the marvelous mekong

---

So yes, after more than ten days in Phnom Penh I have finally moved on. I decided not to go to Phu Quoc Island (in the south of Vietnam) which I don't think I'm regretting, but just to be sure I'm picturing the same rain that's outside right now also in Phu Quoc! Sophie and I decided to do a 3 day tour of the mekong delta. I'm sure it's not the best way to go if you really want to explore it thoroughly but I am feeling incredibly lazy and it's a nice change to have things planned for you! The tour is actually really well organized (and so cheap!) and the guides are so friendly and informative. There were just six of us coming to Chau Doc and we got along really well so that makes a huge difference I think.
Chau Doc is the first city you reach in the delta in Vietnam after crossing from Phnom Penh. The boat ride into Chau Doc was about 3 hours and was very scenic. I was warned that the vietnamese could be quite cold towards foreigners but so far they have been incredibly friendly and this combined with the beautiful boat ride made for such a great arrival to Vietnam. We stayed at a guesthouse on a little mountain at the edge of town with beautiful views of the rice fields which are so green right now, it's really stunning. We hiked up the mountain for sunset and all the vietnamese were so fascinated with us! It was Sophie and me and I think not only were we two young white girls but Sophie has dreadlocks and they are so intrigued by them. Some people will come up to her and stroke them, another man took our picture - bit of reversal - locals taking our picture!! Quite hilarious! Anyways, it was a really great day and such a great welcome to Vietnam.
Next we headed to Can Tho which was a 3 hour bus ride through what seemed like never ending towns. There is so much going on here it's crazy! Very different from how I pictured it - I figured there were small towns and super laid back... not so. We stopped at a fish farm where there was a giant bloated dead rat floating that was as big as a cat. pretty sick. The farms are neat. Just a little floating hut with a propeler running underneath it to circulate the water. Every morning someone has to get into the water with the millions of fish and feel around for dead ones - not the most popular job I'm sure.
The tour that day ended at noon! damn it! We were in the middle of this big metropolis in the middle of mekong delta and it really didn't look like there was a lot to do, that we weren't scheduled to do the next day. So Sophie and I rented a moto and headed to the "Can Tho water park" to cool off. Sophie didn't drive the motos so I attempted to get us there... seriously, I just started riding them so we weren't much better off! 5 minutes in I had us stalled in the middle of a crazy busy intersection with what seemed hundreds of motos and buses honking at me. We were half laughing, half screaming... It was pretty damn hilarious! Lots of bewildered stares from the locals...I don't think they see two young foreign girls doubling on a motorcycle everyday. Phew, well we finally made it to the waterpark and expected like a little kids waterpark. It turned out to be a full blown waterslide park with lots of slides and even a wave pool! We were very excited - me mostly for not having killed sophie and I on the moto. It cost us a whoppin' $3 for the waterpark and was worth every penny... or 'dong' rather. It was very fun. I had major whiplash on a few of the rides and was really exhausted after just one hour! I don't know how we spent whole days at splashdown as kids. The kids there though were so cute. They were so enthralled with us and wanted us to do the slides with them. The girls are just so sweet. Again we are feeling like where are the standoffish vietnamese we were told about?
On the way back I convinced Sophie to try the bike out. She has never driven a car let alone any thing with gears so it was a little scary. She insisted on staying in second gear the whole time - pretty hilarious and quite scary at the same time... No, seriously, it was safe... sort of. we got back in tact, though I think the poor motorbike didn't enjoy the ride.
The next day we headed to Saigon but of course with a million touristic stops on the way (I have sworn never to do a tour again). We first stopped and took a boat to visit the floating markets.. very cool. Each big boat has a stick at the bow where a few of whatever they're selling hang and they just toss the produce down to the little boats. It was really neat. We then boated though the tiny canals for an hour or so. It's amazing thinking that in a typical day for them they hop onto their boats and paddle through this maze of canals to pick up their groceries.
We made a few other stops on the way... rice factory, incense factory... I have to say, it's neat and all but I don't really like that aspect of these tours. Ahhh well.
so SAIGON! Or Ho Chi Minh City rather. It's f-ing crazy. Excuse my french but seriously it's a gong show hustling bustling metropolis that's for sure! I really don't like crossing the streets. I just semi close my eyes and walk at a steady pace and hope to god they see me. There are SO many motorbikes here it's nuts! Here are some stats:
Population of HCMC: 8million
Number of Motorbikes: 3million
Number of motorbikes in Vietnam: 26 million!!!!
Crazy. Sophie and i debated renting one here but I really think that would have been suicide and I'm really glad we didn't. We head to Nha Trang next so I'll wait until then. I really love riding them though. It's so nice because everyone else is on motos so you have good visibility (not many cars around) and if you get hit or hit someone it's not as bad... a little road rash... minor head injury! haha, kidding. sorry m & d.
okay onto the best stuff...
The Food. Oh my god. I am in heaven. Vietnamese coffee. Fresh Spring Rolls (aka salad rolls). Pho soup. I'm so happy. The only thing I can't find are the vietnamese subs like back home. I'm thinking it's not vietnamese! Ohhh I love those too and will be VERY excited to find them. Ahhh, I'm getting hungry just thinking about the food.
So Day 1 we visited the market and I'm now very stoked to get to Hoi An to get clothes made and just shop til I drop. There is such amazing pottery here that's SO cheap. I wish I could send some home. Alas, I'll have to just be inspired and do a half ass job attempting to replicate it at home! I am getting some good ideas though.
After having the best mango shake in the world (30cents) at a stall in the market we headed to the war remnants museum. It was really upsetting, but definitely eye-opening. I knew a little bit of what went on, but they don't hold anything back there. There are very graphic photographs that are really unreal. I can't believe the stuff they captured on film. I also can't believe what went on. It's truly sick. How the hell do people do the things they do in war? We accidentally did the museum backwards so we weren't really doing the stories or whatever in order. So I was seeing all the photos of the massacres of these kids, pregnant women, grandmothers, grandfathers etc... And I was like who the hell could do this? I figured no one would purposely bomb elementary schools, churches and hospitals right? Nope, it was like 'kill any moving target'. I really had no idea what went on in the vietnam war - clearly. I knew there was some bad stuff, but NO idea this bad. One picture was of an American soldier laughing holding up part of a vietnamese body. Lovely. Another was of an old lady and some children and a journalist wrote that he yelled hold on, hold on, and they let him take a picture of them and then proceeded to kill them all. Phew, unbelievable. On top of all the photos and stories (which were absolutely appaling) they had a section on Agent Orange. The photos were graphic enough but they also had two jars with preserved deformed babies. f*%$ . I really can't believe they have that on display, but I suppose it really does get your attention.
So yah, it was a really intense museum. The next day we did yet another war related excursion, but this time a little more light hearted. We did a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Very cool. The Cu Chi people starting digging the tunnels by hand in the 40's and it took 26 years. So some people lived in them for that long! Crazy really, especially since I had a hard time spending 10 minutes in them! The network is over 200 km long which is nuts! I walked or crawled rather through 100m and that was PLENTY long enough for me. Plus they made them bigger for the tourists! They also showed all the booby traps they used and man they're crazy! Very harsh way to die, but it's kind of neat to think that the Americans had tanks and guns and tons of relatively high tech stuff and they got their asses kicked by the cuchi people and their bamboo booby traps. They also would take shrapnel and old bombs and melt the shrapnel down for spikes for the traps, and use the TNT in the bombs to make mines. Very brilliant.
Anywho, we're all toured out for now so we head next to Nha Trang, Vietnam's beach resort. Can't wait to lie on the beach for a few days! I must rest for the shopping that awaits me!

---

Photos

cu chi tunnels
juuust fitting in the tunnel entrance

cu chi tunnels
not recommended for claustraphobics