Feb 21: This was the first day of our 4-day trip to Dalat and Mui Ne, also booked through Sinh Cafe. It was a good 5 hours of bus riding to get us to Dalat, a beautiful almost-European-feeling city in the Central Highlands. With our early departure, we were there by 1:30pm and had the rest of the day to walk around the city on our own. We whipped around the Dalat Market and just kind of wandered the streets. In fact, I don't even know the name of most of the things we saw, but there was a large church, a mini Effiel Tower, a Seaman Beer sign I joked about, and then a very ordinary dinner at a restaurant we found along the way. Early on, we wondered why everyone wore thick jackets and pants. But when night fell, we realized just how cold it could get in the mountains with us just wearing shorts and t-shirts. DAMN cold.

Feb 22: The second day of our 4-day trip featured a Sinh Cafe tour of Dalat. It was fairly rushed along the way with only 15 - 45 minutes at each stop, and then it was back on the bus. Go Go Go! Again, without taking anothe look in Lonely Planet, I won't be able to name the places we went to. Basically, we saw a flower garden, a place with a waterfall and some caged crocodiles, the Chicken Village (where they have a huge cock statue), a monastary, a poorly-kept Summer Palace, a guesthouse called "Crazy House" because of it's odd appearance (it's Cra-a-a-a-zy!), the XQ Hand Embroidery Centre, and the Valley of Love. The XQ Hand Embroidry Centre was probably the most impressive stop, where they make astonishing embroidery pieces by hand. It was a brilliant display of delicate skill and workmanship. Just jaw-dropping.

After the day tour, we again headed through the Dalat Market, to another temple (where I was chased by swarming mosquitos), and finally to a nice restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet.

Feb 23: Another day, another bus ride. This time from within the mountains down to the beach. We arrived at our resort hotel in Mui Ne in the early afternoon. With our free time, we taxied to a stream called Fairy Stream. This was another highlight of our trip. Fairy Stream is a shallow stream that you can walk along (barefoot in the water). On one side is canyon-like red and white sand structures, on the other side is some greenery. It was a leisurely stroll which should take about an hour round trip, but much longer if you take as many pictures as we did along the way. After we got back to our hotel, we dipped into the private beach behind the hotel and then spent a little time in the pool before having a very tasty seafood dinner (for about $5USD / person no less!). The day couldn't have been more perfect (other than the bus ride at the start of the day).

Feb 24: On the last day of our 4-day trip, we had a short 1/2 day tour. First we went to a fishing village which was an incredible sight. It was a scene from Troy where the armies storm the beach, but instead it was fishing boats. One of those things that make you say "Wow" when you see it. After that, we took a walk through Red Canyon, and finally went to the White Sand Dunes.

Back on the bus in the early afternoon and arrived at our Saigon hotel just as night fell. Dinner was at a French restaurant called "La Fourchette", which we made a reservation earlier because the last time we tried going it was full. It was our best meal, and came at the largest price. $20 - $25USD / person. But a meal of that price would have easily been x3 if it were in North America. A most excellent dinner made even better because NK treated us.

Feb 25: We started our day with a morning visit to Reunification Palace, the History Museum, and Jade Emperor Pagoda. We went to Ben Thanh Market (and bought nothing), had dinner and sweet soup with Saigon Hotpot girls, and quickly walked along a footwear street (and bought nothing). I'm not sure why this day passed so quickly, but it did.

Feb 26: My 26th was mainly spent around markets. Binh Tay Market in Cholon, Dong An Market in District 3, and there really wasn't much going on that day. But still, I was all "marketed out". I did spend copious amounts of time buying coffee though. It's amazing how cheap coffee is. Throughout this trip, I bought 4 kinds of coffee. The best price I got was 65,000 VND / kg. Now THAT's cheap. There's cheaper, but even a coffee novice won't do with crap coffee.

Feb 27: Morning was a relaxing walkaround. Bought a few gifts for friends and family. Afternoon was more of the same. Spent most of the afternoon in Ben Thanh Market buying dri-fit type t-shirts and sleevelesses. Between $3 - $4 USD. Why not buy more? Well, I did.

Feb 28: On our last day, we had very little time in the morning. Basically, just enough time to eat breakfast, swing by Ben Thanh Market again for a few more t-shirt purchases, and head out to the airport. And that was about it! You can read more about the misfortunes of this day here.

Alright, here goes my Vietnam update!

Sat (Feb 17): Skipping this. Read the runabout here.

Sun (Feb 18): We started our day with a 1/2 day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels with Sinh Cafe, Vietnam's largest tour provider. As it was during the Tet holidays, there were plenty of travelers taking tours that day. So we stood in a pack of sardines in front of the Sinh Cafe office for 30 mins while waiting for our bus to board. The Cu Chi Tunnels are a series of tunnels created by the people in the Cu Chi area during their resistance against the Americans during the Vietnam War. During the tour, we saw how they structured their tunnels, how they lived, and traps and weapons used to defend their position. A short 15 minute video made in the 196o's showed life around that time, with an emphasis on killing Americans. The black-and-white video introduced a few men and women who were given "American Killer Awards". I'll bet the Americans on the tour didn't appreciate that too much. I also fired 5 rounds of M-16 and an AK47. Very loud. Pretty fun. And got kind of close to the target.

The rest of the day with Saigon Hotpot is described quickly here.

Mon (Feb 19): We spent out morning in Cholon (Chinatown). But with Tet still in the air, most stops were closed, and there wasn't too much to see on the streets. Cholon's probably best known for two things: Binh Tay Market (which was closed) and the pagodas/temples. So, we casually made our way around 6 or 7 temples and pagodas shown on our Lonely Planet map. After a few, yes, they get to be repetitive. But each of them has something somewhat interesting. Part of the fun is also imitating the locals in their praying traditions. In many pagodas, there is a wooden horse. People pray to it, touch it's head, waddle under its belly, and shake its bell (no, not THAT bell... a real bell hanging from its neck). What I liked the most were the circular incenses hanging from the ceiling in a cone shape. Kind of neat. Though kind of dirty with all the ashes landing on your head and shoulders as you walk beneath them. But still, kind of neat visually.

In the afternoon, we were joined by Saigon Hotpot members Linh and Ngoc. At only 23 years old, Linh is the founder of Saigon Hotpot. Together, we went to Central Saigon, down Dong Khoi street (the high-end street). Around that area, we saw People's Committee Building, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Central Post Office.

After circling around Central Saigon, a bus ride took us to Binh Quoi Tourist Village, which is basically a large park area and a buffet all for a flat entry fee. With Saigon Hotpot's help, we got in for free and just went in to walk around without eating. We sort of regretted it later because the food looked pretty good and seemed fairly traditionally Vietnamese. In hindsight. We ended up having a very cheap dinner (<$1US for Hue noodle soup; Hue is a city about 10 hours North) just behind Ben Thanh Market. Although the cheap noodles weren't altogether too bad. And pretty street (i.e. local).

Tues (Feb 20): Another Sinh Cafe tour - this time a one-day trip to the Mekong Delta (Ben Tre and My Tho). This tour was kicked off with sleeping on a bus for 3 hours, and then a motor boat ride. First stop was at a rice paper factory (and when I say factory, don't think big machinery; think primeval equipment like woks, rulers, and hand packaging). We sat aboard a row boat through a winding path within the delta while donning Vietnamese straw hats. We had a short stop for fruit and some painfully screechy Vietnamese singing. From there, we hopped onto a carriage pulled by a small horse to a coconut factory, where they make products out of coconut shells, and had some tasty honey tea with bees flying about trying to get a bit of that sweet honey goodness. Another motorboat took us to a coconut candy factory.

With a bit of leftover time back to HCMC, we swung by the People's Committee Building and Rex Hotel again to see them lit up at night.

Back in Taipei.

It was a disasterous end to a great trip.

Checking out of our hotel took 15 minutes because we had to sort out some mis-charges (they thought we drank from the room minibar) and our complicated room bookings made things more difficult. BK, NK, and I left our hotel at 10:50am for our 12:45pm flight. The taxi driver took a slower route to the airport and it cost us 104,000 VND (USD$1 = 16,000 Vietnamese Dong) - in the past, we'd only paid about 64,000 VND. Our check-in took a long time too, because the Eva Air lady couldn't find our flight bookings in the system. Then we had to pay a $14USD/person airport tax, which should be paid, but a lot of people get away without paying it -- but we didn't.

After overpaying for the taxi ride, between 3 people, we only had 6,000 VND left (about $0.37 USD). So, I decided to try to spend it at the airport stores leading up to the boarding gate. I got to a shop that sold a bunch of little things. I asked a lady at a store what I could buy for 6,000 dong, and she asked a guy behind her. The guy, perhaps her manager, pointed her to something and said something in Vietnamese. She walked over and picked up a pack of candy. Then, she walked to the cashier while ripping off the price tag. Of course, seeing this, I make a bee line to the candy rack and check it myself. $0.25 US. I walk back to her, she gives me the candy pack, and says "This is 6,000 dong." I asked her "Isn't this 25 cents?" she says yes. Since I only had a 5,000VND bill and a 1,000 coin, I gave her 5,000VND and walked away. Damn people trying to dishonestly make money off foreigners.

Boarding the plane was delayed about 15 minutes, but we got to Taoyuan International Airport on time at 5pm. During the flight, I had the pleasure of having a child sit behind me. I need not explain more than to give 3 words: banging, kicking, and crying. I hate kids on planes.

At the Taiwan customs, it took the 3 of us more than 30 mins to get through amidst a packed room of arriving travellers.

Finally, after getting out of the departure gate, NK and I bought our bus tickets to get back to Hsinchu (a ride with a switch midway at ChongLi bus hub). After 45 minutes on our bus, it seemed as if we should have made our change at the bus hub 15 minutes earlier -- then I saw the Hsinchu highway exit pass. So I talked to the bus driver to discover we boarded the wrong bus and were heading to Taichung, another hour away (which meant we'd have to take another hour to get back). But the driver was kind enough to let us off at the next highway exit in Toufen. From there, we took another bus to the Hsinchu train station. And then another taxi ride to my office where we left our scooters.

All in all, it took us more than double the time to get home, and probably close to double the price.

But up until to the day of returning, Vietnam was a great trip. We saw a lot, learned a lot, and enjoyed the different sights and sounds. I'll slowly start putting my impressions and experiences from the trip over the next few days.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi from Vietnam!

We arrived yesterday in Vietnam. The weather here sits around 32 degrees C, and it's not really all too bad.

Vietnam's much cleaner than I thought, actually. Although you'd hardly call is clean. Our hotel sits in the Backpacker Alley in Saigon, and at roughly $10/person, it's not too bad.

Just a quick recap of the last couple of days:
Sat (Feb 17): First went to the War Remnants Museum, Xa Loi Pagoda, Spring Flower Festival 2007, Mirianman Temple, and finally walked around La Loi Street to observe the Tet (Vietnamese New Year) lights and crowds.

Sun (Feb 18): Spent the morning on a 1/2 day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 1 hour away from HCMC. Got back to the hotel where we met with our voluntary guides from Saigon Hotpot. They took us down Nguyen Hue flower street, and then we went to a Saigon Hotpot member's house where his mother cooked us dinner and we had a small celebration the Vietnamese way. It was great, and their friendliness and hospitality were surprising, geniune, and very appreciated. Tomorrow, we have a long day ahead of us. Lots to see. Lots to do. Better get some sleep.