Hi from Vietnam

Well, I'm back from holiday! Here's a couple of emails I sent to friends while I was away - but forgot to post them here. Oh well - better late than never, I guess.

Just a quick hello to say that we all made it safe and sound to Ho Chi Minh City. It's been a big two days, of course, with all the travelling etc. Flying from Brisbane to Vietnam via Melbourne really is the long way of doing things. Anyway...

We got to the hotel around lunch time on Sunday. After a quick lunch we went for a walk to some nearby markets, and attempted to get used to the traffic. I'd just about forgotten what it was like to have to step out into endless streams of traffic just to try and cross the road. They do avoid you though - those little scooters that everybody rides are pretty manouverable. I managed to avoid spending too much money at the markets, although I'll probably go back there at least once before we leave.

Today we toured some of the museums. The Fine Art museum was mostly modern art (post-war) so it's all about the glories of the communists and beating the Americans. Some of it is pretty good, even if the message isn't exactly subtle. The Reunification Palace was interesting - it's the old South Vietnamese presidential palace, and is pretty much exactly as it was in 1975. The final museum for the day was the War Remnants museum. Again a very one-sided story, but intense. It's full of photos and stories of abuses committed by various invaders of Vietnam (French, American, etc). Again, not exaclty subtle, but very powerful. People did awful things in this country.

Anyway, thats about it so far, apart from eating some great and cheap food! Tomorrow we're off to see the tunnels used by the VietCong and a couple of temples. Then later in the week we're off to the Mekong Delta for a couple of days, followed by an overnight trip to one of the nearby national parks. Should be good I'll let you know how it all goes, of course!