In Reply to: Agree totally posted by Back Again on Wednesday, 14. April 2010 at 11:46 Bali Time:
as my late father had been on two tours during the Vietnam or American War( whichever way you come from) and had run a NZ services hospital in Bon Son catering for the locals and Viet Cong. My sister and one son each wanted to retrace his steps.
A few tourists visit Qui Non. One of the 3 permanant western residents of that province ran the only western business there - Barbara's back packers and restuarant so that was our first port of call. We met her and it turned out that she was from Christchurch and my son James had met her as he used to hang out with Barbara's daughter in his last year at school.
Small village this world!
She put us on to a beachfront hotel with large luxurious rooms and almost no guests who agreed to $40.00 for 4 rooms and a good breakfast. Exceptional value - we were the only westerners there and had the bar to ourselves.
The food and friendliness in the town were just fine but no English spoken.
No tourists visit Bon Son. The NZ hospital had been destroyed by the VC in 1974 and we were warmly greeted at the newer facility built on the same site and given a ward tour by the director, who proudly showed us their NZ donated ambulance.
We were hungry and needed lunch and found a busy little restaurant which looked like it might suit. The menu was in Viet and nobody spoke English so like Qui Non we were dragged into the kitchen to see what was there.
All four of us ate well in this forgotten place and the sign language friedliness of the staff and other patronswas very apparant. We left to smiles and waves and drove the 3 hours to the Colonial town of Hoi An. The food there is exceptional by any standards.
Had to laugh. The Russian manager of a beachfront hotel there was offering us rooms at 100 US dollars per night. It was too big and impersonal anyway so we ended up at the River View hotel at $75.00 per night which would have been $100.00 plus in Bali. Bali and VN are totally different but we ate well and cheaply in these towns and Saigon. And the wine and beer is cheap too.