Vietnam was one of the places we sought out for the chance to experience true local culture and to get away from the masses. It was only in the late 1990’s (during the Clinton administration) that the United States formally normalized relations with Vietnam. Up until that time Western influence, tourism, capitalism and modernization was a pretty distant element for much of the country. Given such a short time-frame for development, I had expected the country to be a little rough around the edges, perhaps a bit more of an untapped market for traveling. I had looked forward to experiencing first-hand what a country ruled for 20 years under communist philosophy, would look like in person.

The weather kept getting colder as we traveled further north through Vietnam. We had heard from some Aussies that the retail prices are much lower in Hanoi than other towns south of there, so we intended to spend some money once we got there.

You can have clothing custom made for you in Saigon or Hanoi, but in Hoi An the tailoring shops are literally side by side, block after block. As a result, the prices are very competitive with a turnaround of only a few hours. Hoi An is known for many other crafts including colorful silk lanterns, popular with the locals for full moon celebrations. We found it quite easy to spend a few days here, ordering up more custom made clothing than we could fit in our suitcase.

On January 10th we took a turboprop airplane an hour north of Saigon, to Nha Trang. The Nha Trang airport is merely an open-air building without any terminals or gates. We had booked a room with a hotel recommended by Hotel 127 in Saigon. Our hotel driver was waiting with a sign that read "Susanne"; he looked strikingly similar to Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid.

After a good day and a half of shopping in Saigon, we wanted to see some of the city's sights. Our short list included the Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum, Jade Emperor Pagoda, Cu Chi Tunnels, and Mekong Delta. We did pretty well checking most of these off our list.

We had a very bad taste in our mouths from our bad experience in Cambodia - especially after the airport gave us back counterfeit US currency for change, when we paid their exorbitant departure taxes. Oh, by the way, that same airport was built by a bank. This smacked of government-run money laundering scheme. When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) we were bitter, jaded, exhausted, and tired of being bilked. It didn’t help matters that we almost checked into the wrong Riverside Hotel (US $300.00 a night). Luckily they brought our bags over to the cheaper Riverside Hotel around the corner. The room rate was still more than we wanted to pay (US $49.00 a night, after we negotiated a small discount), but we just wanted to crash anyhow and get some rest. I was crabby, and poor Mike was feeling the brunt of it.