My Vietnam 1991 -- 1994

[Assurancetourix]

I have began in Wide World with five shots I did not far from Hue City , year 91 or 92 ;

as suggested by Shaggy1969 I continue here in my own post;

I know, Vietnam isn't Thailand ;

but I have about 140 photos to upload and I think it should be better to have all these photos in the same thread ;

Forgive me about the quality; they are argentic ones, scanned with an ordinary scanner a long time ago ...

I arrived in Vietnam beginning of january 1991;

25 years ago ,not so many foreigners can come and visit that marvellous country;

we must go to a Police division in Saigon , excuse me TP HCM , to ask for and obtain an authorisation to leave the province where we were and go to another one ...

The roads were very bad, often non inexistant , even the main Mandarine one ..but nearly no traffic; only a few minibuses and some trucks with a multitude of bicycles when arriving in a town...

I begin with Saigon;

photos shots in 92 and 94 ;

on the photos where you can see european cyclists ; it was a long journey, 30 days from Saigon to Hanoi, passing by Dalat , about 2.000 kilometers; I had organised in 1994 with people working with me ; we were all working , civil servants for the Post in Paris France and one working for the Post in Basel, Switzerland

The last one about Saigon, " Votre serviteur " as a cyclo-man with a little girl who is today about 30 y old !

[shaggy1969]

Absolutely nothing wrong with those photos Assurancetourix,and looking forward to seeing more!

[Assurancetourix]

Thank you Shaggy ,

I continue , going to the north of the country;

Dalat in 1994 ;

and the road from Dalat to Phan Rang; ( pronounce it Fan Jang ) ;

have a look at the publicity for the Post Office; some words in french !

[Assurancetourix]

You have seen a photo with a minibus and cycles on its top;

Many of our friends found it was too hot and the stages were too long ( never more than 100 km each day , sometimes less );

so they decide to go to Hue by bus...from Dalat ...

So we were only two people to cycle from TP HCM to TP Hanoi .

Nha Trang 1994

On the road before arriving at Dalat , this man with his bicycle who has a lottery on it ...

And this big truck with huge trees;

We are looking at the truck but the school boys are looking at us !

Edited June 21, 2015 by Assurancetourix

[thrilled]

I'm looking to go to Vietnam hopefully in the near future.Would you care to say how Saigan is now,and Hanoi also?

[DogNo1]

Nice pictures. You must have had an enjoyable trip. Many of us were there in the '60s. There are many photos and videos from that era posted on TV if you want to look at them. Not meant to detract from your trip and nice photos though.

[Assurancetourix]

I'm looking to go to Vietnam hopefully in the near future.Would you care to say how Saigan is now,and Hanoi also?

First of all, if you are from one of these countries, a good new :

UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain ( will not need a visa to visit Vietnam starting in July if they stay up to 15 days.)

You don't need a ( expensive ) visa for Vietnam if you go there for a maximum of 15 days;

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/833956-vietnam-waives-visa-for-5-europe-countries-to-boost-tourism/?utm_source=newsletter-20150619-1217&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

15 days isn't enough if you want to visit correctly this beautiful country, but you can visit a part of it;

The South with Saigon and the delta of the Mekong

or the North and Hanoi, which is a very old city, more than two thousand years of history ...

Or the center where you can visit Danang and Hue ;

110 km between these two cities which are nearly opposite one to the other;

Da Nang , industrial area

Hue the city in the countryside, with its Universities and also its Forbidden City, its emperor tombs, Lien Mu Pagoda which is 500 years old ..

On the road to go to Lien Mu Pagoda you can have a look at his Seminary ;

maybe you can have a meeting with Father Linh who speak fluently french, english, italian, vietnamese of course - he is a vietnamese priest , maybe 75 years old now ..- and 4 or 5 minorities languages;

he is a teacher of theologia .

[Assurancetourix]

Nice pictures. You must have had an enjoyable trip. Many of us were there in the '60s. There are many photos and videos from that era posted on TV if you want to look at them. Not meant to detract from your trip and nice photos though.

Thank you DogNo1 ;

When you were in Vietnam , in the '60s and '70s ;

I was young; in 1970 I was 21 y old ..

at school and after beginning working ( 1971 ) as a trucker on all Europeeen countries..

I'm now 66 y old .

Sometimes I visit TVF; it's a huge forum ;

maybe not enough time to visit all the pages !!;

We had a nice journey and I did it again on our MTB with another french friend in 1996 ;

I came again to Vietnam in 2007 with my thai wife ;

we went there a few days;

visiting a little bit Hanoi , Halong Bay and Hue city where I met my old vietnamese friends ;

but you will see the photos in the next posts ;

I will do a Post Scriptum about that little ( 10 days ) journey in 2007 .

Next August, with my MTB thai friends who are living in Phangkhon , Sakon Nakhon province; we have the project to go to Saigon with our MTB ;

we will cross Kampuchea, go to Saigon, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hue and coming back to Thailand crossing Lao ;

we will re-enter Thailand at Mukdahan which is not far from Phangkhon; about 200 km ..

They are all coming from Vietnam; parents or grand parents were vietnamese people ;

they all speak vietnamese language and many of them are christians .

Edited June 22, 2015 by Assurancetourix

[Assurancetourix]

My last photo post was about Nha Trang ;

I continue, going to the north of the country;

I have a few photos about Da Nang province;

two photos shot in the Marble mountain

And three shot in the " tortillard ", the train between Da Nang and Hue City ; climbing Hai Van Pass ,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BA%A3i_V%C3%A2n_Pass

And only two shots in Hoi An ; when I went there for the first time there were none hotel or GH !

[Assurancetourix]

My Son , not very far from Hoi An, about 50 kilometers ; I don't remember if I shot the photos in 1994 or 1996 ...but I know I went there on my MTB ;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_S%C6%A1n

The village on the main road " Mandarine " where we go to My Son

[Assurancetourix]

We enter Hue province

Going down the Hai Van Pass there is Lang Co

http://wikitravel.org/en/Lang_Co

Not far from Lang Co, Bach Ma National Park ;

the meaning of Bach Ma is white horse because of the white clouds which are often at the top of the mountain ( 1250 m )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E1%BA%A1ch_M%C3%A3_National_Park ;

I went there in 1994 , vietnamese people were beginning to inspect what to do there; no route suitable for motor vehicles but with our MTB we can climb it ...

[morpho]

Thanks a lot for posting these pics. Look forward to seeing more.

I first started going to Vietnam in 2004 and have been there 9 times. The last 3 years I have been in Hanoi for Tet and then traveled around for 1-3 months by bus, train, and motorbike. It really is a fabulous country with beautiful countryside, great food, friendly people... I've made some great friends there. I'm going back in September for the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hanoi and then back for Tet next February.

I've been to many of the places in your pics. Seems like some places haven't changed much or at all since you were there in the 90's.

[TheKnave]

Fantastic, thanks for posting your great pics...

[kg1947]

I'm looking to go to Vietnam hopefully in the near future.Would you care to say how Saigan is now,and Hanoi also?

Saigon- won't miss it a bit, have to do Old Town Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An - it is a MUST ,

add Mekong Delta ( Can Tho ) if you can .

[LALes]

Can't get into the "new" Hanoi. They tore down a lot of the old quarter's crazy shops to make more coffee bars and tourist shops.

It lost a lot of its character in the process. As we old Viet hands say, "It was better in the 90s." Just think Times Square in New York.

It has turned into just another corporate mall for the mindless crawlers who have too much time and money and just go somewhere

to check it off their list.

Same is true for Saigon, to a lesser extent. There was never a building over 15 stories in the 90s and now it looks like BKK.

Saigon was still a city of bicycles as late as 1991 but I wouldn't be caught dead riding around those crazy streets now on anything

not enclosed in steel. They just razed the main drag, Nguyen Hue St., to make way for a grandiose Sky Train system. Place looks

like Ghengis Khan just left town. What passes for progress is just change and change is hardly ever for the better these days.

They blew out some of the old town blocks completely to make way for more Gucci and Prada crap in a shiny, new, marble mall that has

as many customers as a mausoleum, which it more resembles. No more family run silk shops where you could get a cool shirt made for $10

or a nice pair of linen trousers for not much more. Just the same old corporate crap you see everywhere now in McWorld.

Young people travelling today will call this a rant from a grumpy, old man but what do they know? They never saw the cool stuff or the

crazy things that gave a city its unique character. These people would be helpless without Starbucks, wifi and trip advisor, etc. etc etc. Bah, humbug.

[Assurancetourix]

And now TP Hue , " my town " ;

I write " my town " because I went there so many times from 1991 to 2007 ;

I met there so close friends I still have 25 y after .

One of them speak french , maybe better than me ;

he has a diploma from ESIT school ;

and is doctor in traductology ( Charles de Gaulle-Lille III )

M. Le Duc Quang

http://www.univ-paris3.fr/ecole-superieure-d-interpretes-et-de-traducteurs-esit--23131.kjsp

He is interpreter simultaneous ( french - vietnamese )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_interpretation

The other friends are doctor in medecine , one is Vice Dean of the Faculty of medecine in Hue ;

another one is medecine professor and digestive surgeon ;

Dr. Le Dinh Van

and the last one, Khun Hung has a special work;

when you ask him about his work, he answers to you: enginner at the TV station ;

he isn't engineer but he is the political commissar of the province;

the boss of the censorship for the TV or newspapers.

In Vietnam which is a communist country it's better to know him , to be close to him , than the big boss of the police ..

Hue -- 1991

[khunano]

Thanks for sharing your fabulous pictures with us, Assurancetourix. Keep up the good work! I myself have fond memories of my first Vietnam trips to the south of this beautiful country in the early Nineties. I have been going back there since then a couple of times both for pleasure and business and look forward to another trip to explore northern Vietnam a bit more hopefully in the not too distant future.

[mesquite]

I'm looking to go to Vietnam hopefully in the near future.Would you care to say how Saigan is now,and Hanoi also?

Saigon is incredibly modern. District one is like Singapore.

[neeray]

These pics were a welcome change on Thaivisa. Not a word of bashing.

Thanks to all.

[hkt83100]

I have been to Vietnam in 1973, it was an incredible experience. I stayed with a family for 9 weeks in Saigon. I will never forget that time. Thanks for your beautiful pictures!

[weegee]

I would like to add my thanks also, for those pics.....really good Topic OP.

When you go back...Go from HCM by fast ferry down to Vung Tau for a few days...That place is beside the sea on the mouth of the Mekon and really exceptional scenery within a few miles, just a few miles north of Vung Tau is what used to be a fishing village...the beaches and holiday hotels there are great.

Edited June 22, 2015 by weegee

[FangFerang]

Can you tell me something? I saw the sign with the moo-moo advertising cheese.

Is cheese insanely expensive in Vietnam as it is in Thailand?

[smotherb]

Vietnam is well worth the visit. If my son, daughter-in-law and grandson were not all in Thailand, I am sure my wife and I would now be in Nha Trang. I spent four years there during the war, and went back in the nineties when you were closely watched. I've gone back a few times recently and really enjoy it--of course, my Vietnamese is pretty good and the people are less-likely to frown on farangs and are more prone to speaking English, even in the provinces, than are the Thais--quite surprising since they spoke English about like the Thais do now when I was initially there and I doubt the Russians taught them English during the interim. In Saigon, I talked with a young girl selling postcards;granted her business was dealing with farnags. However, her English was near perfect, even if her vocabulary was limited. She used proper tenses to verbs and was proficient with possessives and plurals--better than many NES. Gee, maybe they learn in school

[Assurancetourix]

Can you tell me something? I saw the sign with the moo-moo advertising cheese.

Is cheese insanely expensive in Vietnam as it is in Thailand?

" La Vache qui Rit " is now made in Vietnam since many years and is less expensive than in Thailand ;

When in Thailand, you can buy some boxes in the Indo-China markets which are in Mukdahan or Nong Khai;

there is also one in Nakhon Phanom but I have never saw " La Vache qui Rit " sold there .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Cow

[Assurancetourix]

Vietnam is well worth the visit. If my son, daughter-in-law and grandson were not all in Thailand, I am sure my wife and I would now be in Nha Trang. I spent four years there during the war, and went back in the nineties when you were closely watched. I've gone back a few times recently and really enjoy it--of course, my Vietnamese is pretty good and the people are less-likely to frown on farangs and are more prone to speaking English, even in the provinces, than are the Thais--quite surprising since they spoke English about like the Thais do now when I was initially there and I doubt the Russians taught them English during the interim. In Saigon, I talked with a young girl selling postcards;granted her business was dealing with farnags. However, her English was near perfect, even if her vocabulary was limited. She used proper tenses to verbs and was proficient with possessives and plurals--better than many NES. Gee, maybe they learn in school

During our journey we met english teachers in the countryside, in little villages " refuels by crows " and the were speaking a very good english ;

We can say the same about french language; if you can go to the faculty of french at Hue University, you will find many students with a perfect french .

not exactly what I know, here in Thailand in 2015 ;

I'm french and I know I have a better english than many thai english teachers .

But about Thailand, I was very surprised and I think Robbynz had the same sensation ,

when I go to refugee camps where Karen people are living in Mae Hong Son province , I know I will met teachers and students who are good or very good in english ...

I go there once or twice a year to do the same as Robby did with his friends ...

[Geordie59]

Some great photos there. Takes me back to when I first worked to Vietnam (1991-2003).

Massive changes to some places, not always for the best though.

[Assurancetourix]

In april 1992 , the first edition of the Festival de Hue ;

The big society EDF ( Electricity of France ) was the Maitre d' œuvre of that first festival .

The photo here, as a particular signification;

I met a american Marine the year before, in 1991 ; he was at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri province, just in north of Thua Tien province ( Hue province ) during the war and had left his best/close friend there ;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh

since the end of the war he was coming back to Vietnam and especially to Hue for finding objects or identity plak about his friend;

in 1992 the vietnamese officials gave to him what he was looking after since so many years ;

I decided to leave Vietnam definitively and his vietnamese friends in Hue have organized a big meal in his honnor

[Braddockrd]

I would like to add my thanks also, for those pics.....really good Topic OP.

When you go back...Go from HCM by fast ferry down to Vung Tau for a few days...That place is beside the sea on the mouth of the Mekon and really exceptional scenery within a few miles, just a few miles north of Vung Tau is what used to be a fishing village...the beaches and holiday hotels there are great.

All a matter of taste but Vung Tau is a dump in my opinion. Not worth going there, not even for the line up of girly bars.

[nithisa78]

I first went to Vietnam, the begining of the last quarter 1966. Ho Chi Minh saw fit to send me home from the Mekong Delta ahead of my schedule in 1967. Darn you Master Ho.

In my oberservations, RVN has done more to advance itself in about 40 years, than much of the rest of the wolrd has been able to achieve in thousands. No hard feelings and I tip my hat to the fruits of their efforts. No bad people, only bad governments.

Thank you. Your photos are very good. Mine would not be appropriate to post. Yesterday's news.

Edited June 22, 2015 by nithisa78

[how241]

Fantastic, thanks for posting your great pics...

+1....Enjoyed your photos. Thanks