Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Howdy avid followers! Hope everyone is well and that by the time you read this Mayo are crowned the new All Ireland champions. (Sorry Hels)
We left Phu Quoc in low spirits, feeling as though going forward was futile as the best had already past. However we arrived in Can Tho (the main city in the Mekong Delta) and quickly booked a boat trip to see the floating markets, in order to keep ourselves active.
The next day we arose very early (our boatman picked us up at 5:30 with a big bag of baguettes and bananas for our breakfast) soon we were seated in our little boat ready for a seven hour tour of the Mekong delta and some floating markets. Not long after we reached the first market...a frenzy of activity...all sorts of fruit and veg being bought and sold by intrepid Vietnamese ladies, steering boats with one hand and weighing produce with another. A boat approached and we were offered ca-phe sua nonh (hot filtered Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk) by a little floating cafe. The woman quickly made the coffees with her right hand while she kept astride our boat by using her left! The
markets were followed up by scenic bobbing on tiny tributaries (which Ed said reminded him of the film Apocalypse Now, endlessly cruising down the Mekong) The trip was fantastic right up to five and a half hours,after which the scenery all became "same same but different" (favourite saying in these parts of the world) and our arses ceased to have feeling. We nearly cried with joy when we finally approached the pier....not least as the skies had blackened and a down pour had just begun. Can Tho held little else of interest so we quickly abandoned for the bright lights of Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon).
Saigon a city of 10 million people and over 4 million scooters. Vietnams major cities are well known for their crazy traffic and bizarre rules for crossing the road; you walk very slowly and they simply drive around! Not as fearful as we expected but I suspect this is due to plenty of practice dodging auto rickshaws, trucks and camels in India. We needed to get visas extensions for Vietnam and so have been in Saigon for longer than we intended...it's a great city, so no great sufferance there. The city is
really young and vibrant, its bright and tacky and forever moving.
On our first day we booked an almost obligatory tour for tourists to the Cu Chi tunnels and Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is like the mongrel of religions, exclusive to Vietnam. It picks the best bits of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism etc etc and worships all sorts of prophets from Jesus to Leonardo Da Vinci. The temple was immense with gawdy colours and designs...we watched a short ceremony involving many brightly robed followers and were quickly sheparded back on the bus by our guide. After lunch we were brought to the Cu Chi tunnel site. Now I'm not a fan of war sites but I guess its better to see than be ignorant! The tour was really good, our guide had worked as an interogator/interpreter for the Americans during the Vietnam war (known as the American war by Vietnamese), his story was fascinating and helped bring some reality to this "tourist attraction". First stop was a short documentary which felt a little propaganda-ish to me, this was followed by the option to shoot some monsterous guns! By now we had made friends with a Kiwi (Peter) and so
egged on by him, Ed decided to have a bash at an AK47. I am very worried! He hit the target numerous times with his 10 bullets while everyone else sent shots randomly around the air. The final piece of the tour was to see the tunnels used by the Viet Cong guerrillas to launch attacks on US forces. The tunnels have been widdened to accomodate Western tourists. We crouched and squatted our way through about 30 metres of tunnel (which felt like a mile). It was horrendous! All in all a very informative day and we returned to Saigon exhausted.
The rest of our time has been spent walking the streets of Saigon and viewing its various sights and markets. This pavement pounding, coupled with six flights of stairs to our hotel room has resulted in Mr Carroll whinging about a sore hip like an auld fella. Our bargaining skills have also become finely tuned in our time here...working on the principal of only pay a quarter of the asked price and in general we reach agreement at a third, in other words all presents will fall apart after 2 days so don't expect much. Our sight seeing
here has been mainly of the religious sort...ranging from the superbly tacky Chinese style Pagoda (Jade Emperor) to lunch at the Central Saigon Mosque (delicious curry with rice and bread for 3 dollars between us...I kid you not) and Sunday mass at Notre Dame cathedral (a smaller copy of the Parisian version). Feeling suitably enlightened we are ready for road again!
Tomorrow we travel to Dalat for some cooler climes and countryside, followed by a quick return trip to Saigon in order to pick up our passports (visa extensions) and fly to Hai Phong in the north of the country...more from there!\
26th Sep 2006: after Dalat we returned to Saigon for a day before flying north. Not much to report but we walked down around Cholon (China town) it wasn't quiet as atmospheric as we expected but I have added a few pictures for all to see.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.117s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 17; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0744s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Helen
non-member comment
Amy, you Munster traitor! Up the Kingdom!