Good Morning Vietnam!
Vietnam is a fantastic country to travel through. The transport is efficient; the history is fascinating, the food is amazing and best of all you can do it for around $30 NZD per day.Flights from New Zealand arrive in Ho Chi Minh City which sits at the bottom of a long, skinny piece of land that is Vietnam. On arrival in Ho Chi Minh you need to pay for a tourist visa (about $25USD) before embarking on your adventure. American dollars (USD) are gladly accepted, although it’s best to get some Vietnam Dong pretty quickly to avoid being ripped off in the currency conversion.
Downtown Ho Chi Minh City is a chaotic, bustling place. Baguette stalls on every corner selling freshly baked baguettes with cream cheese, harking back to the country’s French influences. Bars sell cocktails for around $3NZD and tiny old women walk the streets with huge woven baskets on their shoulders. ANZ ATM machines come as a surprise amongst the abundant “Good Morning Vietnam” movie merchandise and paraphernalia that lines the streets.
There is much to see in Ho Chi Minh City, but the most memorable experience was visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum. The Cu Chi tunnels are an immense network of connecting underground pathways (121kms long) that were used by the Viet Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War. The tunnels are tiny, those few open to the public have been hollowed out, but I was still too tall to crawl on my hands and knees through them. Instead, you have to squat and edge yourself through the pitch blackness – an activity not for the claustrophobic or those scared of the dark! We followed this adventure with a trip to the War Remnants Museum which exhibited old war relics; planes, canons, guns and photos. The devastating results of the Vietnam War can still be seen today, with people still suffering from loss of limbs and severe deformities as a result of the Agent Orange used by the American troops during the war.
In Ho Chi Minh City we paid $25USD for a Vietnam bus pass. This meant that we could ride this bus (specifically for tourists) from one end of the country to the other, stopping off wherever we pleased along the way. From Ho Chi Minh we took a 10 hour bus to the next substantial city called Nha Trang. Nha Trang is Vietnam’s version of the Gold Coast. The city is centred on a very commercial looking beach. One of the coolest things to do here is go on a boat tour. We jumped off the boat, went snorkelling and had a buffet lunch – which included local beer. The local tour guides got a little too involved with the beer, which resulted in us having a small crash into the pier when we tried to dock again!
From Nha Trang we took a 12 hour overnight trip to Hoi An, a heritage city and my favourite Vietnam destination. The cobbled streets were perfect for riding a bicycle along. We biked for about 3kms alongside a river and came out at the most beautiful, pristine beach. There were no hotels on it, no shops, just endless golden sand and surf. Hoi An is a great place to spend some money. You can get any type of clothing or shoes you desire custom made within 48hours. I designed myself some made-to-measure leather sandals and I received them back two days later. I was also tempted by the tailors who made fantastic looking winter coats – but the thought of carrying a winter coat around in my already packed to the brim backpack forced me to reconsider.
The next town we stoped in was Hue (pronounced hoy-aye). We arrived in the middle of a storm and Hue looked like Venice; the water in the streets reached our mid thighs. There was no other choice but to drink beer all day in the bar next door. Hue is famous for its historic architecture a number of Vietnamese Royals have been buried in Hue over the centuries and the tombs are extravagant. In Hue’s Citadel lies the Imperial City, the grounds of which are surrounded by stone, and the walls are surrounded by a moat. The city was made a UNESCO site in 1993. The buildings that still remain are being restored and preserved. Unfortunately, most of the buildings were destroyed during the Vietnam War – bullet holes are still evident in some of the stone.
In Hue we decided to pay a little more money to take the luxury transport to Hanoi – a sleeper bus. This bus was filled with three rows of bunk beds, one row down each side and one row down the middle of the bus. Granted these beds weren’t made for your average Westerner and were perhaps only about 160cm long, but for the 14 hour journey they were by far the most comfortable option. When considering Hanoi is the capital city there really isn’t that much to do. The lake in the city centre is quite beautiful, and there are some great cafes, but other than that, it seems to lack culture. The highlight of our time in Hanoi was finding a bar/restaurant that was displaying an All Black Jersey on the wall and featured a menu with Kiwi food (owned by a Kiwi expatriate and his Aussie mate). It does seem sad that with all the amazing food Vietnam has to offer, we just wanted a NZ beef burger with beetroot on it, but sometimes you just miss the comforts of home.
The next morning we departed Vietnam, having spent only about $500NZ in our 16 days there and loved everything we had experienced. If you’re looking to book your next trip to somewhere warm, full of culture, where the locals speak English and is a little off the beaten track, you can’t go past Vietnam.
Jodine La Pere
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Unitec has a student exchange relationship with the Universidad Technologica de Chile (INACAP) located in Santiago de Chile.
INACAP have invited Unitec students with at least a basic command of Spanish to attend a two-week course at their University in January 2011. The course entails Spanish language studies as well as cultural studies (in English) and will be completely free to Unitec students. Students only have to pay their own travel and accommodation expenses (usually students stay in an apart hotel near the campus at a cost of around US$25 per night).
If you would like to register your interest in this fantastic opportunity to put your Spanish to practice and extend it some more, please email Jude Lydia (jlydia@unitec.ac.nz), Director International at Unitec.