Hi everyone

Regards to all from fascinating Vietnam. We hope you are all well, as we are.

We are travelling in a group of 16 people, 8 of us who met in the army and our partners. We have met most of them a few times and we all get along really well. The tour is a 12-day Wendy Wu tour with an amendment to suit us; they compressed the normal 12 days into 10 and added a 2-day trip to Vung Tau, and Nui Dat where Australians were based during the Vietnam war.

The tour started in Hanoi where we had been for a few days about 7 years ago so for us it was more about being with friends than experiencing new things. Hanoi is a large city of about 6 million people so it was hectic, with crazy traffic, thousands of tiny shops, footpaths crowded with people, local cafes, parked motor bikes and display stands for shops. With a strong French influence mixed with Vietnamese culture, Hanoi is very interesting.

 

 
Then we travelled to Halong Bay where we took an overnight cruise on a vessel that carried 40 passengers and 25 crew. The weather was calm and cool, maximum 18 degrees and the water temperature was apparently 13 deg – ok for Ted to swim a couple of laps around the boat in beautiful clear water. We visited a couple of islands, went kayaking and walked through a very large cave in the limestone cliffs. 

Next stop was Hoi An, an hour flight from Hanoi. We stayed a couple of nights near the old town and were able to spend lots of time in the narrow streets amongst traditional housing and shops. This old city is heritage listed and there were thousands of tourists here but is was still good fun. The maximum temperature here was a pleasant 24 deg.

Another 1 hour flight took us to Saigon where we were immediately hit by a humid 35 deg. Saigon has about 10 million people and they all came on their motor bikes to see us. The streets are packed and nobody takes much notice of road rules. Cars, bikes, buses and trucks all converge on intersections with little apparent regard to order of any kind but it seems to work. From our base at the Grand Hotel we visited some local attractions, the Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta over 3 days. The tunnels were part of a 250 km tunnel system where up to 2,000 Vietnamese people lived for 30 years during their wars with the French, South Vietnamese and of course the Americans and their allies, including Australia. Seeing the conditions in which the locals lived during that period was amazing. Even more interesting was seeing the locals go about their daily routine on the delta. They live, farm, fish, travel, work and host tourists on and near the huge river system. The Mekong travels 250 km in Vietnam after leaving China and Cambodia, breaking into 9 main rivers and hundreds of streams and man made canals before reaching the sea.

About 2 hours out of Saigon we visited Vung Tau, staying overnight at the Imperial Hotel, which is on the site of the war-time recreation club known as the Peter Badcoe Club. We then spent a day visiting Baria, Hoa Long, Nui Dat and Long Tan. A brief service led by our local guide at the Australian memorial on the Long Tan battle field was very moving. 
Today is our last day in Vietnam. It has been a very interesting trip and we all agreed that it was a fitting reunion for our group. We drove back to Saigon, had lunch with the group this afternoon we’ll fly to Myanmar for the next leg of our Asian holiday.

Love to all in Australia. Hope you keep well.
Jo and Ted