Last posting I was in Hoi An. Its been a lifetime since then! (Ok, so like 5 days but it feels like a lifetime.) After Hoi An we went to Na Trang (or is Chang?). The bus' AC was broken. It was a totally crap overnight bus. I barely slept at all and was mostly uncomfortable all of the time. When we got in, we were both exhausted. After searching around for a hostel with AC, we took a quick nap and then left for a boat tour. the boat tour was $6 and included lunch and some miserable red liquid they called wine but I would never recommend as such. It was a lovely sunny day and quite enjoyable way to spend it. The only downside being that I chickened out and didn't jump off the top level of the boat ~ of course Mike managed it. Ah well..
We left Na Trang first thing the next morning for Mue Ne Beach. It's a resort type area and was absolutely fantastic. My 2nd favorite thing about all of Vietnam. We got in around lunchtime and went on a tour in the afternoon. The afternoon tour took us to the sand dunes that Mue Ne is known for. Since we had spent some time at the beach pre-sand dune tour, it was incredible to end up in the dessert just 1/2 hour later. It was magnificant but extremely hot. After the white sand dunes, we were able to visit red cannoyons. Incredibly made out of red sand, they were the best part of the tour. Then we stopped at red sand dunes and a fishing village for sunset. I think I snapped a few good shots of the sunset. :-) After dinner, we hung out at a random resort for 4 hours since our bus was coming at 1 am for Siagon. We didn't buy anything and went swimming in their pool. It was incredible fun and it just goes to show how nice they are in Vietnam. If I go back to Vietnam, I'd spend more time here. It's just so lovely.
Siagon or Ho Chi Minh City as its supposed to be called now but is not really called that by most, was crazy like Hanoi. As soon as we got in, we booked the 1/2 day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. They were incredible. The guide was by far the most informative of all the guides and tours we've had. We then managed to squeeze in our afternoon the Reunification Palace (total crap waste of money, even if it was less than a dollar to get in) and the War Remanats Musuem. The War Musuem explictly goes on about the "war of american destruction"as they call the Vietnam War in Vietnam. The pictures are chilling and depressing, particularly the parts about Napalm bombings and Agent Orange. They kicked us out of the museum before we were done soaking it all up.
Next day, we were off towards Cambodia. There are two ways to get there for the most part -- traveling 1 day via bus or 2 days via the Mekong Delta. I wanted to see the Mekong River Delta, so we booked the 2 day tour. It was the crappiest tour we've been on. It was nice to see the river and all, but they took us from one tourist trap to another all day. Then they brought us to a totally miserable hotel that didn't have working AC, even though its promised when you book the tour. The only nice part about the tour was the two friendly couples that we got to meet. We did arrive in Cambodia the next day without any big problems and quickly found a hostel.
So that's the brief overview of the last few days ...
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