Never say never. Off to Vietnam

Well come all of you big strong men ……..

Many of you, of a ‘certain age’ will remember this opening line to a song in the 60’s by Country Joe and the Fish. This little Ragtime song was released in 1967 and is a big reason that I haven’t visited Vietnam yet. Passport stamps from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and much of Southeast Asia fill the pages over the years. Not so with Vietnam.

It has been 55 years since this song was released, so maybe it’s time for me to put my ‘Big girl’ pants on and get over it! 

So passport found and blank pages and expiration dates checked. Visa application paid for and approved. Travel insurance (for medical emergency) secured. Seats on airplanes reserved. Time to start packing.

On October 30 I leave Seattle for Hanoi, returning three weeks later on November 20. For me a perfect time to travel. After all the summer travelers have gotten the kids back in school and before the annual Christmas tizzy. A whole bunch of hours in a metal tube with reasonable legroom then a different tube, with unknown legroom for a shorter period of time. Totaling around 20 hours of tubes.

Right now the only three things that have firm dates are arrival (Oct 31) and departure (Nov 20) and a pre-booked boat trip on a bay the is in the UNESCO world heritage sites.

I have a several places on my wish list, but unless I only go there for the instagram photo and scoot off to the next place I’ll have to pare down the list a bit.

There are the war places where friends were stationed. Danang, and Dien Bien Fu. There is Sapa near China with the terraced rice fields. Hanoi the capital of course. Tom Coc with huge caves and lazy rivers through limestone karsts. Hoi An a photographers dream. Hue the ancient former capital of Vietnam, if you consider the early 1800’s ancient. Probably an actual ancient site of My Son. Possibly the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the 1947 - 1975 civil war.

So many places to see, and I am not sure which will stay and which will go from the list.

You are welcome to come along on this trip with me. As usual in my blogs, if you want to know history there are plenty of resources for that. If you want to ride along with the ups and downs of how I find the trip then hop on.