened were still horrendous and seeing the effects of agent orange and land mines as well as Napalm bombing and the torture that occurred in prisoner of war camps was a very sobering experience, one that was very similar for me to visiting and learning about the Nazi regime and soviet secret police atrocities in the Baltic states.

A little diversion in Saigon was to take a Cyclo (cycle taxi) this was my view you will note the road center line and the fact i am on the side of it with the oncoming traffic

This is what a cyclo looks like my (my friends Stace and JC taking the less adventurous and slower "correct" side of the road center line

Me climbing down the tiger tunnels (Chu Chi) that the Viet cong used to evade the American bombings (I know this entry does not meet the confined spaces requirements in NZ)

 

Tiger Traps

War Remembrance museum

Oops a gentle reminder from my lovely big sister reminded me i hadn't posted anything for awhile i am now back in Bangkok awaiting a flight back to Aussie in two days.  So i will try to finish this post today.

OK haven't quite managed to fully catchup yet but I'm getting hungry so will try to do the rest later in the day in day.