Visitors from home!

Michele, Chaska and Killki have just returned to Sydney after 2 weeks in Vietnam.

I was able to get a few days off work to coincide with when they first arrived, so I got up to HCMC in time to meet them at their hotel. It was a very nice hotel (Tan Hai Long 3) but a bit more expensive than I am used to paying for but the management did agree 1) that for an extra consideration I could stay in the same room with everyone and 2) that we would be moved after the first night (when they were full) to a bigger room.

We headed off to the backpacker district for dinner - the girls were able to eat pizza while Michele and I could have Vietnamese food - and then we went to Sinh Cafe and booked the buses and hotel for a weekend trip to Da Lat.

Next morning we took breakfast in the hotel and discussed what we could do around Saigon for the day. Killki's vote was for a museum, and Chaska's was for the market - so we took a trip to Reunification Palace (the old South Vietnamese Independence or Presidential Palace). Once inside we went upstairs to the reception rooms and offices. Reputedly the Palace is still furnished as it was in April 1975 when the liberating forces arrived in Saigon. At the back on this floor are the private living quarters of the SVN President. On the next floor up there are a reception room for the first lady as well as a cinema and gaming room. You can also go up to the rooftop and see the helipad complete with a chopper. From there we went down to the basement - with its bunkers, tunnels, communications centre and war rooms - before we exited through the kitchen.

The next stop was lunch on the way to Ben Thanh market. Unfortunately I didn't think very carefully about the food and it cost more than I expected (thanks to a crab noodle salad that we would have been better to have the left the crab out of!), though not more than was probably reasonable. In the markets Chaska and Killki attracted a lot of attention from shopkeepers who recognised and were interested to know that they are twins. Then it was back to the hotel for a rest, and just in time! A very big storm blew up as we got back.

We decided on a day trip to My Tho and the Mekong f0r Friday. I've done this trip a couple of times now but I think it is a convenient way of getting a taste of country life in the Delta. This time the added feature for me was to see rice paper (banh trang) being made. We had lunch on Phoenix Island - former home of the coconut monk - and the girls acquired a taste for green tea, lemon and honey. We also took a ride in the hot sun by horse and carriage and were entertained with traditional southern music. Michele doesn't think she will be buying the CD, though.

On Saturday we made an early start to catch the bus to Da Lat. On this trip there were only about 9 passengers and so we had a small bus rather than a large coach. I found that the road has improved a lot in the mountains compared to 10 years ago, but the climb - which is in two stages (first up the Bao Loc pass, and then from the plateau directly up to Da Lat) - is still stupendous. The weather in Da Lat is much cooler and it was a welcome change. The city is also such a contrast to Vung Tau where everything is flat. Da Lat is built around the Xuan Huong lake and on many hillsides. Lonely Planet suggests that it looks more like Europe than anywhere else in Vietnam, and it's true.

On Sunday we took a tour to some principal landscape/sightseeing places - Datanla Falls with a trip down to the falls by toboggan, Quang Trung resovoir and the meditation monastery from where we took the cable car back towards Da Lat, Bao Dai Summer Palace, Crazy House (yes, David it's still there and is constantly being rebuilt and extended - maybe one day you will get your wish of staying!), the Valley of Love, and the Da Lat flower gardens.

Next day I had to make the trip back to Vung Tau so that I could go to work on Tuesday, while Michele, Killki and Chaska went on to Nha Trang for a few days. Then they came down to Vung Tau on Thursday afternoon, and spent some time relaxing. There's not really a great deal to do here - Saigonese come here on weekends because it's the nearest beach - so I think it was a fairly quiet time for them. However, the dogs here at the house were a hit with Chaska, and both girls got to take a motor bike ride thanks to Bao!

Unfortunately their trip back to HCMC on Monday was marred by the fact that the boat took 3 hours to get there instead of the expected 1 hour 20 minutes! The last report I had from Michele on Tuesday was that they were enjoying spending lots of money on souvenirs - hope you all get something nice :)