Vietnam Excursion (23/12/07-05/01/08)

Finally, i have booked the air ticket to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) from Singapore, using the service of budget airline Tiger Airways. This is almost one month after i booked the return ticket from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur. After comparing the fares of two Singapore budget airlines Jetstar Asia and Tiger Airways, i decided to go with Tiger Airways because of its lower airfare and more convenient departure time.

My tentative itinerary would be visiting HCMC, Mekong Delta, Dalat, Danang, Hue and Hanoi. Main mode of transportation between major cities would be using Reunification Express train.

HCMC - Notre Dame Cathedral, Reunification Palace, etc.
Mekong Delta - Mytho, Vinh Long, Cantho, the floating market.
Dalat - Cool mountain retreat.
Danang / Hoi An - China Beach.
Hue - Citadel (UNESCO World Heritage Site).
Hanoi - Old Quarter, Halong Bay, etc.

I attended a travelogue held in Kuala Lumpur a couple of years back about visiting Vietnam. The presenter of the travelogue opined that one should at least watch two movies before visiting Vietnam; these two movies titled Apocalypse Now and The Lover.

Apocalypse Now was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando. It's set during Vietnam War. It tells the story of Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) who is sent into the jungle to assassinate United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who is said to have gone insane. The film has been viewed as a journey into the darkness of the human psyche.

As for The Lover, it was a movie adapted from an autobiographical French novel L'Amant by Marguerite Duras. The movie version was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, starring Jane March and Tony Leung Ka-Fai. It's set against the backdrop of French colonial Vietnam during 1920's. The Lover reveals the intimacies and intricacies of a romance between a pubescent girl (Jane March), from a financially strapped French family and an older, wealthy Chinese man (Tony Leung Ka-Fai). This movie was one of the sexiest movie i have ever watched. Believe me.

One of the signature cuisine in Vietnam is of course the pho, a kind of clear soup noodle with beef or chicken variation. The other dish would be Vietnamese spring rolls. Would also like to taste their famous Vietnamese coffee.

Bonjour Vietnam!