hi there.

thanks for your interest in our recent trip. the best way to make your way through this page is to select the entry titled "the planning begins..." in the menu to the right. (which is found by clicking on the triangle next to 'February') From there, work your way backwards or up to the top of the menu list. that way, you'll follow our travels in the same order we did.

hopefully you'll be booking your airfare there shortly!

Bob's final thoughts

I too, wanted to share some of my final thoughts on our trip to Vietnam. Before I started typing this, I went back to our first post and read the complete blog. All I can say is "Wow!". As time went on during the planning, I forgot how much thought we put into everything we were taking. I think if we could go back in time, there would have been some things that we wouldn't have bothered taking, adversely, there would have been things we would have thrown in the bag that we never thought about. Then it comes to things that we wanted to see. Obviously, we really didn't see the things I wanted too (if you don't get that joke, go read my first post), but we did manage to see everything we truly did want to see. Everything we wanted to see, and much, much more. The next posts had to do with camera gear, I'm glad we took what we did. There were several times that Sep mentioned he would have changed his configurations a little bit, but overall, I think we did pretty good on camera gear.

I then got into the posts from when we were actually there. But, after reading the posts I realized that everyone reading couldn't get a good sense of the amazing things we saw, heard, tasted, felt, and etc. We saw so many amazing things that pictures can't justify. Yes, you can see a picture of Ha Long Bay and notice that it's absolutely beautiful. But, you can't get a good sense of the depth. You can't see the 360 degree view of having 3,000 islands around you. The water. The way the mist would reveal island after endless island as we chugged forward in the boat.

There is no way for a picture to capture the sounds of all of those scooters zooming around Hanoi or Saigon. There is no way for a picture to portray the magnitude of the Sapa valley and seeing the incredible terracing that the Vietnamese people did. There is no way one picture, a million pictures or hours of film can portray the beauty.

I can go on and on about everything that pictures can't do. But, let's get back on the positive side. The several thousand pictures that we took do give you a sense of some of the things we saw. They show you the landscape, the sights, the people, and some of the culture. We tried very hard to be descriptive while writing, but that is no easy feat. Also, we either wrote the blogs during the morning or night. It was very difficult sometimes to find the words to describe things, or to remember all of the wonderful sites and sounds. If we did a day tour, but wrote the blog at night, there were many times we would forget to mention something amazing from the morning. It only makes sense though, the afternoon highlights were fresh in our mind.

You're probably saying to yourself "Bob, just tell us what you thought already!". Okay, fine! I thought Vietnam was great, amazing, stupendous, superb, gorgeous, beautiful, and blah blah blah. I really have nothing bad to say about the trip. The Vietnamese people are great! They would always return a smile or wave. They were always willing to help and make sure things were okay. I didn't meet a single Vietnamese person that wasn't happy or willing to help. We met some great people from other corners of the world. People that were total strangers, that have become friends.

Upon returning, I've talked with a lot of people about the trip. One comment that I've heard several times "Sounds like a once in a lifetime trip!". That is true to a point, it was a truly memorable trip. However, I would always respond to that statement with, "No, it was the first of many trips of a lifetime." Meaning, I will definately visit Vietnam again.

As the weeks move forward, Sep and I will be working to collect our favorite photos and videos. We have talked about publishing a photo book and making a short film to share with everyone.

So, thank you all for reading our blog, looking at our photos, and generally following along with our trip. We have already discussed some possible destinations for our next and future trips, we will keep everyone posted!

Thank You!

Bob

final thoughts

i'll try to keep this short. really, it's very simple - nothing i can write here will even come close to helping explain what it's like to experience Vietnam. it's a place that can't accurately be described in a conversation or shown in a photo. rather, it's a place that needs to be experienced, first hand, by an open minded person. everything, and i do mean everything, is so different than we're used to in the western world. i found myself amazed by the smallest things - other times i found myself scared shitless. and when it was time to leave, i found myself thinking i would trade almost anything for a chance to stay.

in the few days i have been home, i've been gladly answering a bunch of questions, and it's funny that the majority of them are very similar. the most common? are the people there friendly. YES! from the street venders to the VC veterans missing limbs, i never received anything but courteous, polite, and well, friendly attitudes. they are a special people, interested in respect, a sense of purpose, and family. and with often nothing more than a dirt floor, a few blankets, and a small amount of food, they are a happy people. the western world could learn a valuable lesson from them.

i've been to eastern and western europe, visited japan for a short trip, spent time in the caribbean, and driven through the majority of the united states. while some of these trips were very memorable and i had a wonderful time during these travels, i've always told myself i'd never go back to the same place twice. the world's just too big and there are way more places to see. that changed with vietnam. i know i'll go back. hopefully soon. it's also my hope that some of you may have the chance to experience it was well. it's a place that everyone should be fortunate enough to visit as i was these past two weeks.

throughout these past two weeks, i've struggled with every post i've written to put into words how great vietnam is, and i'm starting to feel i'm better at showing you through my pictures. i'm leaving the link to my webpage below where i've put up a gallery of my favorite images from the trip. i feel the thirty some pictures best capture what i feel the county is and how i experienced it. please do feel free to have a look!

hopefully you've enjoyed following along, and i'm so pleased you have all taken an interest in our trip. i'm planning on adding a blog page to my site to write about future travels, so place it in your bookmarks and check back every so often if you want to see what i'm up to and what i'm thinking about.

chat later,

sep

www.sethalwin.com

final day.

today is our last day here, and it proved to be just about as exciting as the rest. after sleeping in and getting a few donuts down the street at a great bakery, we went to the Ben Thanh Market, a huge indoor market place that sells everything you could possibly need - clothing, jewelry, luggage, food (some of it stunk so bad it could gag a maggot as Dylan would say), you name it.

notice how the pearly gates are shining down on the shoe rack? obviously...

what interested us were the watches and shades!!! we each scored a few pair of glasses and i got myself a pretty sweet watch. bob also got a few watches - we couldn't resist. both the glasses and the watches were really good copies, and they were cheap! here's bob working out the deal for his watches.

after making our purchases, we strolled on to the War Remnants Museum. it was a lot smaller than i thought it would be, but was interesting nonetheless. it was mostly filled with pictures from the war on the inside, most being graphic images of injured and killed vietnamese citizens. just like i felt in tokyo at a museum standing in an exhibit about hiroshima, i felt a bit out of place there. all the images were of vietnamese people harmed by US troops, and there stood bob and i, two Americans. but again, we received no bad looks nor did we get the feeling we were not wanted there, so that was nice to see. outside in the courtyard were US planes, helicopters, and other military vehicles. i'm not sure if i mentioned this yet, but a main reason for me wanting to come to Vietnam was due to the fact my uncle Scott served four tours here flying huey helicopters, and i really wanted to get a small sense of what he saw and felt here. i say small sense because i realize the conditions here 35 years ago were dramatically different, but it's still better than seeing images in a book or on the television. i was glad to see they had a huey at a museum, and while i've seen one in the past, it was neat to get up close to one again.

just before leaving the museum, we were sitting on the front steps enjoying a cold drink and a nice breeze when a malaysian women walked out in front of us to take a picture right at us. bob looked over at me with a 'should we move' type look on his face and we then noticed a 50 some year old malaysian lady had scooted between us on the stair behind us to try to sneak a photo with us! we weren't going to let her get some shitty photo, so we slapped the stair right in between us and told her to slide on down. the 5 or so other women with her laughed and for the next 5 minutes, all the women took turns getting a shot with us. we still don't fully understand what happened or why they wanted a photo with us, but it made us feel pretty good.

in about two hours, we're off to the airport for our flight home. i'm a bit sad to be leaving - this has been a wonderful place to spend the last two weeks. the people have been so wonderful, the country truly is the most beautiful place i've ever been, and it will be hard to leave here the same person i was two weeks ago. to open your eyes to a culture so different from ours with so much poverty, yet people who seem far more happy than the people back home was something that amazed me and is something every person should witness in their lives. it's been fantastic, and i'm left wondering what things give me joy and happiness in my own life. or what things should give me that happiness...

cu chi

this morning we hoped a van to Cu Chi, a town about 60km outside Saigon to see the VC tunnels. before i fill you in on our day, i have to note how throughout this whole trip, we've really lucked out with our tours and guides. the group we were with in Halong was great, and it was a blast hanging out on Cat Ba with the two couples we were with. in Sapa, bob and i had our own private tour guide the entire time, and after chatting with the other people in our "group" realized we didn't pay any more than they had and they were all in groups of 5 to 10 people. plus, our hikes were way more ethnic than the other travelers reported, so bonus there! yesterday, we again had our own private tour guide through the Mekong, and again, we didn't pay any more than groups of eight or more would pay. today, we were joined by a nice couple from India and our guide, Typhoon (no shit, that was his name) was a blast. he figured out a way to incorporate some crude joke into just about every conversation we had which was right up our alley.

anyway, back to our day. we stopped about 45 minutes outside of Saigon at a factory set up by the government a year after the war ended to give handicapped veterans a place to work making mostly tourist type goods like decorative plates, vases, and baskets. Typhoon explained there was no pressure on the workers to finish a set amount of items per day and the purpose of the place was to simply give the veterans a place to feel they have a sense of purpose - a very important value to the Vietnamese.

unfortunately, today is a national holiday here and all the workers were not working. this was a bummer as our guide said the workers are very friendly and open to chat about the war with tourists - something i have been wanting to do this whole trip. it was nice to see the country has set up a network like this for their handicapped war vets, though.

after waiting for the Indian couple (which turned out to be a very popular theme today), we left for the Cu Chi tunnels. it's not a very big place, and you can easily get around the whole area in about two hours. the tour started with a 1/2 hour 1960's government film put out shortly after the war and it was definitely intended to reinforce anti-american attitudes. it wasn't as bad as i had read, but they said things like the "american devil wanted to kill our women and children" and the "americans only want to kill our land." it was a bit disheartening to hear it put in that context, but i also understand many innocent people died and it was a total shit situation.

after the video, we walked through the grounds and learned about the tunnel system. all throughout the area, there were little hidden doors leading into the tunnels below. we each gave it a go and below is bob just about all the way in.

it was about 12"x 8" at MOST, and was a bit snug to say the least. plus, the thought of a king cobra hiding down in the hole was in the back of my mind the whole time as Typhoon has warned us about them frequently being found in the area. nice.

a bit later, we had a chance to fire off some GUNS!!!! bob opted for the ak-47 and the m60, while i just gave the ak-47 a try. the bullets were expensive - about a buck a piece - but it was worth a try.

and about one minute later when we were all out of bullets, we continued our tour and had the option of going down into the tunnels. i know we were going to be able to do this. what i didn't know is that we were going to go through the tunnels from one place to the next.

within about 2 minutes, our legs were burning as you had to do a sort of squat shuffle thing though it. the tunnels were about shoulder width wide and a little less than three feet high and were were feeling good about being able to make it through as far as we did until we learned the tunnel we were in was made twice as large as the original for tourists to get through. i can only imagine how taxing it must have been on the bodies of the VC to be in and out of the tunnels month after month.

Cu Chi also had a plethora of trap displays used by the VC with the intent of maiming and killing US soldiers. the one below is a platform which swivels in the middle. step on the end, and you fall through to the spikes below. while it was interesting, i could have done without all the humor. i tried to keep an open mind, but knowing people died horrible deaths with similar devices hindered me from finding humor in it.

my mixed feeling lasted about 5 minutes though, because in typical fashion, bob and i heard our names being called by Mark, the expat from San Fran we originally met in Halong and again ran into in Hoi An.

after a short chat and photo with him and his ladyfriend, we hoped our van back to Saigon. the weather was blazing hot again, and it's really taking it out of us. we crashed on our beds the minute we got back to our hostel, and didn't move for about a half hour. tomorrow, our last day here, we are heading to the war remnants museum and will be shoving off on our plane at 11pm. if we don't post up an entry before we leave, we'll both be posting up a final post about our final thoughts on our trip in the next few days, so please check back for that.

until then -

Mekong Delta

Today we did a day trip to the Mekong Delta area. First off, I always thought the Mekong Delta was just a muddy river. But, it's actually a huge area that is considered the Mekong Delta area. It covers most of the Southern part of Vietnam.

We jumped in our Mercedes-Benz mini-van/bus at around 7:30 and hit the road. It was supposed to be about a 2 hour drive, but as we were coming into the city of My Tho, our tour guide mentioned that they were having their first ever "Fruit Festival". We happened to drive right into it, and the tour guide asked if we would like to check it out. Of course we said, "Why not?!", we spent the next 20 minutes or so walking through the fruit expo. It was actually pretty cool because the tour guide could explain the fruits and their differences to us. We then hit the road again and jumped on a motorized boat, or rather, a motorized wooden canoe. We cruised for about 20 minutes until docking by this little village where our guide said we would be getting on a smaller boat. Sep and I both looked at each other with a "Why the #$%#?", type look. How could the boat get any smaller?! Well, it did, after a 20 minute wait, this old guy in a canoe came up. He rowed it like a Gondola that you'd see in Italy, but steered with a foot controlled rudder.

We trekked up this tiny tributary for about 1 km. Got off the boat and then the "fun" really began. Sep has this brilliant idea yesterday when we booked the tour that we should do a 2 hour bike ride. Actually, we are both to blame, but we've been making a joke out of it. Imagine this... you're in a jungle, it's 95+ degrees, the humidity level is around 95% and you have the crappiest bikes in the world, now you have to bike for two hours. Sounds fun right?! Hahahah! And we paid to get tortured like that! By this time, we had both downed two bottles of water and soaked through our shirts. I'm glad it's done, but it was truly worth it. We got to see and meet some great people and villages. All through the trip, we had people that would wave or nod. But here, people would smile and say "Hello" I could tell that they truly meant it, and weren't doing it just to be polite. We learned that this area is the major growing area for rice and fruits for the country and world. It was amazing to see where some of the fruit that we eat comes from.

We stopped at a little place where they process coconuts.

Further on the bike ride we stopped at a candy factory were they take the coconut extract and make candy.

We finally made it back to a house with a bunch of huts out back for lunch. As always here, they give us enough food to feed 8 people. Yes, this picture is of a full fish that they deep-fried. This was the second course, after fresh made spring rolls. Following the fish, we had 4 more courses!

After lunch, we jumped back in our transport and came back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Tomorrow we go visit the Vietcong tunnels.

the making of 'sep and bob in nam'

as we were eating lunch yesterday, bob realized we have not posted many pictures of us during our holiday. while i hope you are all enjoying the scenery pictures, i'm sure some of you would also like to see some of us (at least i hope you do!) so i put together a quick slideshow of bob and myself taking pictures, hanging with our new friends, or simply, well, traveling.

and before you comment on the fact we are always wearing the same clothes in every photo, it's because we are! with only one pullover and two to three shirts, you're bound to look quite similar throughout the trip. (now if only we had the laundry service for $1 per load we had in Hoi An, the trip would have been much easier...)

and before you jump to the photos, we are heading out on a day trip to the mekong delta today and hope to get up a post tonight about our day. until then -