# Vietnam - The Awakening



## Tubeman (Sep 12, 2002)

Oh God I can't wait! Still got 6 months to wait though :bash:


----------



## GregPz (Oct 30, 2004)

CongTuSaiGon said:


> You can get private tourist coaches (decent price) or general bus services (very cheap) to those places and in the Mekong delta, it's a joy to visit fruit plantations, nature reserves, mangroves and rainforests by boat or small traditional canoes. It's very easy to get around these days as alot of money has been spent on infrastructure and there are more and more services catered to making foreign tourists' stay and getting about in Vietnam easier.


Thanks for your help. Hopefully i'll soon have some pics to add to this thread


----------



## GregPz (Oct 30, 2004)

Decided to bring the trip forward so leave in few days time. Also will now be spending 2 weeks in Vietnam and travelling throughout the country from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh. Can't wait!


----------



## tiffanium (Nov 28, 2007)

aWww .. looking at this thread makes me realize there are so many many beautiful places in vietnam that I still need to visit. lolz. can't wait to go to all these places the next time I came back.

My last visit was couple months ago, I only got a chance to visit Sapa and Ha Long. Not professional pictures, but here are some pics i would love to share. [I misss it so muchhhhhh]

Sapa trip - each of us hired the local "xe om", motorbike driver, u can hire them, and they will drive u to certain places. they live there so they know which place is beautiful. Its great that they can make stop anytime for you to take pics. 

On the way up to Nui Ham Rong









Cau May (Cloud bridge?) sorry for the bad translation lolz



























Rose Valley, at the time i came, it wasn't really da season though.









Haha, this dog is enjoying the great view. this pic reminds me of the Lion King haha









Thac Bac (silver fall) pretty far from Sapa, but u can still get there with motorbike.










Halong trip - we went on the 2 days 1 night tour. you'll be sleeping overnight on the boat. its really fun lolz. at night u can go up to the top of the boat and just get drunk (?) haha.










Definitely try Kayaking at Halong Bay .. its breathtaking !!!!!!


















Ga Choi [these two rocks are popular for looking like two chickens kissing (?)]



























Doesn't it look like half of a gorilla's face? 









heres a particular boat u'll likely to stay on. its pretty neat, bottom is for rooms, first floor is lunch/dining room, and the top


----------



## Bentown (Jan 29, 2007)

nice pics.....I like Halong bay look similar with Phang-nga bay in Thailand.....


----------



## [email protected] (Jan 17, 2004)

Hi,

as I wrote earlier, I'm planning a 6-week Vietnam/Thailand/Cambodia/Laos trip next July/August. Of those I'm planning to spend approx. 2.5 weeks in Vietnam.

I will fly to Saigon from Siem Reap and leave the country 2.5 weeks later from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. What route/stops would you suggest between Saigon and Hanoi. Of course I'll visit Halong Bay, Haiphong, Sapa and Da Nang, but what else should I definitely see. I don't mind if it's off the beaten path as I'm used to 20-hour Asian busrides.


----------



## GregPz (Oct 30, 2004)

Just got back from Vietnam. Had an awesome time - highly recommend it. Here's some pics.

Halong Bay




Hoi An


Mekong Delta




Hanoi


----------



## tq (Dec 27, 2004)

nice pics...post more please ^_^


----------



## GregPz (Oct 30, 2004)

Here's a couple more. Btw the Vietnamese people are fantastic!

Hanoi




Halong Bay




Hue


Hoi An


----------



## tiffanium (Nov 28, 2007)

I would add two more places Nha Trang (beach) and Hue (da palace .. i think someone posted some pics of it already )



[email protected] said:


> Hi,
> 
> as I wrote earlier, I'm planning a 6-week Vietnam/Thailand/Cambodia/Laos trip next July/August. Of those I'm planning to spend approx. 2.5 weeks in Vietnam.
> 
> I will fly to Saigon from Siem Reap and leave the country 2.5 weeks later from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. What route/stops would you suggest between Saigon and Hanoi. Of course I'll visit Halong Bay, Haiphong, Sapa and Da Nang, but what else should I definitely see. I don't mind if it's off the beaten path as I'm used to 20-hour Asian busrides.


----------



## tq (Dec 27, 2004)

two photo slideshows of Hanoi


----------



## Baria (Aug 20, 2005)

Images of Vietnam from various sources on the Web:









Central









Deo Ca Pass, Central









Nha Trang, South Central









Nha Trang, South Central









Nha Trang beach, South Central









Nha Trang, South Central


----------



## Baria (Aug 20, 2005)

Lang Co, Central









Phu Van Lau, Hue, Central









Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue, Central








Tomb of Minh Mang, Hue, Central









Hue, Central









Hue, Central









Hue, Central









Hoian









Hoian









Hoian


----------



## Baria (Aug 20, 2005)

Temple of Literature, Hanoi, North









Temple of Literature, Hanoi, North









Vietnamese New Year, Hanoi, North









Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, North









Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, North









One-pillar Pagoda, Hanoi, North









Old quarter, Hanoi, North









Ao dai, Hanoi, North


----------



## Baria (Aug 20, 2005)

Ponguar Falls, Dalat, South Central









Xuan Huong Lake, Dalat, South Central









Cathedral, Dalat, South Central









My Son Ruins, Central









Non Nuoc Beach, Danang, Central









Cathedral, Danang, Central









Mosque, Chau Doc, South









Cai Rang Floating Market, Mekong Delta, South









Country road, Can Tho, South









Vung Tau, South









Beach, Con Son, Baria-Vung Tau, South


----------



## svast (Dec 6, 2004)

Very nice pic's from Vietnam. I really understand why many of my friends visits it!


----------



## Rasputin (Apr 28, 2006)

Soon, i will visit Vietnam... i will. i like the pics in the central area.


----------



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*VC tunnel complex now a Vietnam war theme park *

CU CHI, Vietnam, Jan 29, 2008 (AFP) - If war is like hell, the fighters of Vietnam's Cu Chi tunnels were several metres (feet) closer to it than most. 

For years, Viet Cong guerrillas lived in a network of tunnels three storeys deep, a labyrinth that spanned over 300 kilometres (186 miles), connecting villages in virtual underground cities in this district north of Saigon. 

While US air attacks, artillery, napalm and Agent Orange defoliants turned the land above into a moonscape, guerrillas launched hit-and-run attacks and even readied the January 31, 1968 Tet Offensive from the tunnel system. 

Dubbed the "Land of Fire" in Vietnamese during the war, Cu Chi became "the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare," wrote authors Tom Mangold and John Penycate. 

Communist forces in the 1960s expanded tunnels that anti-colonial rebels first built in the late 1940s, creating a vast complex with sleeping quarters, arms caches, kitchens, hospitals and even propaganda theatres. 

Entrances were concealed and booby-trapped to stop the "tunnel rats," US and Australian soldiers of narrow build, who crawled into the deadly holes with only a torch and a handgun to ferret out the black pyjama-clad enemies. 

The elusive underground guerrillas -- once dubbed "human moles" by US commander General William Westmoreland -- terrified US and South Vietnamese forces like no other communist soldiers in the conflict. 

Viet Cong veteran Nguyen Thi Nghia, who joined the revolution when she was 13, recalled how her village "went underground" and how she once spent five days in a hot and claustrophobic tunnel during a heavy bombing raid. 

"The earth was swaying like a hammock," said Nghia, 61. "We were crouching in the tunnels with only one candle. We tried not to speak to save oxygen and limit carbon monoxide. We tried not to move. We were soaked in sweat." 

Today, Americans are back, firing M-16s at Cu Chi -- but this time they are among the tourist crowds blasting away for 1.30 dollars a bullet at a shooting range set up at what is now the Cu Chi tunnels tourist park. 

A souvenir shop sells war kitsch, including mock hand grenade cigarette lighters, keyrings made from assault rifle rounds, fake GI Zippos engraved with gung-ho war slogans, and plastic figurines of VC guerrillas. 

As the gunfire echoes through the woods -- hardy eucalyptus trees planted in the dioxin-soaked earth -- a guide regales visitors with tales of Viet Cong derring-do amid the horrors of an industrial war. 

There are terrifying "tiger traps" with sharpened bamboo punji stakes, and recreated hole-in-the-ground workshops that once recycled explosives from dud bombs and soft-drink cans into landmines that killed and maimed GIs. 

Tourists now photograph each other atop the rusty carcass of an M41 tank claimed by a landmine in 1971 and crawl through a section of tunnel that has been widened to accommodate the larger bulk of many Westerners. 

A group of VC mannequins in olive uniforms and grey VC neck scarves take a rest in a jungle shelter, listening to revolutionary news on a field radio and drinking, the guide says, rice whiskey to ward off malarial chills. 

The guide points out the swimming-pool sized crater of a B-52 bomb that once served as a fish pond for the peasant fighters, and a ventilation shaft hidden inside a termite mound to keep away the enemy's sniffer dogs. 

"The Americans sent in over 2,000 dogs," says the guide. "We said, thank you very much. The Vietnamese eat dog meat and we really needed the protein." 

The tour is full of gallows humour, but to most Vietnamese, Cu Chi still epitomises the horror and heroism of war. 

When B-52s carpet-bombed Cu Chi in 1968, most tunnels collapsed and became the graves of those inside.


----------



## phillybud (Jul 22, 2007)

Lovely photos. There are many churches ... and even a mosque. Are there any Buddhists left in Vietnam?


----------



## Baria (Aug 20, 2005)

phillybud said:


> Lovely photos. There are many churches ... and even a mosque. Are there any Buddhists left in Vietnam?


A large percentage of Vietnamese are Buddhists.


----------

