Last month I spent 18 wonderful days tripping around Vietnam, with Wendy Wu Tours. There were 12 in our party, mainly from our tramping group - 10 women and 2 men! We flew from Auckland to Singapore, then on to Saigon.
There we were met by our Wendy Wu Tour guide, a really hard case, friendly 29 year old guy. He greeted us all with a hand shake, and told us his name was Lam, but we could call him lamb chops. He had studied English and History at university, so had an exceptional knowledge of the history of his country. He also had a great way of explaining his country's history and culture to us, by adding humorous stories, which usually had us in fits of laughter. There was no chance of falling to sleep in the bus with Lam on board.
Saigon was an amazing place, with 8 million people, and 4 million motorbikes. What a spectacular sight. The only road rule they obey is the red stop lights at intersections. Pedestrian crossings are marked on the roads, but they ignore them, so the only way to get across the road is to take a deep breath (and hope it won't be your last!) and walk very slowly across, with your wits about you, and eyes in the back of your head, and hope you make it across in one piece! The motorbikes and vehicles will then, hopefully, swerve round you, but usually give their horn a good blast, to make sure they have really scared the tripe out of you. Once across, we usually stopped for a few minutes to get our heart rate back down!
Most motorbikes usually have more than one person on them, as they are used in the same way we use a car. So it is not uncommon to see a bike with 3, 4 or 5 people on board - Mum, Dad and 2 or 3 little ones, roaring down the road, with the rest of the 4 million! They are very brave!
The hotels we stayed in were all of a high standard, but the one problem with the whole of the country is the water. It cannot be drunk, and not even used for cleaning our teeth, so it was all bottled water. And with the temperature being around 35 to 38 degrees each day, and very humid, us Kiwis found that we were sucking on the end of a bottle all day!
The meals, which were all included in the price of the tour, were terrific. Beautiful food, but far too much of it. We asked the guide if we could have smaller meals, especially in the middle of the day, as we all felt so quilty leaving food that they had taken so long to prepare. But he said the food wouldn't be wasted, as it would be taken home by the staff. He also said that it was polite in Vietnam not to eat all that was served up to you. Problem solved!
The people were very friendly, and are striving to re-build their war torn country, which keeps their unemployment numbers down. New roads are being constructed wherever we went, along with multi story buildings. It would be good to go back in about 10 years to see the progress made.
Being harvest time while we were there, the crops were all being cut and processed manually. No doubt machinery will eventually take over, but one would wonder what all these people would then do for employment. Rice is spread along the tar seal, on the side of roads, and anywhere else that makes a good drying spot. Yes, the odd vehicle runs over it, but it doesn't seem to bother them.
From Saigon, we gradually made our way up to Hue, in 14 days, then flew to Hanoi, for the last few days of our tour, before flying back home.
What a wonderful country, and great experience. We did boat trips, were paddled down muddy water canals in wobbly canoes, visited the famous tunnels in Cu Chi, visited the site of the My Lai massacre by the Americans, drove over a couple of long and windy Passes, and saw the old Humber car that was owned by Ho Chi Minh. This was a fantastic trip in a country striving to re-build after a lot of pain and heartache. Tourism is coming a big part of their economy, and I would thoroughly recommend a visit to this country.
