In February, my wife Dawn and I spent 24 days touring around Vietnam with 14 other people, having one of the best times of our lives. What an experience - and it was all good. 

We went with an Adelaide tour company called Battletours, who looked after us extremely well.  We travelled by bus and had some internal flights in Vietnam and we always had our local Vietnamese tour leader along with our Australian tour leader Gary Adams, a 6RAR Vet.  Gary helped make the trip very enjoyable with his knowledge, wit and quiet confidence.The food in Vietnam is plentiful, cheap and delicious, the people are very friendly and the roads are chaotic, busy and noisy and our bus drivers did an amazing job to be able to drive us around the country so comfortably and safely.

After an overnight stop at Singapore, we landed at Hanoi, and after passing through customs, I checked out their duty free shops.  One shop! about 4mx 4m! but among the few bottles of Johnny Walker, half a dozen perfumes and a couple of cartons of cigarettes and plenty of Vietnamese souveniers, found one bottle of rum, for 7 USD, (about $9au), so bought it. (Just in case I needed a sleeper!!)

The first thing that we noticed on leaving the terminal, was car and bike horns!,  a sound that was to linger throughout our stay in Vietnam.  The weather was overcast and drizzly, but not cold.  It remained overcast throughout our time in Hanoi and surrounds.  Our hotel the Galaxy, was in the “Old Quarter”, a maze of narrow streets crammed with motor bikes, pedestrians, bicycles and a few more motor bikes.  The streets were lined with narrow fronted shops, alleyways and motorbikes, meaning that a lot of the time you had to walk on the road with the traffic.  A very busy part of the city.  The next few days we spent visiting Halong Bay with its fantastic and fascinating limestone islands, a pottery village, a water puppet show, Uncle Ho in his mausoleum, the Presidential Palace, the very “one sided “ Army Museum and the “Hanoi Hilton “ prison, among other attractions. 

Seven days later, we flew to Hue, about midway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City.  Still overcast, but warm, we visited the famous moated citadel and Thien Mu Pagoda.  One could spend a lot of time wandering about here, marvelling at the architecture and history, but unfortunately, due to flight delays, we only had limited time  A great place to just explore, and admire ancient civilisations, a lot of which was destroyed by the French.  The following day, after an early start, we visited the DMZ and such places as Con Thiem Firebase, Camp Carroll, The Rockpile and Khe Sanh Combat Base.  Visiting these places and listening to our Australian guides’ commentary, I gained a new respect for the US Marines that were stationed here and the hardships and constant bombardments they had to endure.  Gee, we had it easy down south in comparison!  Whilst at Hue, we stayed at the Saigon Morin Hotel, a fabulous French building erected in 1901 overlooking a bridge over the Perfume River and bitterly fought over during the war.  During the war it was used as a university annexe, but restored in the 90’s as a first class hotel. 

A couple of days at Hue then off to Hoi An, via the Hai Van Pass, Danang and China Beach.  No wonder the road toll in Vietnam is so high, (12-13000 last year!!), when dickhead drivers cross double lines as if they don’t exist, pass vehicles on bends and all in very limited visibility!!! (as was the case when we travelled the pass.  Unfortunately, the low cloud obscured much of the view, but heightened our fear of their lack of road sense).

Hoi An is another fascinating, busy little place, renowned for its 400 year old Japanese covered bridge, silk and tailor made clothes.  Most of us bought some silk clothing here. 

Then off to Nha Trang, visiting China Beach and Danang on the way.  Four nights here, sipping cocktails, drinking beer, eating and wandering around the markets, beach, and a little cruising around islands.  Leaving NhaTtrang, we bussed through some spectacular scenery to the hillside town of Dalat.  I had a GREAT curry here, nearly melted, and a burnt a hole through my shirt when I dripped a little on it!!!

The following day we were off to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) and surrounds for another week.  Everone was getting excited now, trying to remember Saigon, Vung Tau and Nui Dat as it was 30 odd years ago.  Saigon is quite a cosmopolitan place now, with a wide range of restaurants, and shopping to suit all tastes.  We stayed at the Continental Hotel, made famous in the  novel, The Quiet American.  From Saigon we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, Vung Tau, Nui Dat  Ba Ria and The Mekong Delta.

There was much reminiscing at “Vungers”.  1 ALSG area is not recognisable as such anymore, the area now being developed for housing.  A large monument to the VC stands near the location of the front gate.  The “back beach” is developing rapidly with high rise hotels and other associated tourist facilities.  The sea is still warm and murky, the casuarinas are still present opposite where we had our “beach parties”, and the Harold Holt pool has finally disappeared, along with the old ship wreck near the point.  All the geographical features remind you of Vungers, especially Radar Hill , which still has the antennas on top.  We had a very sobering day visiting Nui Dat and the Long Tan site.  The Dat has undergone a great deal of change, with houses dotted around the area, new rubber trees, and a bit of quarrying of SAS Hill.  Kangaroo Pad is not recognisable, Ludscombe airstrip is still there, although it serves as a road these days, with houses along it.

The cross at Long Tan caused us all to reflect on those that made the ultimate sacrifice, and the commentary given by Gary made us realise that things could have been a lot worse on that wet August afternoon.  A very haunting place.

If any one is contemplating returning to Vietnam,  DO IT.  There are no ghosts there, - it’s a new country, with very friendly people, great food, cheap beer, some very interesting cultural aspects and some great shopping opportunities.