Deeper into the Red

One gigantic bomb, made in the U.S. of A.

Another silent victim of anti-tank mines.

A stupid tourist bathing in Vietnamese sewage or "mineral mud".

A 200,000 dong meal, the picture really doesn't do it justice. I fully expect one, if not both, of the Lush brothers to order this meal when in Hanoi.

Searching the boneyard for any remaining meat. Note the salad remains untouched.


Random Hanoi shot.


Random Hanoi shot #2.


Chinese border post/castle, easily the most dominating border office I have ever entered.

The strange bus lunch given to me. The next hour was spent attempting to decipher what it says/is. Any help would be appreciated.

Shot from my computer in this giant internet cafe, the biggest I have ever been in. This being the card game/counterstrike wing. To the right of this is where what can only be described as a commune of WoW gold farmers continue their evil trade.

We successfully crossed into Vietnam the second time around, and after a three hour trip arrived in the wonderful world of Saigon. Our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City, as it's technically referred to these days, was spent recovering from our first night in Ho Chi Minh City, in which we sampled a few of the local establishments. The second day was occupied by travelling out to the Cu Chi area, about 65 km northwest of the city. This is the giant plot of land now famous for its huge tunnel networks that the Viet Cong created during the war against their dreaded Americans foes.

After watching a propaganda film, checking out some Viet Cong living quarters and being offered another chance to fire off automatic weapons (which we had to decline due to financial restrictions, but whose constant sounds added to the ambiance of the entire tour) we got a chance to crawl down into the earth and scout out how Charlie lived most of his life while his North American peers were wandering around above him with flame throwers and attack dogs. Being much larger than the typical Vietnamese man, the tunnels were a tight squeeze, but compared nothing to my previous adventure underground in the depths of that Bolivian mountain, *shudder*. Imagining being trapped in one of these tunnels (6-10 metres underground) while B-52s drop their payloads on top of you prompted new respect for these hardy little people. After arriving back from that tour we were dropped off at the American War Museum in downtown Saigon. Definitely one of the better museums I've visited as it was mainly composed of different kinds of weaponry left here when the yanks abandoned ship, as well as some stunning photo displays. The wing dedicated to American brutality was less than enjoyable, but obviously necessary.

That night we jumped on a bus headed north to the coastal city of Nha Trang. The bus deposited us in the city centre at 6am, just in time for us to hear the morning call that awakens all Vietnamese on loud speakers throughout the cities. We were only able to spend a single night in Nha Trang but because of transportation schedules this still resulted in two full days. The afternoon of our second day saw us scooting out to some temples and the local hot springs where for $4 we sat in giant baths of mineralized mud. I had never done this before so the novelty alone was worth the money, but I must go on record as saying I feel absolutely no effect from this mud bath or the following "mineral soaking sessions" that came with the fee.

After playing in the mud for a few hours we were whisked away to the train station where we boarded a 25 hour train ride up to Hanoi. Because of a lack of time prior to departure, we were stuck with seats instead of beds during the ride, which made for a fairly uncomfortable journey but nothing I haven't seen before. We hadn't heard good things about Hanoi from a single person, but both were pleasantly surprised to find this simply wasn't the case (aside from the absolutely awful smelling hotel room we had, for the first time in my life, a smell was actually powerful enough to wake me up in the night). Only having one day there, we decided to spend it simply walking around the old quarter and seeing what we could see. The amount of scooters in the city is overbearing as the little suckers dart and careen around the blind corners and narrow streets, but also add to the whole atmosphere of the place. For our second dinner there, we ventured to a place recommended in the guide book, where after the waiter explaining to me that what I ordered was simply too much food for one human being, I successfully ate a "Jumbo" order of BBQ ribs, something I haven't feasted on in many a day. The meal was honestly the same size as all the meals of the 6 person family beside us combined and after ripping the flesh from the last bone I felt a fantastic sense of accomplishment, followed by gluttony, followed by stomach cramping. Whether from the endless ribs or the population of bed bugs in my bed (whose bites now cover my body), I woke up several times during the night in cold sweats with a sudden urge to explode.

This morning we grabbed another bus up past the Vietnam/China border to the city of Nanning in southern China. So far, from the 6 hours I've been here, China is...intense. English anything has all but disappeared, making the counterfeit guidebook I purchased that much more of a precious commodity. The communication problems have reminded me of my none SE Asia days of travelling when everything wasn't so damn easy. The most recent mistake being how I just bought 6 hours of internet when I only wanted 1, hence the abnormal amount of pictures. Our plans to hit up Hong Kong before moving on to Beijing were nixed by the fact that you need a dual entry Chinese visa for HK, so instead we plan on moving on up through the countryside and onto Shanghai before settling in Beijing and awaiting the much anticipated arrival of my brother!