We decided to spend Christmas and New Year 2004/05 in Ho Chi Minh City with Jeannie's family. While Jeannie, Hans and Lucas had been in HCMC in September '04, Leanne, Louise and Lawrence had not seen their grand parents for the past 2 years.

Leanne and Louise had a Vietnamese traditional dress "Ao Dai" tailor made for the upcoming International Day at their boarding school. They took the opportunity to blend in with the crowd in down town Saigon wearing the traditional dress. We must admit that they made quite a few heads turn! The girls thoroughly enjoyed the "cat walk".

We did manage to escape from the city and spend a few very relaxing days at the beach. We went to "Long Hai", a city close to Vung Tau and stayed at the "Anoasis Beach Resort". It's a beautiful resort with individual bungalows overlooking the South China Sea. It's set on the grounds of Vietnam's last Emperor Bao Dai's former holiday villa.

Leanne, Louise and Lawrence had a great time on the beach. The surf was strong, the water was warm and there was plenty of sea creatures to collect and observe. The star fish were a particular attraction as they had never seen any before and the beach yielded plentiful. All these hours on the beach resulted in a bit of a sunburn with the girls particularly worried that they would lose their golden tan before returning to school and show of to their friends.

We visited Vietnam in July '02. First we stopped a few days in Bangkok from where we continued to Saigon for a long overdue reunion with Jeannie's parents. Most of our time was spent in Saigon.

We did travel to the country side. More specifically we went to Bao Loc which is a town 180km north of Saigon. It's well known for its tea and coffee plantations. We spent a few days enjoying the cooler mountain air compared to the heat, humidity and pollution of Saigon.

On our way to Bao Loc we took the opportunity to visit a rubber plantation with the kids. Quite an experience to see the trees "bleeding" this white gluey substance which is natural rubber. It runs down from cuts made in the trees and is collected in small trays attached to the trees.

A trip to Vietnam would of course not be complete without a ride on the traditional "cyclo". We rented four of them for the entire family. Bad Luck, the smallest guy had to push Hans around. He ("the guy", not Hans) definitely burned a few calories.

We went to Vietnam as a family for the first time in December '97 and celebrated New Year in Saigon. While Jeannie had already been back a few times and has been back since, for Hans it was the first time.

Obviously the key reason was to meet up with Jeannie's parents as we hadn't seen them for some time. But we also took the opportunity to visit just a bit of the country.

We did some traveling and rented a mini-van and drove up to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a beautiful seaside resort. We spent a few days there at the beach. We also visited the house Jeannie and here parents stayed at in the late '60's.


An interesting phenomenon near Nha Trang was to see a delta which gives out on to the sea and where people live in houses which float on the water. Electric cabling goes from one floating house to another and most have TV antennae ...


On the way back from Nha Trang to Saigon we stopped one night in Dalat which is a beautiful hill resort, a bit of a "cool haven" away from the humidity in the plains.

Last Updated: 27-02-2005
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