To all my Chinese friends around the world, I hope
you had an enjoyable New Year.
For us the year has started with a bang with a few
trips to Asia, the most enjoyable being speaking and
visiting in
Saigon in Vietnam.
It is one of the countries that I have always wanted to
visit. I added some days onto my speaking
engagement and decided to explore.
Firstly, I love shopping (especially for gadgets and
electronics) and visiting the indoor market was
fascinating. I returned with piles of things, 20 beautiful
ornate business card holders (which I will now sell on
Ebay), wine racks, shirts and plenty more.
I then visited the Cu-Chi tunnels where the Vietcong
lived and fought the silent war.
There are over 200 miles of tunnels with underground
hospitals, shooting ranges, sleeping quarters and
virtually enough to hide an army. I decided to go down
the tunnels and it was the scariest thing I have done.
With my size I had to crawl on all fours in the pitch
dark and halfway through had a panic attack. I came
out pouring with sweat and shaking like a leaf. To
think that people lived down there for years is
astounding.
It was also scary to see the weapons of war with the
barbed spikes and pits with razor sharp spikes. I also
had the opportunity to buy some bullets and shoot an
AK47 on the shooting range. This was pretty cool as
the last time I used a gun was when I was in the army.
Saigon has the craziest traffic I have seen, thousand
of motor cycles, no traffic lights with everyone
converging from different directions and managing not
to have accidents. ( I was told before I arrived there
that
if I wanted to cross the road, I should just walk slowly
across the road and the traffic would go around me,
(and they did). In the afternoon I hired my own boat
for $40 and was picked up by a tiny Vietnamese
woman who indicated that my transport to the river
would be me sitting behind her on a small motor cycle
and braving the traffic. Well, when in Rome.
The afternoon was wonderful, just three crew and
myself on the boat, cruising the river and drinking beer.
To get over this difficult ordeal I then visited Phuket.
This was my first visit and as expected the service,
people, beaches and food was excellent.
Take a look at some of the photographs.
Over the years I have spoken in 48 countries, taken
time to enjoy the places, people and cultures and
captured so much on video and film. I?m currently
setting up a website, blog and newsletter of my travels
and experiences as well as tips on how to do
business and places to see. Let me know if you would
be interested in receiving the newsletter which will be
totally different to my normal one.
Take a look at the Saigon photos
