Hello Everyone

My wife and I have recently returned from a 3 week visit to Vietnam and Cambodia and we found it very interesting. During my period of full time duty I was unlucky (or lucky?) not to be posted to Vietnam and have always wanted to go and see what it was like, particularly before it fully became a giant tourist resort. 

From my observations, the North has lots of picturesque areas, but Hanoi has not advanced as much as the major cities in the South. Da Nang (central Vietnam) was a really interesting with the beach area being set up as the Gold Coast of Vietnam, lots of beach front apartments, golf courses, new town layout, wide streets with easy access to airport and other tourist areas 

Ho Chi Min City is also spreading both side of the Mekong River with new expressways and road works a common occurrence. Like most of Asia, totally motor bike /scooter crazy. While we were there we took the opportunity to visit the “Long Tan” memorial and we were fortunate to have a local guide who had a good knowledge of the battle (from both points of view) and he organised long stem roses to place on the memorial and a service to pay respect to those Australians who died in the battle. A very moving experience.

We then went to Nui Dat, the site of the main Australian Fire Base, which is now a small town which uses the base runway as its main street. He also showed us tunnels which were dug to within 1 km of the base perimeter.

For those of you who haven’t been to Vietnam,it is a very interesting place to visit and we recommend coupling it with a trip to Seam Reap (Cambodia) to see the Temple Ruins at Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom.  The “President’s Report” provides a rundown on progress with the new National Association so I will not discuss it further.

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