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Good Morning Vietnam!
My first daylit view of Vietnam, seen from the balcony of our guesthouse room. Almost all businesses had a Vietnamese flag waving out front, and the city landscape was dotted with colourful buildings. Imagine basically throwing yourself into traffic, with every fibre of your body urging you to "go, go, go!" while you must convince yourself to slowly shuffle along, giving drivers the opportunity to swerve around you. Your worst mistake is a quick, sudden move.
Welcome to Vietnam!
This past week in Japan is called Golden Week, as it has 3 national holidays in a row. Many Japanese people use it as an opportunity to travel within Japan or abroad, and my friend Alexis and I also seized this opportunity. After a 1 hour flight to Korea, a lengthy layover, and a 4 hour flight, we had arrived in Ho Chi Minh City.
One's first encounters with Ho Chi Minh City can only be described as sensory overload. Your ears are filled with honking, your eyes with people everywhere, your skin with the sensation of heat, your nose is tickled with the scents of exhaust and other smells of the city, and eventually your mouth is treated to many delicious, Vietnamese culinary delights.
We spent 2 days in and around the city, staying at a guest house. Guest houses are interesting as you stay with a family who uses
Breakfast Anyone?
This is the traditional Vietnamese breakfast of beef noodle soup, called Pho, with a fresh pineapple shake to wash it all down! the bottom floor of the hotel as their home. Whenever you leave or return, you often have to pass by the family having dinner, or relaxing in their small "living room."
Our first morning began with a bowl of beef noodle soup, called "Pho" (pronounced "fur" apparently). This is the traditional Vietnamese breakfast, and allowed me to reminisce of my beloved B and T Vietnamese restaurant at home.
We began to wander, and being overwhelmed, eventually gave into the plea of one of the many cyclo drivers in the city. He was a convincing salesman...he had a book full of glowing reports from previous passengers. The ride was rather humourous, as I climbed in and wondered how this was all going to work. The seating area looked big enough for one of us, or 2 very slender Vietnamese people. The result was Alexis sitting on my lap, and me watching traffic weaving around us haphazardly, while we were pedalled along by the very thin (and strong!) driver, as he calmly chatted away. He was a charismatic man who like many cyclo and taxi drivers we spoke to, said he had learned English from the American soldiers during the
The Kitchen Where Our Breakfast Was Cooked
Just a short jaunt across the alleyway, and breakfast was on the table! "American War" (interesting it's not called the Vietnam War as we all know it). He also told us that many children, including himself when he was younger, were too poor to go to school. We finally arrived at our destination, Ben Thanh Market, despite his pleas to go to another market as he said, "it's not safe there, many Vietnamese mafia, watch your purses." We insisted we would, and be rest assured, came out unscathed. The market is housed in a huge building, with rows upon rows of vendors. The market's slogan should be "if we don't have it, you don't need it."
The rest of the day we spent wandering, from time to time getting lost. We visited the War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City Museum, looked longingly at the Reunification Palace, which was closed for renovations, and also saw the outside of the grand building of the Hotel de Ville, where the People's Committee meets (tourists are not allowed to enter, and the guards stationed outside in boxes with guns gave me no desire to even try!)
Our second day, we took an excursion outside of the city to visit the Cao Dai Temple, and
Looking Out Over Alexis's Shoulder
This was taken while Alexis sat on my lap in the cyclo. Imagine: traffic mayhem, and a skinny Vietnamese man leisurely pedalling two girls through the chaos...A humourous site, I'm sure! the Cu Chi Tunnels, in which the Viet Cong had built an extensive tunnel network to hide underground during the war.
The day offered us another opportunity to talk with another Vietnamese man, our tour guide. He was a middle-aged man and had been an English teacher for many years. He had decided he wanted a break from teaching English and had become a tour guide in the interm. It was interesting to hear him speak, as he also said he had learned English from the American soldiers, and had fought alongside them. He was born in the South, and didn't believe in the communist cause. He referred to Ho Chi Minh City as Saigon (the name of the city before the war), and did not recognize the holiday of Liberation Day (the day when the war ended, which was actually the next day) as he felt there was nothing to celebrate. I think some of the most interesting times of my holiday were spent hearing these different perspectives of Vietnam from the people themselves.
The Cao Dai religion is a really interesting religious sect, which has about 2 million followers. The religion is a combination of Christianity,
The Authentic Ben Thanh Market
A bit larger than the B and T market I visit on Park Street at home! Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Poets and writers, including Victor Hugo, are regarded as saints, and the main symbol of the religion is a Divine Eye, which can be seen throughout the cathedral and on all of the members' clothing. The people wear red, blue, yellow, and white to represent the 4 different religions. We attended a noon ceremony, and it was eerie to see all of the members enter the cathedral, kneel, and bow in sync.
After the visit to the cathedral, we headed back towards Ho Chi Minh City, and visited the Cu Chi Tunnels on our way. We watched a video teeming with national pride ("in the war, every Vietnamese civilian had the opportunity to be a hero") before actually taking a tour of the tunnel premises themselves. Our guide demonstrated the many booby traps that were set up against the Americans (think sharpened, bamboo stakes covered with leaves), some tourists chose to fire the bullets of AK-47s and M16s for a dollar a piece, and then we entered a 100-metre section of the tunnels themselves. The tunnel we went into had been expanded to twice its normal size, and we still had to bend over to
Hotel de Ville
This is where the Peoples' Committee meets, and it features a statue of "Uncle Ho" himself out front. At night, this building is covered with gecko lizards. I was really impressed with the architecture of some of the buildings throughout the city. make our way through. It was incredibly dark, hot and claustrophobia-inducing. It's mind boggling to think that the Viet Cong soldiers lived for months and months in these tunnels, crawling on their hands and knees, and rarely saw daylight. What the human body can endure...
We returned to Ho Chi Minh City, and organized a 2-day trip to the Mekong Delta for the next day. Our Vietnam adventure was just beginning...
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Marc
non-member comment
Looks like fun!!
That ice cream sounds delicious! I want some! Your trip looks like great fun. I hope to get there someday! Hmmm, this comment is all about what I want. Sorry. I can't wait to hear about your trip, in full detail, complete with sound effects and pictures.