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Published: November 3rd 2012
Phu Quoc island has all sorts of interesting sights and activities to captivate you during a visit, including beautiful waterfalls to swim under, lush forests to hike through, and colorful coral reefs to snorkel across… We didn’t do any of it. For three straight days, we stayed put at our little seaside hotel, the
Bo Resort, and simply enjoyed the postcard scenery from the comfort of our beachfront bungalow. It didn’t matter that it was grossly overpriced for a minimalist back-to-nature type of hotel, since the food was so damn good and the French-Vietnamese owners hilariously friendly. Furthermore, given how difficult it was to get there (see last blog entry), we weren’t about to chance leaving the place unless it was absolutely necessary. Sadly, that moment came soon enough, since we had pre-booked tickets on the early morning ferry to
Rach Gia on October 23
rd.
During our stay at the Bo Resort, the blocked access road that made our arrival so unexpectedly “energetic”, never did get cleared. But at least we were able to prepare ourselves a bit better for our departure. Up until this point, we had been questioning the wisdom of dragging along with us across
Asia, our kids’ bicycle helmets. But suddenly, we could not have been more pleased about that decision. And so after completing the more treacherous portion of the path out of our hidden away eco-resort by foot, we allowed our young children-
once again- to ride a motorbike for the remaining kilometer or two of road to our waiting taxi. True to proper Asian form, Sam rode nestled between his father and the driver, while Mimi rode up front, “big kid” style.
Much as was the case on our initial entry into the Mekong Delta, three days prior, our travel plans this day were to be filled with several unexpected “this-would-
neeeever-happen-in-Switzerland” kind of moments. After a smooth fairy crossing back to the mainland, we had been expecting to find representatives of the
Mekong Eyes Cruise company to take us over to the small ship that was to slowly and easily navigate us up to Saigon over the next three days. While we were relieved to actually be met at the port, we were confused when what we thought would be a 15minute car transfer turned into a 4 hour drive to another city further deep into the delta,
named
Can Tho. That is when we were explained that our cruise had already departed and we needed to catch up with it. Catching up didn’t consist only of a lengthy car ride, but also then involved a high-speed very James Bondish boat chase in a small motorboat that high-tailed its way across choppy waters to pull up alongside our still-moving cruise boat, onto which we had no choice but to leap! You can imagine the look of surprise on the faces of the other 10 cruise passengers when our little family strolled into the dining room to join them for lunch seemingly out of nowhere. One Australian asked me, “how did you get on board, were you air-lifted in??”… and all I could answer was “Oh, noooo, that would have been far too easy.”
Our three day cruise through the
Mekong Delta did prove to be sufficiently leisurely and the kids took very well to life on an antique Vietnamese Junk boat. So much so that when we checked into our little hotel in Saigon (the
A&EM on Le Thanh Ton), Sam asked why it wasn’t moving. Among the highlights of this boat trip were the
visits to a couple more floating markets, as well as a rice noodle factory. It was also fun meeting some of the other passengers, an eclectic mix of travellers from various corners of the world, some of which we were to cross paths with again further into our Vietnam travels.
By the time we got to
Saigon (officially known as
Ho Chi Minh City), an entire month had passed since we first embarked on this adventure. A month filled with so many thrilling and exciting moments that we’ve barely felt it zoom by. It was also been a month filled with lots of rice and noodles. So we took advantage of being in super glamorous cosmopolitan Saigon to indulge in some quality western food, including fabulous pizzas at the trendy
Lucca Trattoria, not so fabulous fajitas at the Australian
Al Fresco, and surprisingly authentic Brittany crèpes at
La Creperie, down the road from our hotel. The buffet lunch at the 50
th floor of the new
Bitexco Financial Tower with its sweeping views across Saigon was pretty memorable too (and an absolute bargain give that the kids ate for free and access was free, while we would have
had to pay $32 to check out the view from the “sky deck” on the 43
rd floor!) But topping all our meals in Saigon was undoubtedly the homemade feast prepared for us by the very talented Na, the Vietnamese wife of an American friend, Don Harper, who hosted us in their lovely home, a banana plantation on the outskirts of town. Don and Na’s children are around the same age as ours and we had to practically pry our kids away at the end of the evening because they were having so much fun.
A visit to Saigon is not complete without taking in some history lessons on the Colonial and American occupations here during the previous century. This came in the form of a visit to the slightly surreal and very kitsch Independence Hall or
Reunification Palace (there still isn’t consensus among the Vietnamese on the correct name)- a true time capsule from the 70s, kept exactly as it was last used by South Vietnam's last president, Duong Van Minh (Big Minh) up until April 30th, 1975, when a North Vietnamese tank stormed the palace grounds and Saigon officially fell to the Communists. Interestingly enough, it
was Big Minh who led the coup to depose Vietnam’s first President, Ngo Dinh Diem, who was the leader who had commissioned this palace’s construction (to replace the colonial Norodom Palace that used to house the French governor on the same location.) In the end, both these presidents ended up in exile in France.
While Lea took the kids to Saigon’s rather dreary, litter-filled zoo and
botanical park, Arnaud braved the
War Remnants Museum, which offers an even grimmer experience, illustrating through photos and other grisly visual displays the brutal realities of the Vietnam war, known here as the American war. What’s oddly ironic in Saigon is the overt enthusiasm today for all things French or American. It speaks to the complete absurdity and futility of war when everything each side so fiercely fought for seems to be so meaningless just 40 years later.
It was with similar thoughts of irony that we gazed down each day on the beautiful tree-filled grounds of the French consulate from our hotel room, located in one of the city’s lovelier old colonial compounds. And it is indeed this French architectural legacy that made us fall in love
with Saigon, from the
Notre Dame Cathedral to the Gustave Eiffel-designed
Saigon Central Post Office to the grandiose opera house and town hall. Perhaps it is our nostalgia for Europe mixed with our current love for Asia, but we now find ourselves skimming through job vacancy sites for positions in Ho Chi Minh City. Should you know of any that might suit either of us, do send them our way!
NEW NOTIONS OF LUXURY:
- A glass of drinking water available freely from a tap
- Enjoying an evening outdoors without coating ourselves in mosquito repellant
- Choosing clothes out of a closet rather than a suitcase
- Crossing the street at a red light without dodging a constant stream of scooters
- Our kids sleeping in a separate bedroom.
- A bedroom cool enough to warrant a blanket
- Real parmigiano cheese
- Feeling certain your waiter/taxi driver understood your request
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Susan Jenny
non-member comment
Viet Nam from all sides
You are really doing a great job of seeing the country - from the land, from the sea, from the air -loved the shot of Sam and Eva on top of the hotel looking down on Saigon. It must be a lovely city. Hermann mentioned the baguettes when he visited back in the 1970's, what impressed you the most besides the European food opportunities? Trust the rest of the stay there will be equally revealing, enjoy!