Monthly Archives : September 2010

What a difference a day makes…


The drive to Nha Trang from Da Lat as stunning. We drove through cloud-covered mountains and villages where it seemed a subsistence lifestyle was still being maintained. The roads snaked in and around cliffs with sheer drops, and the clouds hung quite low. The city of Nha Trang is as western as Da Lat is French; it is a seaside…

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Mini-meltdowns and zen gardens


Have you ever just sat down in the middle of Saigon airport and just cried? Well, I hadn’t either until yesterday. I’m not sleeping too well, and yesterday, we had to get up at 4am to fly out of Saigon into Da Lat. Cruel and unusual punishment when you are averaging about 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night.…

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A day of contrasts: rebuilding Vietnam


A sombre day today. We visited the Cu Chi tunnels, the War Memorial and the Reunification Palace. We saw the worst and the best of human endeavour. We saw how cruel and ruthless humans are in a war, and how creative they are in rebuilding a country afterwards. The drive to the tunnels was spectacular. We drove through crowded, hectic…

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Sleepless in Saigon


It’s nearly 5am in Saigon. I hardly slept a wink all night. Overtired, methinks. And my brain had too much stimulation for one day, and is wired, can’t relax. Or so it seems. I did sleep from about 9.30 until about 12. After that I dozed, dropping in an out of sleep and not quite falling into oblivion. So what…

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