And now we’re finally in Saigon (HCMC). It’s a much crazier, wackier place compared to Hanoi. Richer, more modern, more populated, more… just more. We were prepared by other travelers for the insanity of it all, and yes, it really is insane here. The traffic here should be the 9th wonder of the world or something. My first inclination is to believe it’s the beginning of a complete collapse of civilization. There really are no rules here. The flowing traffic is almost organic, like colliding schools of fish swerving around each other at the last second (while talking on cell-phones).

We spent all day yesterday cruising the town with our cyclo-driver buddies. We headed over to Cholon, the old Chinese district to check out some pagodas and to marvel at the traffic. Sitting in a cyclo kinda like being in the first car in a roller-coaster. The picture of Elyse in the cyclo effectively demonstrates this. What is she thinking? Is it terror? Dread? Grim acceptance?

Today we traveled west to visit the weird pseudo cult the Cao Dai. They have a big church/temple/mosque out in the middle of nowhere. They worship the Buddha, Jesus and Victor Hugo among others. They have funny costumes and like to chant. It was interesting but we really came to see the Cu-Chi tunnels which were nearby.

Cu-Chi is the Vietnamese equivalent of the Sunni Triangle these days. It was the epicenter of VC activity in the South throughout the war, and was subjected to every kind of bombing and chemical attack you could imagine. The VC survived by basically living underground, building an extensive underground tunnel network that even compromised the perimeters of major US bases in the area. I crawled around in them for a bit. The tunnels were hot, stinky, and filled with colorful spiders and giant centipedes. By big western ass could barely fit. 10 minutes and I had had enough. I couldn’t even comprehend what it took to live down there for weeks at a time. Determination, dedication and stamina I can’t even fathom.

Anyway, we’re off tomorrow morning on a 3 day journey through the Mekong delta back country up to the Cambodian border. We’ll be in Phnom Penh by Mondayish. Wish us luck!

J
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Hoi-An is a beautiful little town that has a long history as an important trade center. Danang has slowly eaten away at Hoi-An’s economy over the last few decades, but now that Vietnam has opened up, tourism promises to revitalize things quite a bit.

Its a picturesque little town with a beautiful old quarter filled with ramshackle 18th century building. Lot’s of Chinese influence here, with several families maintaining temples for ancestor worship. We stayed in Hoi-An for 5 days in all, taking in a lantern festival, and getting a chance to check out some Cham civilization ruins outside town a ways.
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Hue is smack-dab in the middle of Vietnam, sitting just south of the old DMZ dividing north and south. It’s an old imperial city of some significance, being home to the puppet emperors of the French colonial period. Those emperors didn’t have that much to do, being puppets and all, so they built lavish temples and tombs to fill their time. We checked them out and they were neat.

Hue was really a stopping point for us on our way to Hoi-An (see next entry).

-Jeff
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We spent 2 days and a night cruising on Halong Bay (about 150k outside Hanoi).
It was especially scenic, and we had such a splendid time of it, that I thought I’d share some photos.

We arrived in Hue this afternoon and are working our way south to Saigon (HCMC). Should be there in a week or so.
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So we are totally communists now. It only took a few days for them to get to us, but the magic formula has done it’s trick. I think our arrival on “election day” sealed the deal. The whole town is decked out with hammer & sickle flags (and the red and yellow Vietnamese flag), and they pipe patriotic voting music into the streets. Even though the results of the election were decided days ago, they take this voting stuff seriously. It’s mandatory in fact.

Determined to be good communists, Elyse and I have already paid homage to Uncle Ho. We observed his 50 year-old dead body bathed in an erie orange light, and we filed through the mausoleum along with troops of local school kids.
We also took in a waterpuppet show at the official state sanctioned theatre. It was excellent.

I’ve included some shots of the crumbling old French architecture of Hanoi’s old quarter. I’ve taken a ton more and look forward to touching them up when I get home. Here’s a preview. Enjoy.
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