Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon) & the Mekong Delta

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Hi All,

Saigon is my last stop in Vietnam.

I spent nearly a week here, and the city is great. I love it! The city is much bigger than Hanoi, in the north, but is much easier to go around. Yes, traffic is as bad here, if not worse. They have guys in green uniforms standing at some major cross roads helping the tourists to cross the roads. Sometimes...

I did a 2 day-tour in the Mekong Delta, south of Saigon. The Mekong starts its run in Nepal, goes through Laos, Thailand, and goes into the sea in Vietnam. The Delta is mainly cultural land, with rice & peanut growing. We spent hours on small boats going through the canals, little rivers and it was just perfect. The people are very friendly and many children wave at all tourists they see :-)

We visited 2 floating markets: to indicate what each boat sells, they attach a sample of it on the pole. There is a watermelon boat, a drink boat, a mixed vegetable boat etc.

Last night of the tour, we had a dinner with some people from Catalona and Walses and we tried the red vietnamese wine. Well, I don't recommend it yet.

I also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, outside of Saigon. These were the tunnels digged by the Viet Congs to hide from the Americans during the war. The network was approx. 250km long at one time, so they could move around easily and escape. Today, they have opened a couple of tunnels to the tourists but they had to enlarge them as the originals were 60cm high and 80cm wide, and us, tourists, could not fit in there as we are big:-). It was impressive ... they had hospitals, meeting rooms, kitchens everything.

Tonight is my last night in Vietnam, I am leaving tomorrow for Phnom Pehn, Cambodia's capital. Only a short stop to arrange transportation to Siem Reap, in the north, where the Angkor wat temples are.

Til later,

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Photos

Avenue in Saigon
A very quiet avenue in Saigon, on a Sunday afternoon

Mekong Delta
Sailing along the canal of the Mekong Delta

Along the Canals
we met many boat as this one, and everyone (or nearly) is wearing this type of hat. And when it's hot, its just very handy :-)