::: DAVID'S TRAVEL ADVENTURES ::: THAILAND :: LAOS :: VIETNAM :: CAMBODIA :: MYANMAR :: SAILING

Population: 82,000,000 US$1 = 16,000 dong

Vietnam

Vietnam's adoption of a capitalist-based market economy has polarized the gap between rich and poor: average monthly incomes for city dwellers remain at about $50, but drop to $15 in the poorest provinces. The word is out that this is a land of rice fields, beaches, cities and pagodas. For the majority of visitors, the southern city of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) provides a head-spinning introduction to Vietnam, so a trip out into the rice fields and orchards of the nearby Mekong Delta makes a welcome stop explored by boat from Can Tho. Heading north, Da Lat provides a good place to cool down, or the beaches Mui Ne. A few hours' ride further up the coast, the city of Nha Trang has become a stepping stone on the Saigon–Hanoi run. Next is the town of Hoi An, full of shop-houses and close to the Cham temple ruins at My Son. The temples, palaces and imperial palace of Hu?should also not be missed. One hundred kilometres north, war sites litter the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which cleaved the country in two from 1954 to 1975. Hanoi has served as Vietnam's capital for close on a thousand years and is a rapidly developing, city where life proceeds at a gentler pace than in Saigon. From here most visitors strike out east to Ha Long Bay, usually visited either from Bai Chay or Cat Ba Island. The market town of Sapa, close to the Chinese border in the far northwest, makes a good base for exploring nearby ethnic minority villages. Overall, late September to December and March and April are the best times if you're covering the whole country, but there are distinct regional variations. In southern Vietnam and the central highlands the dry season lasts from December through April, and daytime temperatures rarely drop below 20°C in the lowlands, averaging 30°C during March, April and May. Along the central coast the wet season runs from September through February, though even the dry season brings a fair quantity of rain; temperatures average 30°C from June to August. Typhoons can hit the coast around Hu?in April and May and the northern coast from July to November, when flooding is a regular occurrence. Hanoi and northern Vietnam are generally hot (30°C) and wet during the summer, warm from October to December, then cold until March.

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Southern Vietnam --- Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Mekong Delta