Thats hello ! in Vietnamese . Just returned to Ho Chi Minh City from touring the Mekong Delta for the last 2 days , and i must say it was a great couple of days .
Visited a couple of villages and towns situated in the Mekong delta and of course a lot of the travel was by boat , which is obviously the way the people of the delta live their lives . It was a great couple of days to see how peoples lives are constructed around a river system that stems all the way from the Himalayan mountains . Stops along the way included some interesting visits to see how rice paper was made , the process of making coconut candy , banana wine and even puffed rice . It was also really interesting to see how single grains of rice were extracted from their husk . Got kicked out of bed this morning to visit a floating market which was well worth the wake up call too . Like i said , a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days .
Before heading off to the delta , a couple of nights in Ho Chi Minh City was a good way to get some cultural bearings having just arrived in Vietnam from Cambodia . It also opened a window to visit the war remnants museum on Sunday which i thought was well worth it in more ways than one . Along side the hundreds of photographs taken from professional journalists were stories of the personal and informative kind which really helped see the Vietnam war as a bigger picture , and to see how it looked from both sides of the fence , so to speak . While on the bus the last couple of days , i read the brief accounts of history offered in the lonely planet guides . Just this morning it was like all of this war history has just fallen into place for me , as far as what happened and why and who was involved , and it alll makes sense now , right back to the end of the second world war . I think being here , and being a bit older now , has obviously really helped me to appreciate a fair chunk of history from the last 50 years or so . Bruddy good news .
Overall , so far Vietnam gets two thumbs up . Their seems to be some sort of presence of positivity amongst the people which i think is great considering the events of the last 40 to 50 years . As i understand though , this is only the beginning , and the North of the country could possibly project a different attitude . All this in one country , something to look forward to .
Once again i hope life is shining on you all , whoever , and whereever you may be . Life is super peachy over here as you can imagine ...
Thats Chao for now from this cat ... Enjoy !
