Dodsons' Lunch Preparations

Mike ponders the calories in the chocolate dripping off his marshmallow before turning to his ice cream, while Karen opts for a colourful array of jelly beans with hers! All stoking up for the beginning of the rugby this afternoon.

Junk Trip

We took a 'junk' from Queen's Pier in Central to the west and Lamma Island. Roger had organised but was stuck down in Hanoi so Myrinda was chief host and we were joined by Hugh & Tammy plus Monte & Rosie and some others. Hadn't seen Hugh since our Group Reunion at Porthcurno nearly 18 months ago and Monte & Rosie since in Hong Kong last time. Water very choppy in the harbour area so there had to be much hanging on, but it is did create an opportunity for Karen to brush up on her pole dancing skills! The trip back, after a fine meal, seemed calmer, or was it some other effect? Then to round it off, Hugh & Tammy joined us for a nightcap in the Dickens Bar in our hotel and a late finish.

Stanley

A trip to Stanley, always a must for a visit here, was also an opportunity for lunch and a few beers. A young couple, just married, had the misfortune to pass by a group of lively rugby fans!

Dinner in Totts

Totts is on the 34th floor of our hotel with a stunning outlook over Victoria Harbour. Here, Mike and Karen are enjoying dinner................and Karen enjoyed being the only dancer on the floor too!

The Noon Day Gun

The Jardine Noon Day Gun is fired, across the road just below our hotel room.

To Hong Kong

After the early start, Burleigh Boot Camp being discussed again I noted, and the sad sight of a motorcyclist either dead or unconscious next to a pick-up en route to the airport, a timely take-off and short flight got us to Bangkok. The new airport is enormous and we made the mistake of walking the wrong way of two directions to the international transfer area, so had to retrace a considerable number of steps and were well exercised when we stopped for coffee! After a four hour stopover, we departed to Hong Kong and the last stop of our holiday. It promises to be good with some friends in town and the Sevens to look forward to, but there will be sufficient time for everyone to enjoy a bit more of Hong Kong beyond previous visits. A good flight and a smooth car ride to the hotel. And, our luggage checked through to Hong Kong in Koh Samui did arrive in Hong Kong - these small joys can make a traveller's day! Mike and Karen, followinganother car, had a lucky escape just getting past an accident right outside the Excelsior Hotel, which closed several lanes of the very busy road at rush hour and would have meant a considerable delay to them had they got stuck in it. We had a good view of the clear-up by police, fire and ambulance, from our 22nd floor room. A couple of beers and a snack in the Dickens Bar finished off the day nicely!

Poppies

The last day was warm and humid, but we have enjoyed mostly bright clear skies with some cloud and sunshine. Spots of rain have fallen, but nothing major. Mike has suffered with side effects from anti-malarial tablets but stopped taking them and is now pretty much ok. It will need a further day or so of taking it easy - hah! Jean visited a Samui St Arbucks to continue her world tour of appreciation and shrine worship, then it was drinks barefoot on the beach in the early evening at a Poppies reception before a valedictory dinner al fresco and packing. An early start tomorrow will command a reasonable early night but will get us to Hong Kong in time for dinner there, providing there are no delays. It's been a very good break here with lots of relaxation and dipping in the sea. Dinner was enjoyed poolside at the table separate from all the others, but it was less breezy than the main restaurant area and, consequently, somewhat hotter. But, Mike and I were chuffed to enjoy the tailend of the Hennessey XO, and the opening of another bottle, with our last coffee of the visit!

Poppies

Jean pictured in the main street outside Poppies in Chaweng Beach area.

My patent bifocals for book reading in bright sunlight......!

Poppies

Enjoying dinner.........................

Enjoying breakfast.......the times varied somewhat as the chilling out set in! Jean had been out for a 1.5 hour yomp before this, maybe why she looked a little more alive than the rest of us!

To Koh Samui

Two short flights after a reasonably civilised start, transit via Bangkok, got us to Koh Samui just in time to enjoy cocktails with Mike and Sue. Sue was leaving for UK the next day, so we had a few drinks with them before dinner. Poppies is still the friendly, personal, private development of cottages that it always was. There has been some refurbishment, but the service had remained and the staff are all still as good as ever. Not much will be reportable in the next few days as we chill out and enjoy being able to unpack the suitcases completely for the first time in two weeks!

Koh Samui

We are pictured ready to leave the Majestic Hotel lobby in Saigon. After two short flights, via Bangkok, we got to Koh Samui for a few days of relaxation at Poppies. There has been some further refurbishment but it retains all the personal and welcoming atmosphere as before. Sue was due to leave for UK the next day, so we had drinks with her and Mike immediately after our arrival. Everyone took advantage of not having to wake early to and alarm and we expect to be able to chill out here for the next few days. It is warm and quite humid and the sea is very welcoming!

Jean is seen relaxing outside the cottage.

Ho Chi Minh City Tour

Returning to the city after the tunnels, we went to the Museum of War Remnants. There is much evidence of the effects of Agent Orange and the disorders that it has produced in so many people. A new gallery houses an exhibition of photographs taken by many photographers who covered the war but lost their lives as a result of it. Some of these photos are really quite poignant and the exhibition is well organised. There is a lot of military hardware on display and a new prison exhibition, although much of this dates from the Franco-Viet Minh war period.
We then went to the Central Post Office building where I used to meet the Director General from time to time and this has been redecorated but pretty much as it was other than new teller desks. It's a lovely old building dating from late 19tyh century. Mike had wondered why we would be visiting it but saw the point afterwards. The old door to the telegraph/telex room on the side of the building, where I used to 'talk' to Hong Kong by telex, has now been converted into a new entrance for other purposes.
Lastly, we went inside the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was a first time for me even though I would have passed it nearly every day.

Cu Chi

The tunnels are as small as ever! I still find it impossible to understand how 16,000 people lived in them over the war period and am not surprised that so many died in the vicinity as well as in the tunnels themselves, with the various tactics used by the Americans to close them down - over 200kms of them!

Ho Chi Minh

I was tour guide on arrival and we walked around the downtown area that I knew so well in '69-'71, stopping in the old Rex Hotel for lunch, which was a civilian accommodation before. We visited the Reunification Palace, which used to be the Presidential Palace that I lived next door to at one time. It included touring the bunker below to see the old maps and telecoms hardware that the past President of South Vietnam utilised, and the tanks outside that broke down the gates, famously covered on TV, on 30 April 1975 when the South fell to the North. The old US Embassy building, where the last helicopters took off from, is gone and replaced by a modern consulate building. The British Consulate is opposite and is the outside of the building is unchanged since it was the Embassy before. Both Embassies are now in Hanoi.

The Majestic Hotel is very swish and not the old run down hotel I lived in before, I'm glad to report! Despite the modernisation, it still commands a stunning view of the Saigon River from the rooftop.

To Hoi An

Leaving Hue took us first to Hai Van Pass, a pass that was militarily important to both the French and to the Americans during their respective wars. It commands a terrific view north and south and we were fortunate to have left behind the rain for the first part of the journey. Below the pass to the south is a leper colony, an attractive beach front location and beyond that is Danang. In Danang, we viewed the Cham Museum which has many stone carvings from the Cham people's past, some of it mystical and has clear connections to Java, Indonesia, as well as some buddhist roots in India. There are still Cham ceremonies celebrated each year and there were photos and costumes in a new part of the museum that had been added since '98. Onward from Danang, after a lunch at which I was accused of ordering too much, we climbed Marble Mountain and went into several caves, one or which is large and has a hole in its roof. From Marble Mountain, we then stopped in Hoi An to visit the Japanese Covered Bridge, built in 1593 to connect the Chinese and Japanese communities, and the old town. Different to Hanoi, it was still very interesting with its shop-houses. Then to our hotel on the beach. More moans from the others about too little time in such a nice resort to enjoy the facilities! But, we had Margueritas on the verandah before sunset and enjoyed a nice meal in the bar.

DMZ Tour

First stop, in the rain, was to pick up a local guide in Dong Ha before leaving for Con Thien Combat Base. We passed many graves, both civilian local people in the paddy fields and new military graveyards for the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong. The rain made the treck to the hilltop where the base had been a bit muddy and Mike's choice of sandals for the day may have been a tactical mistake. Although it was not clear what we might see at this place, a first time for me, it was obviosus once we had reached it - the hilltop had a pretty good command of the surrounding area and made for a good location just south of the DMZ southern border - 5km south of the Ben Hai River, which was established as the demarcation of North and South Vietnam in 1954. The DMZ was established +/-5km from the Ben Hai River.
Next to the Ben Hai River itself and a new monument to the heroes of the struggle and re-unification of Vietnam. I notice Jean and Mike beginning to ask more questions and a shift in their understanding of what took place those many years ago - we all grew up in the '60s and remember the protest songs and so on, but many did not understand the significance of what was being said.
Onward to the Vinh Moc tunnels, north of the DMZ. This was a great experience for Jean and Mike - the tunnel complex housing living quarters for the villagers after the US had obliterated their village, complete with a maternity 'ward' (a small annex) in which 17 children were born and still survive, the 'meeting room' and the 'family rooms', also small annexes in which it would impossible for me to lie down let alone a family to live (in my view). Over 300 villagers lived in these tunnels for years and one who spent 10 continuous days underground - something we could not comprehend. We had to be in awe of their commitment to their cause.
Then to Khe Sanh Combat Base, seeing the vast defoliated areas along the way as a result of the 20 million gallons of Agent Orange (Dioxin) that had been dropped by the US and still causes genetic disorders and cancers in the children of those who were exposed to it. I knew before, and saw again that the US didn't 'get it' in their 'defence' of South Vietnam. A new museum has been built at Khe Sanh, but the exhibited helicopters, tank, cannon and shell casings have all been imported for the purpose, but its military significance is still not lost - seen as a possible Dien Bien Phu (defeat of the French by the Viet Minh in 1954 that gave rise to the division of the country) for the US, the US threw everything at its defence to avoid a similar turning point, not realising that it was a distraction for the main Tet Offensive of '68 attacks on many other bases throughout S. Vietnam and a near collapse. Afterwards, they realised it had no significant military importance and cleared it! But, 500 Americans and many more Vietnamese died and 100,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped in the process.
A visit to a Paco minority tribe village was very interesting with the old ladies smoking their pipes while the children and animals roamed freely. Stilt houses provided very basic accommodation and the children had very dirty clothing and probably no schooling, because they have less rights than indigenous Vietnamese, in common with parallel situations I have seen in China and northwest Vietnam.
Finally we had a look at the Dakrong Bridge. It's really just a suspension bridge and not really of any great proportion, but it's not the same bridge I saw in '98 as that one, built by the Cubans in 1975, fell down in 2000 due to rust!
Burleigh Tours seems to be called Burleigh Boot camp now!

Hue

It was dull and humid, but not unreasonably hot, which was a blessing. The Citadel and Flag Pole are an important place to visit in the history of the Kings and past dynasties of Vietnam, so we went there first. Much of the Forbidden Purple City was destroyed by a combination of the Franco-Viet Minh and the Vietnam/American Wars, but I found that bits of it had been restored or rebuilt since my last visit in '98. We then went to the famous Pagoda, the highlight of which is really the exibit of the Austin car that was used by the monk who drove into Saigon in 1963, got out of the car and burnt himself to death in full view of the cameras in protest at the mistreatment of Buddhist Monks by the then Catholic President of South Vietnam. There is evidence of restoration here too. Then a quick trip down the Perfume River and a stop for lunch (compliments of the tour company as compensation for the no-show driver earlier). After lunch, we checked into a new chalet complex that is rather good and a place to relax. But, the Burleigh Tour schedule doesn't really lend to much more than a little of that before we were off to visit the Khai Dinh and Tu Duc tombs. The tombs are in need of some TLC, but it is unlikely that Vietnamese money will be found for this, given the past excesses of the dynasties, so it will be UNESCO or other international funding that will be needed. A good day on the whole and enjoyed by those who kept the pace!

To Hue

Karen was a bit worried about getting up for the early start and flight to Hue, so she woke Mike at 2:30am and talked him through to the alarm time, some considerable time later! But, he was in good time. The minibus didn't turn up and we had a bit of a last minute rush to the airport, in the pouring rain, but got there in time for a quick sandwich and orange juice and before boarding. Mike whinged about his early 'listening' for a while but was really prepared for the tour of Hue.

Hanoi - more

Our guide didn't pull any punches but had a great sense of humour. First, he was astonished that we were not spending 3 weeks in the country and just 7 days. I noted much sympathetic muttering from the others! The gents' girths were mentioned more than once, our 'sticking up' hair, Karen's mobile phone was disdainfully mocked, but Jean showed him she could squat like the Vietnamese! Speaking to Mike about security around Ho Chi Minh's stilt house, he said "We Vietnamese are very small but very speedy, not like you"! I wasn't left out either when he didn't believe that I had been able to get through the Cu Chi tunnels on a previous visit! Jean, called skinny by him earlier, relished his disbelief rather too much for me on reflection! He took us to a local restaurant and for £6, including tip, we had a good Vietnamese lunch with local beer and water. Three of us enjoyed a 2 course dinner, with a bottle of wine, for £18 this evening in the hotel before the 4:45am departure to the airport and Hue tomorrow morning! Much groaning!

Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh

We visited President Ho's Museum but were unable to go inside his Mausoleum as it was closed. No matter what your politics, it is impossible not to respect him for what he did and his personal adherence to his doctrines. Our guide was quite critical about today's corruption and the fact that the people are not allowed to speak out, looking over his shoulder from time to time. His body is removed from the Mausoleum for a week very 4 months and sent to Russia for refurbishment. I remember seeing it in the mid '90s and thinking that it looked more like a wax works.

Hanoi

Hanoi is still as busy as when I was last here in 2000, but the ratio of motorcycles to bicycles has continued to rise and the traffic is every bit as chaotic as it used to be. Somehow it all still works and nobody seems to get knocked down even though they don't seemed to have decided which side of the road to drive on yet! Traffic comes from everywhere at junctions and it seems that an accident is inevitable, but it doesn't (often) happen! The telephone wiring is still every bit as tidy as before and the old town is still as interesting as ever.

Bangkok

Maybe the preparatory imbibement helped, or it was the lateness of the hour after a full day, but I think I dozed off twice before the plane took off, slightly late at 3:45am! The flight was rather too short, just under 6 hours, to get a decent spell of sleep but we are here and arrived at the new Bangkok airport, just opened last October. Quite high tech looking but further out than the old one, although a new expressway made it a fairly quick journey to the hotel. The immigration is no longer a long walk from the plane and was well manned so was very quick. Resting up is the order before looking for some good Thai food tonight and an early night to accompany the lateness of last night and the earlyness of tomorrow morning's departure to Hanoi.

Dubai - Karen tries to finish off the belly dancer!

And the crowd cheered!

Dubai - the belly dancer finishes off the safari and bbq

Dubai - Jean, Mike & Karen take a camel ride

Dubai - settling down for the desert bbq

Dubai - Mike contemplating

Dubai - Mike & Jean during a group stop

Dubai - more desert safari

Dubai - desert safari

In a convoy of 20 Land Cruisers, we went up and down sand dunes, slid sideways down them, with sand flying over the windscreen, but the performance of these machines was outstanding and it seemed that they could never get bogged down. The tyres had been partially let down before we went off road, and the drivers were clearly all very skilled.

Dubai - the old and the new

Old trading dhows, on and offloading goods at the side of the Creek. Nothing gets stolen as the penalties are too high!