9-day Trek to Vietnam

To take advantage of a break between my studies in Bangkok, I decided to travel to Vietnam for nine days. I initially flew to Saigon (i.e. recently named Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the founder of the communist party in Vietnam, though everyone still refers to it as Saigon -- in fact, two travelers I met screwed up there travel plans because they did understand this) last Saturday, and plan to fly back to Bangkok from Hanoi next Monday. Saigon is in the very south, and Hanoi is in the very north - about 1200 km separate the two. I plan to travel by bus, stopping at various spots in between in the next nine days. My itinerary is as follows:

Saigon -- Saturday -> Tuesday
Nha Trang (a popular beach destination about 1/4 of the way to the north) Wednesday -> Thursday
Hoi Ann - Friday -> Saturday
Hanoi - Sunday -> Monday

Whether or not I realized it before, it is an ambitious trek as the buses do not move with great velocity. It is a 2 lane highway traversing the entire country from south to north. I traveled yesterday between Saigon and Nha Trang. It was only a distance of about 300 km, but it took ~12 hours, due to the many stops in between and an average speed of about 40 km/h. I'm taking a night bus tomorrow night from Nha Trang to Hoi An. It's not that bad so far, as I've found some good books to read along the way -- they sell copied versions on the street for only $3 / book everywhere in Vietnam. We'll see how I feel after the third leg!

Some insights into my travels in Saigon / Nha Trang so far:
(Unfortunately, I will have to hold off sharing pictures as all of the Vietnam internet speed is stuck in the mid-90's)

-- War Remants Museum - one of the most vivid War museums in the world and not kind to Americans: On my first day in Saigon, I decided I had to see the War Remants Museum, even though I had heard that I would not like what I saw. The pictures in the museum focus on the Vietnam war, and vividly capture a horrible time for the Vietnamese people. From Agent Orange to brutal forms of torture, the body-deformed images are the worst you can imagine. Worse yet, the museum repeatedly captures the American efforts to hide this destruction. I was by myself during the trip, but don't think I could have said a whole lot if I was with anyone ...that, and it is the last place that I wanted to reveal my American accent. It's a terrible view from any perspective, but especially an American one; however, I'm glad I saw it, as it fully reveals the atrocities of modern warfare.

-- Vietnamese kindness to Americans: On a lighter note, I am consistently amazed at the kindness the Vietnamese show to Americans, especially from the younger generation. I had initially planned to say I was from Canada in social conversations, as I had heard different perspectives on their feelings about Americans. However, I have not experienced one negative response to my nationality. In fact, I was in a conversation with a young tour guide this morning, and she explained that, "It is in the past, for both you and I - neither you or I wanted this to happen; it's something we both can forget" I thought this was eloquently put, especially considering it was some of the best English I had heard from a local Vietnamese. We are going out for a drink later :)

-- Cheapest place I've visited: Clearly, one of the best parts of Vietnam is the price! It is the cheapest place I've been, even cheaper than Colombia. A decent hotel is about $8 a night, and a great meal can go for as little as $10, and that inlcludes a glass of wine. Not that I am completely innocent, but I'm still amazed at the haggling among foreigners that still takes place. I saw one guy argue a pack of smokes down from 35,000 Dong (i.e. $2.15) to 30,000 Dong (i.e. $1.90). Come on man, it's $0.20, and the 4 year-old kid was cute ..and could dance! Of course, I almost scoffed when a guy tried to charge me 50,000 Dong (i.e. $3.10) for a box of cookies on the bus trip yesterday -- I ended up getting it for less than 30,000 Dong, and that included a Fanta. I guess my recently learned Negotiations class helped ...

-- Motorbike efficiency / Crossing the street: the number of motorbikes is astonishing, especially in Saigon -- they account for ~90% of the vehicles on the road. There are no lanes or cross walks, and few stop lights. Though most street are ~2 lanes wide, ~5-7 motorbikes run in parallel. and simply slow down to avoid oncoming traffic when they get to an intersection. However, they are an incredibly efficient way to travel. My initial conversation with any motorbike taxi usually goes like this, "Please ..drive ...slow ... and ... careful" (in my slowest English possible), and the taxis have always responded respectfully. I am actually surprised at how safe I feel on these. The most astonishing part is learning the right way to cross the street. Given that there are no cross walks, every local or cultured tourist simply walks slowly, AT A CONSTANT PACE, across the street, and bikes efficiently move out of the way in unison. Like river water flowing around an object floating across, the motorbikes fully anticipate your movements. I capture the "AT A CONSTANT PACE" in caps because this is the number one error made by most western tourists. They naturally have the instinct to run and stop to avoid cars, but this simply throws off the entire system! I have managed quite well, but am still mesmerized by the whole operation.