I got there on the 23rd of December and went directly to Sapa. It's a little town in the North of Vietnam surrounded by hill tribe villages. It was really cool seeing the minority tribes going about their business in town. After that, I went to back to Hanoi and on to Halong Bay. I spent 1 night on the junk and 1 night on Cat Ba Island. It was worst tour I have ever done - the tour guide was arrogant and the tour was poorly planned. After that I went back to Hanoi for a couple days before going south. Hanoi was a neat city but the people in the North of Vietnam aren't as friendly as they are in the South.
After Hanoi I went to Hue and toured around the old capitol, their tombs and the coolest part was the Thien Mu pagoda where the monk on the cover of the first Rage Against the Machine album studied. He drove from Hue to Saigon in an old Austin, then got out of the car and self-immolated.
From Hue I took a bus to Danang and then Hoi An. Hoi An was my favourite place of all; the old town is really cool - good food, great architecture and nice cafes.
After Hoi An I went to Nha Trang for some much needed rest on the beach. It was nice to stay in a nice hotel and do nothing but read and listen to music.From Nha Trang I went to Saigon, where I spent two days before going home. There isn't a lot to see in Saigon but I went to the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels. From Saigon it is just a 5 hour bus ride home.
Vietnam is a cheap place to travel and the scenery and history is great. The people however seem a lot colder and more greedy than Thai and Cambodian people.
Pictures of the trip are up on my Flickr site.
Anyway, school starts tomorrow so I'm about to go in to get this ready.
Happy New Year everyone!
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