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| Market day in Hi An |
First of all I like to thank all of you who were concerned
about my welfare in the bomb city of
Guwahati
and when the disaster killer waves swept away thousands of lives in this part
of the world and shocked the whole planet!! By sheer luck on the evening of 26
th
Dec. I was safely tucked away in my 5 star hotel wondering if I was ever going
to get out of the hellhole bomb city of
Guwahati.
I am safe and I was out in time to continue my journey .
Since leaving India on 30th Dec. I
have travelled to/ through :
Bangkok
: where one could not avoid watching again and again CNN TV news reporting on
again and again the carnage left behind in this region by Tsumani. However life
moved on at the airport as it always does and it always will.
Hoi Chi Minh city: Noisy. It seems that the city has not
stood still with time, it has neatly stored away its war time memories in the
museums for the tourist’s interest only, I guess? An excellent move too.
Nhat Rang: medium size city along the coast and six hours
bus ride from Ho Chi Minh. It promotes NOISE FREE ZONE sandy beach area for the
super rich Western tourists. For all you know you could be sitting by the beach
in the West Indies and watching the waves go by, however the only difference
here will be that you are watching more WAVES for every US $ you have spent,
everything here is so very cheap.
Hi An : another coastal town, 12 hours bus ride from Nhat
Rang. It is small and it has beautifully preserved its old parts of the town
for the tourists who love music, drama art and textile.
My stay in Vietnam
has been a short one ( only 10 days ) and the experience has been very good,
sometimes excellent and at times not so good. I have been told by those tourist
who travelled to Cambodia ( next door, the country is still suffering in the
hands of terrorists) that they feel safe in
Vietnam, however on the first day I landed at the airport I had one of
my bags missing, it was stolen and not very good start for me!
The land is still unspoilt ( not very many tourists here
yet), the landscape is beautiful, acres and acres of paddy fields, clean but
people are poor, thus a lot of hassle from the local for my US $. It was not easy to travel alone because the universal language ENGLISH, I expect everyone to know is
hardly spoken. It was difficult to know the real people behind the friendly
smiling faces.
Tourist buses are very cheap but are not always on time, are
not well organised, 12 hours journey will take 15 or more. They do break down(
mine did) and are badly driven , I saw two accidents in 8 days. There is a rail
service, which I understand, has more legroom, for the tall Western tourists,
however I have decided to return from Nhat Rang to Hi Chi Minh by plane. It is
so cheap and for once I can pay by VISA for everything, all in US $ of
course!
I leave Hi Chi Minh on 10th Jan. for one night at
Bangkok
airport. On 11th I shall be flying to Sydney
for my next port of call, which is KING ISLANAD between coast of Tasmania and
main land Australia.
I understand from all the Aussies I met in
India and here ( Plenty, and I thought they had
all gone to
Manchester
to pull pints to pay off their overdraft) that King Is. has the best cheese and
double cream in the world. For the taste of these two goodies I shall no doubt
see you there?
Love from lovely city of
Nhat Rang ,
Davinder x
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