Some messing about in boats

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Hi, we have spent the last week in southern Vietnam.

In Saigon, we found a lovely guesthouse, unfortunately our room was on the 6th floor (with no lift of course). The buildings are very narrow, and there are usually only two rooms on each floor. So lots of exercise climbing up and down stairs....

As you can see from the photo, the roads are pretty much choked with motor scooters. To cross the road you just start walking slowly across it, and the scooters toot their horns and ride around you (as long as you are not moving fast).

We walked around the centre of Saigon, and were reminded again of the conflicts which plagued this area over 30 years ago, including the Viet Cong's museum of American behaviour during the period, such as agent orange victims, political prisoners etc...

We took a one day tour to a nearby Caodist Temple, with the midday service in progress. This religion fuses elements of 4-5 others so has pretty unique imagery and decorations. This also took us to the Chu Chi tunnels, which also had displays of home made Viet Cong man traps, and innovations such as an underground kitchen with smoke diffusing chimney stack.

The high point of the trip was clambering through a section of tunnel which has been restored and enlarged so as to not freak the tourists out too much (or to stop them getting stuck if they are large). The atmosphere of the tunnel was very hot and humid, and it did give you a feel as to what it would have been like spending time underground in the tunnels.

We then headed off on a three day tour around the Mekong Delta (where we spent Christmas day). This took in the locals life on the river, with many stops at villages making products such as coconut candy, rice paper and crocodile textiles - all of which you could buy 😊

We visited a couple of floating markets as well, although the second one was pretty much over by the time we arrived, due to our boat breaking down. In any event, the first one was the largest in the Mekong Delta, and included real boat people - who live on their boats and make their living from the markets.

We also visited several islands in the Mekong, which had canals cut though the interiors, to act as a local transport system. These were travelled either in small motor boats or row boats, and nicely shaded by water coconuts.

We are now presently at a beach - Mui Ne where we have been the last couple of days. It took a 6 hour bus trip to travel the approx 250 km's from Saigon, mainly due to the main highway mostly being a small two lane road heavily used by motor scooters and slow trucks. It's a nice quiet spot where you can spend the day lounging in front of the water, and be entertained by the local fishing fleet at Sunset (and early morning).

We plan to be here for the next day or so before heading further north.

S & S

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Photos

Messing about in boats
Us out to observe some local handi-crafts being made

Saigon traffic
Crossing the road takes a bit of courage sometimes.....

Caodist Temple
Had lots of Eye's stenciled into the decorations

ChuChi Tunnel entrance
Which consisted of a rather small "spider hole"

Sandra in the tunnel
We had some worried Koreans behind us for this - not liking our photo stop :-/ This was the "tourist tunnel" too - the one they enlarged for Europeans...