Ms. Saigon

The next stop on our tour down the coast was a small town called Mui Ne. We were told after our stay there that Mui Ne means 'mosquito town' - though it did live up to its name, we were miraculously not bitten once. The three days we spent in the small beach town were spectacular. Our room had a balcony overlooking the ocean and each day was filled with sun, sand and swimming. One morning we got up ridiculously early and went to nearby sand dunes to watch the sun rise over the water in the distance. This was followed by a hike through an unusual red canyon where hard clay-like walls jutted up around us. A short distance from there, we were able to visit a fishing village where we saw dozens of boats docked in the harbour and many locals taking care of business. All in all, a superb vacation from our vacation.

Where Mui Ne was quiet and peaceful, Saigon at New Year's was the expected opposite. Just as everywhere else, the festivities involved drinks, noise and many, many people. Some of our sightseeing activities involved the War Remnants Museum and the nearby Cu Chi tunnels where we could crawl through 100m of the 250km tunnel network created by the Viet Cong in the war - really interesting. The only disappointment of the trip was when we were shown a small sniper hole - though we were permitted to go in, we were warned that we must have a "Vietnam ass"... I quickly stepped out of line.

After our stay in Saigon, Alex and I headed to Cambodia via the Mekong River. This involved the longest two day tour of our lives - we took almost every mode of transport imaginable through part of the Mekong Delta. Our fatigue and annoyance was well worth it - the views were unbelievable! Simple houses were scattered within the jungle; boats took us through winding channels lined with palm trees and houses on stilts; we went through floating wholesale markets where bamboo poles on the front of boats displayed what they were selling. A great goodbye to Vietnam.