Blogs from District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 4

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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 September 23rd 2016

I can still recall quite vividly being at Teachers College in assembly and wondering what on earth those exec guys were going on about - invading Vietnam - who cares about some Asian place nobody's ever heard of? To my shame I was super ignorant and and scoffing of their calls to protest the war. Well, what can I say apart from that I was young and stupid and ignorant of how the world really worked. Fast forward a few years when the actual reality and horror and futility and lies about America's involvement were becoming common knowledge and I felt rather small. That's a way of introducing my visit to the Cu Chi tunnels, the preserved remains of an underground network of tunnels that were used by the Vietnamese to attack, survive and exist within ... read more
HCM City
Vietnam:  Cu Chi Tunnels
Vietnam: Man trap

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 September 22nd 2016

Wellington to Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City in 14 hours. Not bad eh? The only small hiccup when we had left home, courtesy of Pete Wear being our taxi driver, was getting to the Wellington Stadium after 30 minutes in morning rush hour traffic for Lyn to suddenly ask: "Where's my red bag?" Said red bag with all her promo material was on the bed in the spare bedroom. A quick turn-a-round, back home, pick up bag and into the rush hour again. We made it. After that, all plain sailing. Lyn was in Business class to HCM and I lucked out, having only two seats in my row, both empty, so I could stretch out. Relative comfort. I was allowed to visit the elite at the front end of the plane and her majesty ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 July 21st 2016

Decided that today would be another Sunday with a bit of a stroll in the park, a bit of sightseeing and a wander through one or two of the shopping malls. Grabbed a couple of croissants and headed to the park to have a quiet breakfast but was accosted by a couple of guys who wanted to practice English, an Irish junky who wanted to know where to get heroine and wouldn't leave even when I told him I didn't have a clue. Then the touts descended selling sunglasses and all manner of useless crap and the last straw was the hookers who wondered if I wanted a massage with a happy ending. The only bloody happy ending I wanted was to left in peace so I abandoned the park and headed for a shopping mall ... read more
Skyscraper

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 July 20th 2016

A lazier day today. Walked down to my favourite cafe round the corner from the hotel and found the pavement blackened, fire engines and cops everywhere, asked if there had been a fire but no, they were filming a scene for a local movie. Sadly they already had a star and didnt need another but fun to watch. Then walked to the War Remnants museum. What a powerful display that is. It should be compulsory viewing for all Americans. I'm probably already coming across as rabidly anti-American but when you look at the thousands of tons of chemical and biological weapons they dropped here, defoliants, dioxins and gases, not to mention the massacres of women and children and the beheading of villagers in a country they had no place being at all, in direct contravention of ... read more
WMD
The modern face of HCMC
Notre dame

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 July 20th 2016

Departure from Singapore without a hitch. Nearly 2 hours flying to Saigon. Even tho it's officially Ho Chi Minh City since 1975 - most people in the "south", young and old, still call it Saigon - the name that the French gave to it. Very quick stop at the Visa on Arrival counter - and then through Passport Control. Now the big test - will I get through Vietnamese Customs X-ray with the health supplements for friends, the daily vitamins/tablets that I take, the diabetes insulin as well as the test strip and needles. The 3 persons manning the X-ray machine were too busy talking with each other, looking at their mobile fones (possible playing pokemon Go) to worry what I had in the bags. Out through the waiting hoards - then decision time. Will I ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 July 19th 2016

I felt good to be going back to Vietnam. Hard to believe my first visit since being there in 68/69/70 during the time of the war was in 2012 - and since this is my 10th visit! Sad to be going back without Kathie - but she will come over mid August with a small group we have that will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan - where we will visit the memorial at the site of there the battle took place and 18 Diggers lost their life. I had to come earlier because we have arranged to rent a 2-bedroom house from end of July until 17 Oct. This would be our attempt at "living" in Vietnam - a chance to see how we handle the heat, the food, the atmosphere ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 July 17th 2016

Deuxième partie de mon séjournau Vietnam : Saigon (à présent Ho Chi Minh Ville), puis le delta du Mekong. Saigon est, dans d'ambiance, un peu comme Hanoi, mais avec davantage de grandes avenues et des grattes ciels (pour faire bref). Lieux marquants : le musée de la guerre, qui décrit et présente pas mal de photos des horreurs perpétrées par les américains pendant la guerre. Là non plus, on est forcement pas trop dans l'objectivité, mais c'est tout de même très intéressant. Aussi, les tunnels de Cu Chi, galeries dans lesquelles se cachaient les Viet Cong, pas loin de Saigon. Là aussi, la nourriture est remarquable, et différente de celle de Hanoi et de celle de Hoi An. Le delta du Mekong est un endroit propice pour faire des balades en bateaux, voir des marchés flottants, ... read more
Delta du Mekong
Selfie balade en bateau dans le delta du Mekong
Delta du Mekong

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 May 7th 2016

Saturday morning was my last in Vietnam, and a hangover wasn't going to stop me from making the most of it. I had purposefully arranged a red-eye out that night so I had the full day, but this meant I'd arrive at 4:30am Sunday in Dubai, with Sunday being the start of the work week. I did manage to arrange for a 2pm checkout, so at least I'd be able to shower after inevitably sweating all morning and be slightly less gross for my flight that night. Around 9:30 I headed down to breakfast for one last amazing Asian buffet, then ran out to get more dongs since I'd be hitting up the market. My hotel had free shuttles to the main market, Ben Thanh, so I arranged for the 10:30 one and had a quick, ... read more
Just gutting some fish at Ben Thanh!
Aircraft outside the Vietnam War Remnants Museum
Fairly horrifying depiction of a war detainee

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 May 6th 2016

Thursday and Friday were overall pretty low-key. Finally I got a good night's sleep, so moving forward there should be no more jetlag :-) Thursday was a full day of work - I spent the first half of the day with my admissions counterpart and the second half leading a training for the whole Southeast Asia team. Lunch was catered by the restaurant I had gone to on my first day, propaganda, but they screwed up my order so instead of the duck curry I got duck spring rolls. Life goes on. After the work day was over I grabbed a Filipino beer with my trainee to kill time before our dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Lebanese, Brazilian - Ho Chi Minh City has it all - can't say I would have chosen to eat either ... read more
First motorbike ride!
Vietnamese Hot Pot
Vietnam team at Vuvuzela

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1 May 4th 2016

After putting in a few hours or work the first full day I met up with the Regional Director for Southeast Asia for a drink at the hotel bar before our other colleague joined us for dinner. Oddly enough we ended up at a Lebanese place complete with belly dancers and blaring music. It was an outdoor-ish restaurant, which was the style of many restaurants here, a semi-enclosed garden/patio-style place. It had fans blowing but it was still above 90 degrees at at 8:30pm so it wasn't exactly comfortable. We had a bottle of red, some assorted meze, and a mixed grill - all really good, but the meat portion took probably 45 minutes to arrive. I was still somewhat jet-lagged and had also been up since 4am, so once dinner was done I was ready ... read more
Cyclo parade!
Thiên Hậu Temple
Trying to not be awkward




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