Tomorrow morning at 8am we leave our hotel on our way up the river to Phnom Penh, by 9am we will cross the border into Cambodia.

I was asked on a questionnaire to describe Vietnam in one word, I said, “colourful”.    It is green and lush with paddy fields everywhere, the people are colourful, gentle with beautiful smiles which light up when you smile at them, the rivers bustle with activity, the traffic is chaotic, the food delicious and cheap.  You can have a main meal in a local restaurant for US$1.00

There are 84 million people in Vietnam, they don’t appear to have any environmental policies, fires are lit all over the country to clear the land, causing much smog,  in the cities there is one motor bike for every 2 people, the streets are very polluted with the emissions, some towns are kept really clean and tidy others not so much.    The people do not appear to take any care of themselves at work.   I was surprised to find out the life expectancy was 70 (I thought it would have been less), occupational health and safety does not exist in this country.

Vietnam seems to run on time, all of our flights were very orderly and on time.   Because labour is so cheap here there are lots of people to do one job, so things appear quite relaxed.

There is so much traffic on the roads it takes a long time to get anywhere.   Today we travelled 114 km in 4 hours, average 40-50km/hr, it would have only taken an hour and a half 2 hours at the most at home, but there is much to see along the way.

We have taken so many photos, it is obvious from the ones I have taken that it is the young and the very old who interest me most, but there are other people who live here too J

We bought balloons to give to the children, we have had hours of fun, with the children with them, wonderful to see the joy on their faces some of which we captured on the camera, it bought me even more joy, such a little thing, so much happiness!

Some of my favourite memories;

On our first morning in Hanoi at 4.30am walking around Lake Hoan Kiem with all the locals, thousands of them, Chau Mai Village, talking to the children, Halong Bay, on a Junk, swimming in the bay, great views, barbecued prawns, the history in Hue, walking around the market in Hoi An, our guide Dat – beautiful smile and great sense of humour, 6 senses in Nha Trang – everything about it, I felt like a child at Christmas –swimming in our private pool at every opportunity – a romantic dinner in the wine cave, walking in the rain and singing thinking of our grandchildren in HCMC and jumping on the bed J, being on the Mekong Delta and interacting with the locals and spending the last half hour sitting on a seat next to the road outside our hotel in Chau Doc taking photos of the locals, smiling and waving to them and giving balloons to the children.

We went to a photo exhibition in HCMC with pictures of the war, I only got to one of the first pictures and I was gone, I couldn’t look at any more, I must have cried for half an hour, they were so barbaric.   The picture that affected me won  a Pulitzer prize.  I had only just glanced at it when the tears started, it was a picture of a Vietnamese woman waist deep, crossing a river to get away from the American bombs she was holding her baby and had her other 4 children with her, I think that vision will stay with me forever, I am not surprised the photo won a prize, it affected me deeply.

I found it interesting that the North Vietnamese refer to the war as the American war, I had not heard that before, the Southern Vietnamese refer to it as the civil war.

There is a lot of poverty in Vietnam, it will be interesting to see what happens as more people leave the country for the cities.    The poor who work earn US$100.00 per month, those who work in hospitality  US$200.00 per month.  We are certainly lucky in Australia.

It has been fun sharing Greg’s birthday in Vietnam, isn’t it great when it goes on and on