Word: saigon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Nguyen's highly organized tours, planned with the enthusiastic cooperation of the Hanoi government, begin in teeming Saigon. Arriving there in the "high season" -- the relatively dry period from November to May -- can pose a few logistical problems. Travelers from the Soviet Union and East bloc countries, seeking a winter refuge, come in droves. As current allies, they have the clout to book the downtown hotels, while Americans are often relegated to the Tan Binh, a tedious, hour-long pedicab ride from downtown's central market. Among the scant diversions of the place: tasty, small loaves of French bread, pint...
With a little luck, even Americans may find themselves a spot at one of five downtown hotels that the Vietnamese generously rank as first class. The old Saigon Palace on Nguyen Hue Street may be the best of the lot, but guests must still share the "sunny terrace" on the hotel rooftop with brown rats the size of squirrels. Consequently, one does not tarry romantically over cocktails...
Fortunately, the charms of Saigon are not the country's only attractions. The one-week tour features a day-trip to Cu Chi, site of a war museum, two - days at the beach resort of Nha Trang and an excursion to the former French hill station of Dalat. All this for $2,000, including round-trip airfare from San Francisco. The two-week tour ($3,000) adds stops at Danang, Hue, Hanoi, Haiphong and Ha Long Bay. Guides and transportation in a cramped van are part of the package, along with overnight accommodations in Manila...
...hour northwest of Saigon, government tour guides fire their only major barrage of propaganda. In a lecture complete with pointer and diagrams, Nguyen Viet Hai, 33, details how ingenious Viet Cong escaped detection by U.S. soldiers by hiding out in a network of narrow, subterranean tunnels. Next, visitors are invited to go below ground and taste the claustrophobic flavor of tunnel life for themselves. The guides hasten to point out that the passageways have been enlarged to accommodate Caucasian visitors. Before the group descends, Hai recites the tunnel dwellers' motto: "When you walk without footmarks, when you talk without...
...most of the group, the subsequent three-day excursion to Nha Trang and Dalat provides a calming change of pace. Route 1, the two-lane highway linking Saigon with Hanoi, dips toward and away from the South China Sea on its way 250 miles up the coast. The van passes through places remembered dimly as wartime datelines. Phan Thiet, Phan Rang and Cam Ranh Bay, now a Soviet naval base, appear then recede outside the van's windows. Frequent ambushes and well-placed mines rendered many sections of Route 1 impassable to U.S. forces and the French military before them...