Hi Gentleman,

Returned from 29 days in VN yesterday at 2 AM. The Plan;No tour group. Travel between places by bus (Sinh Cafe). Start in Saigon and head north spending as long as we wanted in each place.

Today's story; Saigon, Part One.

My wife and I fly out of New York for VN on May one. Land in Saigon on May 3. It is hot, hot like the old days. Saigon has city bus's now and a trip from the airport is one thousand dong. Trouble is I have too many bags, taxi time.

Our hotel is in the backpackers part of the city near De Tham St. The hotel is in a alley behind Sinh Cafe. Small, family run, has a internet cafe and small store. The room is small, clean, no window, hard bed but will do. A Vietnamese newspaper with a story I wrote is waiting at the desk. People all over VN read my story about an old American war vet's return to their country. Published May one. I took this as a good sign for our trip.

This part of town is very busy and a lot of normal Vietnamese life is going on here. Our hotel room is twelve bucks with two hours internet and breakfast. What a rip off! As we eat in the morning people come down the alley shouting out what they are selling in Vietnamese. Reminds me of when I was a kid and most things you needed were sold from trucks passing our house.

I called An and he took us out to dinner. He is an older An. Same positive attitude. Same great smile and gentile voice. He has been married a year now. Has a baby boy about15 weeks old. He is a proud daddy, very happy. Before we leave town, An has some Tiger Beer with us at a local bar as Santana sings in Spanish in the background. My thoughts were of you guy's - wishing you were here. An went out of his way to make our visit great. My wife really liked him.

There is a large park down the street and we love to walk and sit there at different times of the day. Ben Thanh Market is at one end and a smaller market at the other. Also an "American" supermarket with fast food (Chicken Town). Quite the place! Up scale shoppers. Has a escalator! Fun to watch the first timers get on and off. Great tourist site.

My wife is a tough German girl so she will not tell me when the heat is getting to her. I learn that when her face is as red as the rubber nose in my pocket, it's time to find the AC. She is adapting well but still has trouble just walking across the street with trucks and motorbikes heading at her.

After a few days it is time to head south to the Mekong for a home stay with a farm family. We are sad to leave. We have come to know and like the people in the area very much.

Next story Mekong.

Regards, Jim Murtaugh

In my last story I forgot to tell you all that cyclo drivers, motorbike drivers call me PaPa in Saigon. Can't say I was happy about this at first. Next trip I color my Hair!

Mekong!

I cheat on this one and have arranged the trip. We travel south in a van to My Tho and our guide meets us at the river. Off we go on a small boat. For me not a big deal, but for my wife a look at life on the water. Our first stop is a bonsai and tree farm on an island. After while, we stumble onto the owner who is sound asleep. He looks like Uncle Ho. Matter of fact, he looks like Uncle Ho, under glass in Hanoi! Waking up, he pours the guide, me and him snake wine. My wife gets another milder wine. I ask how old he is. Oh, about 85 he tells the guide. How come he has lived so long I ask. I know what the answer is and sure enough he points to the wine as he pours us another. Thankfully, other tourists show up and he gives them a taste.

Our other stops include a popcorn candy factory and a floor tile factory. The Vietnamese make some great tile and it is cool on the feet in their houses. The kids wonder about the man in the boat with the red nose and crooked hat as we pass them on our boat.

Late in the day, our boat travels up a small stream and stops at a dock. We walk down a dirt trail to a large two story cement house. Just in time! I can tell the heat is closing in on my wife. This is the home stay house. The old man that owns it lives there with three sons and their families. What had been rice paddies are now Logan trees with ponds full of fish in between. It's cool under the trees. The old man has been here for eighty years and he seems happy with his life now. Most times, I see him he is sleeping in the shade. Supper is served outside under a bamboo thatched roof. The family eats inside. We make friends with the little kids and give them toys.

For the adults, a woman's magazine from America makes the girls happy. I give the guide a National Geographic and end up reading it to him. He sees a advertisement for Vigara and says "American Snake Wine!"

We sleep up stairs on home made cots. It is set up for fifteen back packers but we are alone. At least we have a fan. In the morning we eat and then our guide takes us down the trail to a market. It is very small. While the men sit around drinking ice coffee, the women barter for food. We have ice coffee and after this day we drink it twice a day. What a jolt!

Soon it's time to go and the whole family is there to say goodbye. Back to the boat, then the van to Saigon. Tomorrow Sue and I catch the Sinh bus to Dalat. For Sue's sake I hope it is cooler there.

Next story: Dalat.


                             

The road to Dalat.

7:30 AM Saigon, we load on bags on the Sinh Bus to Dalat. Five people on the bus and we are the only western people aboard. North on route one from the city. Many factories along the way. Everywhere new two and three story houses. Lots of people must be making money. God is doing well also. New churches and pagodas line the road. Soon we turn west toward the mountains. As we near them we start seeing farm tractors just we have at home. In the valleys above, there are many vegetables being grown in the cooler air. Speaking of which, our bus must turn off the AC to make the climb.

Houses now are made of wood. Very strange! Horses pull carts to market for the poorer people. Half way to Dalat, our bus pulls into a black topped parking lot. I can't believe my eyes. There in front of me is a new restaurant with a store. The whole thing could be anywhere in America. I tell my wife that we can't afford to look in the window but the staff begs us to come in. The food is great and very cheap. I leave a dollar tip and all the workers look at it. They never saw a dollar bill before! This a great start for our trip, a smooth road, empty bus and good food. Late in the afternoon we arrive in Dalat. A new hotel. Eight bucks a night and a meal in the morning. What a rip off!

More to come............

The Sinh people bug me to take a tour. For eight bucks for the day, why not? In the morning, we find that they have teamed us up with another couple for the tour.

Our first stop will be Chicken Village. A cement chicken looms over us. There are two shops selling pocketbooks and stuff weaved by hand by the resettled hill tribe. But the shop is run by Vietnamese and on close inspection the goods look factory made. I get the idea the proceeds of any sale will not go to the people that live here. No sale!

Now a lesson in racism. We Americans think we have a lock on this word. The Vietnamese beg to differ. We go to the school. School is over but the kids play outside. Dirty, rags for clothes, sad looking.

Our guide explains that they fight in school and just are not able to learn much. Little savages. Inside the school it is one room with a blackboard, some chairs and tables. Dirty, no lights, peeling paint. Time to break out my red nose and fake eye. For just a little while they have smiles and laugh at the crazy tourist. Next a visit to a house (wood shack). Outside, two children eat rice from a bowl. More flies than rice. Mom comes out in hill tribe garb and invites us in. Dark, dirty, one room. Dad watches TV. Our guide explains that the men are very lazy and not too bright. The government man brings condoms and next day finds them hanging on trees.

I find it hard to keep my mouth shut. I know our guide has been brought up to believe that these folks are less than human. They treat the hill people much as we treated the American Indian. Change will come slowly. At least the government is trying to change hearts and minds to their credit.

Next stop is a pagoda. Nice grounds over looking a lake. I bullshit with a monk. He had fought for the south. We trade war stories and agree that we are lucky to have survived the war. He will travel to the U.S.A. soon. Nice man. Many Vietnamese tourists here and we get a lot of stares.

Dalat is the place to go on your honeymoon in Vietnam. An amusement park is next. A horse ride seems to be the big thing. We sit on a bench and have a drink. End up giving English lessons to a park employee.

Our other two stops are a waterfall and the summer home of a former ruler of the country. You can have a picture taken with a cowboy at the falls. Again, aimed at honeymooners. The summer home has great grounds with lots of flowers but the building is starting to get in bad shape.

Our hotel is a block from the lake which is light green from lack of rain. Honeymooners can peddle swans out in the lake and can kiss and hug away from prying eyes. A mini Eiffel tower is across the lake. We seem to be the only western people in town. The place is kind of run down and we need a place to eat dinner. At last we find a place near a big hotel. We order our food but we feel that we are not welcome here. Maybe they are afraid we will keep Vietnamese from wanting to eat here. We would eat with chop sticks but they give us forks to eat faster. A large family eats at a table near us. When they finish they put the left over food in a bag and sneak it out to the shoe shine boys outside the place. Very nice! From now on we eat at the hotel. For the next two nights I work with a collage student teaching him English.

Other nice things are three men invite us to drink rice wine with them by the lake and sing about their beloved Vietnam. A old man, an artist, takes us on a tour of a private hill tribe museum. Our staff at the hotel laugh and play and really enjoy working with each other and we feel at home around them. We hate to leave the cool weather but it's time to move on to Nha Trang.

More................

At last we are on flat land again and the road is better. Rice paddies, fish farms and the railroad tracks on our right. On the left we see the South China Sea now and then. Small rivers flowing into it. I doze off.

Coming into Nha Trang, the city looks like most and our bus pulls up to a older looking hotel. Checking out our room, it seems ok. Noticed the bathroom floor is wet. Maid must have just mopped it.

Off we walk to check out the beach trailed by a cyclo driver wanting us to take a ride. At last he gives up! Arriving at the beach we need to find a place to eat. We find a place where we can sit outside near the beach. Prices are high. The food is not very good. They try to over charge us for what we got.

A cement sidewalk runs along the beach and we walk north. Lots of people hit on us selling snacks, sun glasses and lighters. There are chairs on the beach to rent and people to sell you drinks and food. The beach and the view of islands are nice. Much like China Beach with more hotels. We pass a small water park with a wave pool for the kids. Nice to see Vietnamese kids having fun. A big four star hotel ahead and the sidewalk ends. Back at the hotel, we find a small cafe and the food and prices are good. In our room we find out why the bathroom floor is wet. Seems the water line over the toilet leaks. This is just another Vietnamese lesson about not wasting anything. A shit and shower at the same time!

In the morning I hire a cyclo driver to take us to a pagoda and large Buddha at the south end of the beach. It rains like hell and we are trapped inside a long time. Kids who are guides try to charge a lot of money and a soda vendor tries to do the same thing. I'm getting bad vibes about this town.

Much later we return to the beach to get some sun. Most Vietnamese have only Sunday off, so Saturday night is like a Friday night for them. The end of the work week. The beach is busy. Many Vietnamese enjoying the shade under the trees. Also lots of Vietnamese sailors around. Some have had rice wine, their hats on sideways others sit and sing having a good time. A navy town!

Some kids run up and touch my wife's butt, on a dare, and run away. All thru this trip, people, mostly women, touch her butt as she walks by. Bothers the hell out of her. Don't know why they do it. Makes me wonder what's wrong with my butt.

Anyway, I'm not liking this city very much. As we near our hotel we pass a bar with tables on the sidewalk. It is dark. The name of the bar is "The Why Not Bar". I ask my wife if she wants a beer. Answer, why not? A Vietnamese kid sitting there says "yeah, why not?". So, we order Tigers and bullshit with him. His name is Hoa, an out going, funny guy. The owner of the building sits near us, very drunk. Every now and then he shouts "lets party" or something like that in Vietnamese. I joke with Hoa about putting him on the Sinh night bus to Saigon.

While Hoa and I play pool inside, the building owner puts the make on my wife.  After while, we bring her inside and save her. We decide to meet Hoa at seven thirty in the morning for coffee. He tells us his mother has a hard time getting him up. Back to the hotel for a shit and shower.

Eight AM, Hoa shows up. Of course, we bust his chops about being late. He invites us to his parents home for lunch. Eleven AM Hoa's friend shows up in a Russian jeep he uses for mountain tours. The both of them keep us laughing, as we drive around town. As we pass a western blonde in front of a hotel Hoa shouts out "Are you waiting for me? I love you long time!". Sick boy!

Hoa stops and buys wine on his way home. Mom has made a very large lunch for us. His brother, who is still in school is there. Following custom, mom stays in the kitchen while the men eat. I feel that I'm in Mexico. Vietnamese like their food hot and spicy. The food keeps coming and the wine.

The house is along the tracks, up a dirt path. Very new, cement with tile floors, two stories. Here we find a different Hoa. We see his other side. He supports mom, dad and his brother. Dad fought for the south. After the war he found little work and much rice wine. Hoa is at work in his little tour office, next to the bar, at seven thirty AM and works to ten or eleven PM every day. A heavy burden for a man his age. Worse, the tourists are drying up. A good son and brother!

After lunch we stop at a out of the way place for coffee and Hoa is his funny self as he tries to make time with the girls. He buys us VN coffee makers. What a joy it is to be around this guy!

The next day, our last in Nha Trang, we take a walking tour of town with Hoa and we hang around his office and meet his many friends. At the end of the day we are to take the night bus to Hoi An. We have had so much fun that we really hate to leave. Hoa hugs us as we get on the bus. We are all so sad! The bus pulls out and we wave goodbye.

P.S. We have stayed in contact with Hoa by email. He calls himself our little son and us mama and papa. Next; Night bus to Hoi An..................

As we head north I tell my wife at least it should be a smooth ride. We will be on the main road of Vietnam. When we are out of the city, the South China Sea is on our right side. Every now and then we see the lights from the fishing boats out on the water. On the left side we pass houses with the flicker of their TV lighting the main room. A soap opera from Japan seems to be the favorite show. Game shows are next. After the motorbike a TV is the next important thing to buy.

I wish we could make this trip in the daytime but with tourism down there is only the night bus. Also there is another reason and we will find out what it is very soon. Heavy over loaded trucks rule the road. Less traffic and a lot cooler to run at night. Remember the smooth road? The Vietnamese have decided to replace every bridge on Route One at the same time. At each bridge we pull onto a dirt track and wait our turn to cross a temporary one lane bridge that shakes a lot. During the day, the road must be backed up for miles. I would rather not see the temporary bridge in the daylight anyway!

Our bus rolls into the night. With my Marine training I can sleep on a ten foot pile of water buffalo shit so off to never, never land for me. My wife even falls asleep.

Three AM. The bus stops at a rest stop. My wife gets to use the squat toilet. Wish I had a picture! Fine looking young Australian girls sell us drinks. Behind the place, waves crash onto the beach from the dark. Out in the bay, the lights from the fishing boats make it look like a city at sea. The air is cool with a breeze. Far above, the stars shine as only they can in Vietnam. If only it was not three AM!

We hear the bus start up, hinting it's time to go. Back on the road north and we don't feel tired anymore.

Seven thirty AM. .Hoi An at last.

Next; Hoi An. Almost Heaven...............