I wonder if I can abseil on Saturn? (Nha Trang, Vietnam)

Down in the Delta

So, we started our trip to Vietnam from a boat in Phnom Penh that went along the Mekong River to the border of Vietnam, landing in a little town called Chau Doc. I'm not a big fan of border crossings because its a really long process of waiting and queing and then more waiting and more queing. Not to mention, you're always bombarded by a bunch of kids trying to either sell you something or carry your luggage for a 'tip'. If only I could give to every person trying to make a buck.

Once we arrived in Chau Doc, we were given the option of taking a 2 day tour that the boat operators offer, which then entails staying at their guesthouse, or we could have been left at some unknown street with moto drivers attacking us. We chose the tour.

2 days hopping on and off of buses and boats, floating through the Mekong Delta and observing the 'Mekong way of life'. We saw some pretty cool things, a fish farm, incense making factory, rice factory, crocodile farm, bonsai garden, rice noodle factory, a Cham Village, a minority village and a floating market. A lot of these places were kinda boring but its a once in a lifetime kinda thing, so why not? The walk through the minority village was cool, we had to cross a dodgy bridge made of slim tree trunks, no one in our tour group fell. I guess they're not as dodgy as we thought. Simple life is a good life I'd say.


History Lesson

After our tour, Jeremy, myself and our new found friend from Sydney, Dianna made our way north to Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City. Most people still call it Saigon, HCMC is just the political name in honor of Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Indochine Communist Party. It was cool to hang with Dianna because she's been living in the UK for the last while and hasn't been home in 1.5yrs. We were able to find common things about Sydney to talk about, but we were also able to tell her new things that have come up since she'd left home. Weird.

Anyway, the first day there we actually skipped the sights and went swimming at a large water park, similar to the one I brought the kids to in Phnom Penh. There were these slides that were pitch black inside the whole way down and you have no idea what's going on, quite exciting.

The second day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, an old site where the Vietnam/American war was fought. Here we did a bit of crawling and scooching through these intricate tunnels 5-8 metres underground. Its where the South Vietnamese used to hide out and live while they were being bombed and attacked from above. You can actually see large dips in the ground where bombs actually landed. The tunnels go on for 250km and consist of kitchens, infantries, bedrooms, meeting rooms, etc. The actual width of the tunnels are so tiny, you can hardly squeeze through them, let alone see where you're going. I can't even imagine what it would have been like living down there and having to rush through them with your military gear on. After going through maybe 4 different ones, we were all beat, I was sweating like crazy cause its hot down there with no ventilation. Many of us that were there on the guided tour didn't go down due to fitness levels, etc. The tunnels are a definite eye opener to what went on here.

After the tunnels we headed out for the War Remnants Memorial, basically a museum with lots of pictures and letters from the Vietnam/American War. In Vietnam its only referred to as the 'American War' and really whose to blame them for calling it that? To be honest, I've never really known much about the war that went on here only 35 years ago, only that it was a big disaster. To walk through this heart wrenching display of beaten, tortured and traumatized men, women and children, I quickly learned much about it. As you can guess, the museum was very one-sided and depicted the Americans as being viscous. I don't want to say much, but I don't think they were very far off on their depiction. The pictures and the stories I read in there literally brought me to tears, to see young girls pleading with American soldiers to let their Daddy live, or to see American soldiers holding up decapitated heads of Vietnamese soldiers and grinning, or the jars with preserved fetuses which have been defected by all the chemicals due to all the bombings, or the posters/articles of all the protests that went on throughout the world pleading for America to pull out of Vietnam. I know close to nothing about politics and I honestly don't have much interest in it. I know it sounds ignorant of me. All I know is that war of any type, harm to any other human being, is wrong! No if's or but's about it.

"Saturn" by Stevie Wonder

~

Packing my bags-going away

To a place where the air is clean

On saturn

There's no sense to sit and watch the people die

We don't fight our wars the way you do

We put back all the things we use

On Saturn

There's no sense to keep on doing such crimes

~

There's no principles in what you say

No direction in the things you do

For your world is soon to come to a close

Through the ages all great men have taught

Truth and happiness just can't be bought-or sold

Tell me why are you people so cold

~

I'm......

Going back to Saturn where the rings all glow

Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow

On Saturn People live to be two hundred and five

Going back to saturn where the people smile

Don't need cars cause we've learn to fly

On Saturn

Just to live to us is our natural high

~

We have come here many times before

To find your strategy to peace is war

Killing helpless men, women and children

That don't even know what they are dying for

We can't trust you when you take a stand

With a cold expression on your face

Saying give us what we want or we'll destroy

~

I'm......

Going back to Saturn where the rings all glow

Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow

On Saturn People live to be two hundred and five

Going back to saturn where the people smile

Don't need cars cause we've learn to fly

On Saturn

Just to live to us is our natural high

Mr. Action takes us Abseiling!

Who's Mr. Action? Well he was our guide of course! Yesterday Jeremy and I had the most exciting adventure! I've done a lot of cool things since I've left home, but I think this one might take the prize. So anyway, we just spent the last few days in a hill station city called Da Lat. Its been nicknamed the 'Honeymoon City' because its so gorgeous that a lot of the newlywed Vietnamese travel there. I quite enjoyed it there because the climate is much cooler and you're surrounded by green rolling hills covered with coffee planations. I was kind of expecting to see a very simple lifestyle in Da Lat with Hill Tribe citizens, but Da Lat turned out to be a very modern and sophisticated place. You should have seen our hotel room which was only $6(US), it's comparable to $150 room in Canada. Actually all the 'mini-hotels' in Vietnam are stunning and all so cheap.

Anyway, our day started off with us being picked up by Dick and Gern (our guides, aka Mr. Action and friend) and then brought to a waterfall close by. We learned that Dick took up rock-climbing 6 years ago from a man he met from Colorado, USA and has now started to take travellers on rock-climbing and abseiling tours. Dick has taught other locals around town the sport and because of him there's 3 tour companies offering the same deals. But Dick is the original Vietnamese Mr. Action!

So after walking about 10 mins from the first waterfall we came to a small hill where we did our crash course in abseiling. Sorry, for those that don't know what it is; basically its walking/hopping down a cliff or steep surface backwards with your feet perpendicular to the surface and your waist attached to a rope. Anyway, we did about 4-5 trial runs and were then classified as 'ready'. Next thing we know we're looking down this steep, steep cliff about 30m high and Dick saying, "Okay, who wants to go first?". I should first let you know that I'm quite scared of heights and Jeremy's just the same. It took Jeremy a lot of convincing for him to come on this adventure, we originally planned on doing a trek but since another man had signed up for the abseiling already and was waiting for companions to join him, we said what the hell! Turns out, the other man became ill and never showed up! Go figure.

Anyway, since I convinced Jeremy to come along, I had to go first. They say the best way to rid of your fears is to face them. That's what I did alright. I attached myself to the rope with the hook and looked back, "HOLY SHIT!" seemed to be the only words that would come out of my mouth. One step at a time is all it took, I slowly backed up towards the edge and with Dick's coaching I slowly went over the edge. At first, it takes sooo much guts to stand perpendicular to the cliff with your ass facing the hard concrete below you, did I mention it was about 30m to the bottom? However, once you're over and you're in the correct stance, everything is absolutley fine! Next thing I knew I was walking down the cliff, just like riding a bike!

As the day went on, we ended up doing about 6 more abseils, swam and trekked through ponds/creeks, cliff dived into a large pond, went down a natural waterslide and had some yummy Vietnamese sandwhiches for lunch. The most difficult abeseil we did was going down a waterfall. We actually abseiled down a waterfall with the rock behind it covered in slippery moss and with water gushing upon our feet and splashing into our faces. Jeremy did this one first and he found it quite daunting, but with patience he endured. At one point he fell forward with his feet facing the sky and his ass sitting on the rock, but he got up and kept going, besides where else is there to go but down? (You can't fall to the ground because Dick has another rope attached to you at the top, unless you were to stupidly let go of the rope). When I went I was doing fine and being a little cocky, trying to show Jeremy how its done. Well, close to the bottom I too slipped and I fell downward with my feet facing the water below. I'm proud to say that I too got back up and finished it with a smile on my face!

I can't wait to do it again!!