We decided to stay at a backpackers, right in the middle of the heaving backpacker district. I thought it would be a fun way to introduce Tony to the city, to budget travel, and meet other travelers.
In actual fact, I may as well have booked a few beds in the corner of a night club. I've never stayed somewhere so loud in all my life! The music didn't shut off until 6am!!!
Anyway, at least it was a cool area with lots of things happening. We found a little place selling $1 beers (big beers too), where we sat on plastic chairs and watched the world go by. We met a nice man from Thailand who was 72, but I swear didn't look 60, and had great chats about life.
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| Probably the best tangle of wires we've seen yet! |
There is a lot to see, do, and eat in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon), and we gave it a good nudge in the few days we had.
The first day we did quite a lot of walking, exploring the city and getting our bearings. The city seems to have a bit more of a modern feel than what we saw in Hanoi, definitely bigger, but still plenty of character, and quite a big French influence. I'm not sure whether we had just got used to it in the last few weeks, but it also felt a bit easier to cross the road!
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| Inside the Jade Emperor Pagadoa |
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| Notre Dame Cathedral |
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| The photo on the top is of the last evacuation from Saigon from the top of what was a CIA apartment building in 1975. The photo below is the very building today. |
We went to the war remnants museum in the afternoon, which certainly wasn't the most cheerful choice of activities for Tony's first day in Vietnam! I was expecting it to be grim, but I was not prepared for just how shocking some of the things we saw were. And if I thought the torture was bad, then seeing the impact of agent orange was gut wrenching. Absolutely abhorrent and despicable and I can't believe that the American's stooped to the level of chemical war fare. The mind boggles at what fear and ignorance can bring people to do to each other. On all sides.
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| Here are some statistics, and an aeroplane - the rest wasn't the kind of thing you took pictures of. |
Anyway, carrying on!
The next day we did a walking tour with a university student. It was just the three of us and our guide. We visited the famous markets, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the post office built by the French in the 1800's. We also visited the independence palace, which feels like it is stuck in time in the 1970's! In fact, I don't think it was actually used after the war, which is why, im guessing, that the decor hasn't been updated! The bunker was quite interesting, a bit like Churchill War Rooms in London. Interestingly, the last president went into hiding at the end of the war, and after agreeing terms of his surrender, he and his brother were picked up in China Town and promptly shot. Not the outcome he'd bargained for.
Our guide told us a sad story about his grandfather during the war, who was in a bar and got to chatting to a couple of GI's who then got so drunk that they started juggling grenades, and ended blowing them all up. No matter what side you were on, I think everyone in Vietnam probably has a sad story about the war.
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| Ben Tanh Market and the Post office |
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| Outside the Independence Palace |
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| Inside the Independence Palace |
That afternoon we did a cooking class. We were picked up in bicycle rickshaws and taken through town to the Ben Than Market where we met the rest of our group and the guide. We went through the market picking out the ingredients for our dinner, including pork, prawns and vegetables. The meat section was a bit grim- the lady selling it was sitting cross legged on the bench where she was cutting slabs of meat that had been sitting out all day. The most hilariously disgusting thing was her friend who was having a sleep on the back bench!!
The fish section wasn't much better, with baskets of fish that were still giving the odd defeated flap, and I'm guessing they'd been there all day too. What a slow way to die... Kind of like in Italy where we saw octopus and squid trying to escape the big containers that they were shoved in (with many others) at the port after coming in off the fishing boats...
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| Look closely at the very back of this picture... We think she was just sleeping...?! |
Anyway, the cooking class was a lot of fun. We learned some interesting knife skills (probably ones I won't try again for fear of my fingers), and got to prepare and cook four courses. The chef nearly singed my eyebrows while using my pan to demonstrate something, but other than that, and a few onion induced tears, the afternoon was a success. The best part was eating our creations including green melon soup with prawn, spring rolls, Bahn Xeo (rice pancake filled with pork, prawn and bean sprouts), plus sticky marinated pork ribs.
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| Bahn Xeo. I even made the tomato rose! |
On our last day in HCMC we took a day tour to a Cao Dai temple and to the Cu Chi tunnels. Cao Dai is a strange kind of religion that mixes bits of Buddhism, Taoism and Catholicism. The temple was very colourful and unusual, and we watched their midday mass.
The Cu Chi tunnels were a strange kind of experience. It turns out that our guides' dad was a Viet Cong fighter, and the whole thing felt like it was glorifying what was essentially terrorism. I suppose they were just fighting for their own survival, but some of the traps they set for the American soldiers were bloody brutal. That, and we watched a video presentation that kept telling us about people who had been awarded the title of American Killer Hero! It was just awkward. Especially for the American tourist in our group!
I guess it was interesting to learn how they lived in the tunnels and evaded capture/bombing. We even got to crawl in one that had been enlarged for tourists...(it was still a tight fit). We were then taken to a shooting range where you could pay to fire real bullets from an M16 or AK47. Needless to say it made me feel very uncomfortable- I haven't heard gunfire close up before, let alone from weapons of mass destruction like what I consider those guns to be. Plus with live bullets...?!?! It all just felt like instead of paying respects and learning, the whole experience was turning war into some kind of tourist fun park.
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| Model showing the tunnels and escape route to the river. |
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| Tiny secret tunnel entrance. Shaun and Tony weren't keen to try it out... |
The next day we set off on a three day, two night trip to the Mekong Delta. We were tossing up whether to just organise this ourselves, but in the end decided to take the easy option, which included our fast boat to Phnom Penh. Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way!
I'm not going to bore you with my whinging about big group bus tours (I did that on trip advisor already!), but if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I would say it is often worth the effort to organise some things yourself!
The first day we headed to a family run farm where we tried fresh fruit, ginger and honey tea, and were treated to some local Vietnamese folk singing. We didn't buy the CD...
We then hopped into small boats and paddled down a small river to another family business where they make coconut candy (from malt syrup and coconut juice). It was pretty tasty. We were then trundled off to a pomelo farm in a small island, where we had lunch. A pomelo is a giant green fruit that looks kind of like a pink coloured orange on the inside. We didn't actually get to try any.
After lunch we took a pretty sketchy boat ride through torrential rain back down the river to get back on the bus. On the way to Can Toh we stopped at a pagoda with giant Buddha statues. Our guide didn't tell us anything about it apart from which way the toilets were and to be back in 20 minutes...
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| Coconut candy bottom left |
In Cantho we stayed at a homestay, in bungalows right on the edge of a small river. We were treated to an amazing feast for dinner of local fish in roll-your-own rice paper rolls, Spring rolls that we helped to make, as well as tofu in tomato and beans. We also had some local rice wine, which reminded me of raki! We whiled away the evening chatting to our two tour mates Doogs and Doona from Australia. I kid you not, Doogs and Doona. Complete with their own bottle of Jim Beam. The most Australian people I've ever met. Nice though!
The next morning we had an early breakfast and were loaded into a small boat from right outside our bungalows. We traveled down a few canals and the main river before meeting up with the rest of our tour and clambering aboard a bigger boat (while in the middle of the river). By the time we got to the Cai Rang floating market it was about 7.45am, but I think we'd missed the busiest trading period, as we were followed relentlessly by several boats trying to sell us various things. It was pretty interesting though, we saw pineapple, pumpkin, sweet potato, watermelons, and all kind of produce. The amount of rubbish about was pretty disgusting, but not all together surprising.
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| On the way to the floating market |
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| Cai Rang floating market |
After the floating market we went to a chilled out rural area where we had free time to wander through the orchard or down the road along the river, or take a bike tour. While waiting for the tour to resume, my nose led me to a bbq - I saw that there were a couple of frogs being cooked, and then asked what the other thing was and wished I hadn't! BBQ rat! I opted for some dragonfruit to snack on instead!
We then went to see how rice paper is made (kind of like a crepe left to dry in the sun) and sampled crispy rice noodles and delicious banana and tapioca cake. The sad thing about that particular place were the caged animals including Guinea pigs, chip monks and a sad looking civet cat (the ones that eat the coffee beans). It was just so miserable I really wanted to open all the cages while no one was looking. I didn't.
Who buys kopi luak coffee anyway?!
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| Step by step guide to making Vermacilli noodles. |
On the way to Chau Doc we stopped for a little boat ride through a nature reserve and saw herons and birds that looked like pukeko's. It was very peaceful.
After an overnight stay in the run down town of Chau Doc, we got on an early boat to check out a floating village where people build their houses over their fish farms. We stopped at one fish farm where the fish take around 5 months to grow to full size, and cost US$700 per day to feed. When grown, the fish are exported to factories for filleting and packaging. I'm not sure if it is for the domestic market or not. I was pretty shocked at the number of fish crammed into the small of the cages. I don't remember the exact numbers, but they had one open so we could see them being fed - it was a writing mass of fish. It just seemed kinda gross, but I guess lets get real about where our food actually comes from huh!!
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| So filthy! |
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| House above a fish farm |
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| Feeding frenzy - kinda bad photo but you get the gist. |
After visiting the Cham minority village, where the houses were on 3-4m stilts (for good reason, the flood markets were pretty shocking!) we were loaded onto the fast boat to Phnom Penh.
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| Not the boat we took to Cambodia... |
We are currently on our way back to Phnom Penh for a night before taking the bus to Siem Reap where we are looking forward to seeing our lovely friends from Canada!
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