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After having celebrated New Year in Chiang Mai, we crossed the Mekong river into Laos at the Chiang Khong/Houei Sai (Huay Xai) border crossing. From where a two day boat ride down the Mekong river took us to the historic Laotian town of Luang Prabang. <br />

Laos and Vietnam

Odv
2006-04-13 20:10:12

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US troops never invaded North Vietnam.

It became even more interesting when he talked about present day Vietnam. There is only one party in Vietnam, "unlike in your countries". When there are elections all candidates belong to the communist party. Before 1990 when the economy was still communist monthly rations consisted of 7 kilograms of rice and 1/2 a kilogram of meat, but now with the free market there is enough food for everybody, there is now actually so much food that Vietnam has become a major rice exporter.

At the memorial for North Vietnamese victims, I asked him whether there are any memorials for South Vietnamese victims. He replied: "No, because they lost."

Amongst the relics of the war that we visited were the Vinh Moc tunnels, just north of the DMZ, said to be better preserved then the more famous Ku Chi tunnels near Saigon. Another site was the Khe Sanh combat base, south of the DMZ, where I bought a dog tag of a former U.S. soldier named C.P. Thompson. But it could just as easily be a fake. The base was on the frontline with North Vietnam and was one of the first to fall to the North during the war. Nothing remains of the base, there is now a museum and some old U.S. military hardware.

Back in Hué we enjoyed some truly tasty food, as they have developed an appetizing mixture of Indochinese and French cuisine in this part of Vietnam. We ate in several up-market restaurants (quite affordable for foreign tourists).

After Hué, Hoi An was the next town we visited. It is a charming little town with many old style houses still intact and even more excellent restaurants than in Hué. In one restaurant we had to laugh when the waitress told us that "chicken has flu today". We could not resist to ask if she thought that the chicken would be better tomorrow...

There is a nice beach 5 km east of Hoi An which is easily accessible by bicycle (which you can rent everywhere in town).

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