Happy Teacher’s Day!

Hi! Today was our day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels but in Vietnam it was also Teacher’s Day.  All the schools seemed to have displays, balloons and flags on show.  Lots of small children running about in their uniforms or in some very fancy frilly dresses (for the girls). 

The visit to the Cu Chi tunnels was very interesting although it was quite a warm day.  We were able to watch an excellent introductory video about the history of the tunnels. It was entirely from the guerilla fighters point of view which had at least one older American man in the audience muttering under his breath about propaganda.  It explained how the people of Cu Chi were very peaceful but then the crafty American devils came to wage war, many thousands of miles from their own country.  We even saw pictures of a few local heroes who won medals for being outstanding American killer heroes.  The tunnels themselves were very small but the one we crawled through had evidently been made a bit larger for fat westerners, although there were clearly some westerners there who were never going to fit.  It was pitch black in parts of the tunnel and was small enough that we had to crawl along for a while.  The area around the tunnels is very well set up and has a number of displays showing how the guerilla fighters lived, worked, cooked, and tended their injured.

Tomorrow we take a very long (8 or 9 hours) public bus ride to the Central Highlands town of Da Lat. I’m really looking forward to going there, and to being somewhere else as I’ll have been in Saigon a week tomorrow.

Back in Saigon

So I’ve returned from my Mekong Delta boat trip and will be in Saigon for another two nights.  The boat trip was great.  It’s so relaxing being on board and you get a really good look at a different part of Vietnam.  Our group drove to the town of Cai Be which is on the water and from there we took the boat through the delta.  On the way to the homestay we stopped at a few places such as a rice paddy (to get a real close up look), a Cao Dai temple, a rice paper factory (they were making the rice paper used for spring rolls – mmmm), a coconut candy factory (even more yum – candy made with coconut juice and sugar), a popped rice factory (the kind of popped rice from rice cakes), we had lunch at My Kiep’s historic home (lovely old house and garden), we had a sampan ride (we were rowed down some very small channels the other boat couldn’t fit down), we saw the remnants of that day’s floating market, visited a brick factory (nothing like proper manual labour to make you feel incredibly lazy), and lastly before our homestay we visited a river garden (a plant nursery with lots of tropical/local fruits). 

The homestay was not as basic as we had been led to believe by our itinerary.  We stayed on canvas foldout beds on the first floor of house that was very nice and obviously gets a few tour groups for lunches every now and then.  The garden was beautiful and while we waited for dinner time the five of us lazed about in hammocks.  It’s a hard life ; )  Dinner was a multi-course deal whose focal point were the two deliciously prepared local fish but there was also soup, rice, beef, pork, spring rolls and fruit afterwards.  Far more food than we could eat.  Sharon – you’ll be glad to know there was beer.  Tiger brand which I thought was Thai but it was clearly made in Vietnam- so who knows but it went very well with the fish.  No star ratings yet, I need to sample more product.  We all headed off to sleep early because it was a long day, which was just as well because the day starts early in Vietnam.

Today we rose early (very little choice after the rooster and turkeys started making noise), had breakfast at the homestay and went for a walk in the local village.  We had a wander through the market and along the river bank, before rejoining our boat for the trip back to Cai Be.  From Cai Be we returned to Saigon once again.  Tonight we meet the other eight people on the tour and tomorrow we head off to visit the Cu Chi tunnels.

To market, To market…

This morning I headed off to the Ben Thanh market which actually is in walking distance of the hotel.  I’m getting better at crossing roads, though I still feel like I’m going to get run over.  My best advice is either watch and cross when the locals do, or latch on to a likely group of tourists because a group offers more protection (ie other bodies to take the brunt of the hit should you actually get run over).  Enterprising no? 

The markets were quite nice, very neat, clean and well laid out.  I finally found the cheap t-shirt and knockoff DVD stands that our touristy hotel area still has very few of.  Although I didn’t buy anything today.  The market is divided into different areas.  There was room for tourist stuff, everyday goods, fruit, veges, a bewildering array of lollies, nuts, tea and coffee (including the kind of beans that are excreted by weasels – very gourmet).  The northern end is where all the fresh meat and seafood is held, so there was plenty of meat, organs and wriggling fish in baskets to behold.  It is quite stuffy inside so after having a wander around I headed across the road to a lovely frozen yoghurt shop.  At this one you can just grab a container, fill it up as much as you want and you pay by weight.  The coconut flavour was really good.

After that I wandered back to the Pham Ngu Lao (I finally remembered the words in the right order) district via a park.  While sitting I was joined by a local student and we talked for quite a while.  She is 18 and studies at a local school (university) and likes to visit the park to practice her English skills with the foreigners who are so often there.  I headed back to Bui Vien road (which is directly behind the road my hotel is on) for some  lunch and another look around the area.  Despite the fact  this area is so obviously full of tourists and travellers it is nowhere near as overgrown and tacky as the Khao Sanh road in Bangkok. Which is definitely a backpacker ghetto in the worst sense.  People spend the majority of their time in Bangkok on that one street and think they’ve seen the city, as if it’s all full of ethnic bags and crass t-shirts.

Tonight I meet my tour group, I already have a roommate who is from Brisbane.  I think there might be approximately eleven of us on the trip.  Here’s hoping it’s a good group.

Mmmmm delicious

So I’m finally posting after eating instead of before.  I’ve enjoyed some lovely food over the past two days.  Tonight was chili and lemongrass chicken and last night I had my first bowl of pho in Vietnam.  The pho (noodle soup) came with its own plate of Vietnamese basil, lime, bean sprouts, onion and greens to customise my dinner with.  It was very yummy, as was dinner tonight. 

Today I visited the Reunification Palace.  It’s massive and has a lot of history associated with it.  It was however decorated in the middle of the last century, so is heavy on the velour and statement furniture.  They have English speaking guides there, so I managed to hook up with a tour which gave some background on the palace and thirty of its most important rooms (there were a lot we didn’t see).  It has interesting opening hours 7.30am -11am and 1pm-4pm so I headed there in the afternoon. 

The morning I spent wandering around  the area I’m staying in.  I wasn’t feeling too crash hot yesterday (possibly lack of sleep/heat/dehydration combined) which made for slightly woozy viewing of death and destruction at the War Remnants museum, so I decided to take it easy today.  I was still feeling pretty tired though despite the many extra hours of sleep I got in yesterday, but the iced caffe latte I got at a coffeeshop round the corner with lovely comfy chairs did wonders.  It was great to find somewhere to chill out and recover that’s not my hotel room.  It’s a decent hotel room but not even close to social or in any way experiencing HCMC.

Tomorrow night I get to meet up with my tour group which should be interesting.  I still haven’t figured what to do with my day tomorrow but it may involve a visit to the Ben Thanh market to see what mass produced ethnic specialties are on sale.  I’ve also got to say that I’m glad people are leaving comments on the blog, it’s nice to know someone’s reading it and it gives me a chance to keep in touch with everyone.

Because someone else thinks it’s walking distance…

So my first proper sightseeing was today.  And I’ve got to say that because something is theoretically within walking distance (according to my Geckos travel itinerary) doesn’t mean you should walk there.  Ho Chi Minh City is not made for pedestrians.  It’s a city with about three million motorbikes, not mention numerous cars, trucks and buses all of which can run you over rather effectively.  So that lovely sight you may wish to see could be about the same distance away as your regular morning walk, but that doesn’t take into account the multitudinous number of times you have to dice with traffic to cross both small and scarily large roads (sorry mum I know you don’t really want to know).  So I learned a valuable lesson today about walking long distances in hot, sunny, traffic riddled conditions : )  Oh and I’ve got to mention that just because you’re on the footpath, doesn’t mean the motorbikes aren’t on the footpath with you.

Today I visited the War Remnants Museum.  They’ve put together a very good display about Vietnam and the war.  There are lots of excellent photos, some of which are quite confronting.  If you don’t know a lot about the war, then this is the place to see how damaging and traumatic an experience it was for all sides.  I also visited the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City.  It was quite good but nowhere near as interesting as the War Remnants Museum.  There were displays about HCMC through the years including the protests against American intervention in Vietnam.  Then I was a bit museumed (yes it is a word) out, so headed back to the area my hotel is in to recover from the heat and sensory overload.  I’m thinking of tackling the Reunification Palace tomorrow during my travels.

I’m really enjoying my time here so far (short though it has been) and I can’t wait to start seeing the rest of the country over the next few weeks. But it’s dinner time now and I’m starving, so I’m off to scope out what’s available round here.

Beep Beep

So I’ve finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon for those playing at home).  It’s good to back in a country where the constatnt beep beep of car horns isn’t aggressive.  I’ve  already seen a family of five on one motorbike and witnessed my taxi driver cross a lane of traffic consisting of six rows of motorbikes just by beeping and slowing down.

HCMC is full of neon and from the sky it looks better for it.  Sometimes when you fly over cities they have generic white/yellow lights, but here is multicoloured all over.  It’s much more interesting. 

So, it’s 8.30pm here which means it’s 11.30pm in Australia and I’ve been awake since 4am your time.  I’m feeling a bit tired and my eyes are bloodshot and I’m feeling less than fresh, so I’m going to find something to eat and drink (snacks mostly) and then retire to my room.