Ho Chi Minh city & the Mekong delta

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We are now in Vietnam and have been for nearly a week, we are staying with a friend in Ho Chi Minh city. Hanh, who we know from Bristol has very kindly been putting us up at her house which frankly has been like staying in a palace, we have clean sheets, air conditioning, hot water, a bath!!!, no bugs, cable TV and fantastic company. Needless to say we are so grateful to Hanh and just hope one day to return the favour, thankyou! We have been shown around the city and been taught a few words in Vietnamese to get us by, we have also been to some fantastic restaurants that I doubt we would have had Hanh not suggested them. Perhaps its because we're not so much on the tourist trail and not suffering the usual poor quality guest houses and the insistant sellers of all things tack and crap that is why we both think that Ho Chi minh city could be one of favourite cities so far. Once you get beyond the swarms of motorcycles and mopeds the city seems fairly relaxed, the people certainly aren't as intrusive (towards tourists) and the architecture and general feel give Ho Chi Minh city a peaceful ambiance. Don't be misled though, it is a busy place and traffic is constant I just think it is more accessable than other big cities we have visited.

It's not hard to notice that Vietnam is a communist country, reminders are everywhere particularly the red national flag with the yellow star and statues of Ho Chi Minh. For those of you who don't know, Ho Chi Minh was the leader of communist north who began the initial conflict with the south Vietnamese and French/Americans or the Vietnam war as most will know it. Its actually refered to the American war here. Uncle 'Ho' as he's affectionately known did not see out the end of the war and the victory of the north as he died in 1969. His image is everywhere and having a city renamed after him makes him all the more difficult to avoid. Curiously though, most people we have met refer to the city with its former name, Saigon. So from now on, so am I, its easier to type.

We have explored the city quite a bit and have visited various galleries and the fine art museum. The museum isn't much to write home about, well at least its content isn't, however the building is fantastic. It was originally a French colonial merchants building and is very grand although in quite bad state of repair. The artwork inside is very good and covers various stages of Vietnamese art from the ancient to the modern, sadly though it isn't particularly well looked after with some of the mounted drawings acting as a breeding ground for mildew. Like Cambodia the arts are doing well here, there are galleries on every street with work to rival some of London's top independants, definetley a place to find an investment from as litle as $2000. But if new modern Vietnamese paintings aren't your thing the reproductions available of Van Gogh or Da Vinci's are as good as originals (well, some of them). Hanh parted with $25 for as good-as-damn-it real waterlillies by Monet. Talking of replica's, Saigon is also home to a (not quite exact) copy of Notre Damme. The French were obviously so proud of their cathedral they thought they would build another one. Its bizzare seeing it here with motorbikes whizzing past and asians asleep under its spires. It reminds me of the teleporting castle in count Duckula (if you haven't seen this cartoon then your either too young or too old and neither should be an excuse.)

There is loads to do in and around Saigon, perhaps too much for one week. One of the popular excursions is to the cu chi tunnels which the Viet Cong used to infiltrate Saigon and the surrounding areas. You can travel several metres through them which I am told is quite good fun however we decided to give them a miss. Although they are no doubt very interesting to see they wouldn't of suited Helen's claustraphobia and to be honest I didn't really relish the thought of getting stuck behind a hysterical tourist several feet below ground. Instead we booked a two day tour to the Mekong delta but not before we visited Saigon's war remnants museum. The war museum was originally called the 'museum of Chinese and American war crimes' but both countries have since been omitted from the title, however having visited the museum I think they probably should have remained, at least the Americans. I have never seen such a biased account of history, the museum documents virtually every horrifying aspect of the war except of course for the part of the victors. Once again I was reminded that we are in a communist country, the museum felt like a propaganda house. Some of the content was very harrowing particularly the exhibition about 'agent orange' - the powerful herbicide the US military used as a defoliant to expose the enemy during the war. The chemicals from the defoliant have caused various illness' including genetic defects and cancer which are all to clear with photographs of affected vietnamese and two real foetus' in jars of formaldehyde illustrating the genetic malformations of the unborn. It was sickening. (I feel the need to note that the US argue that there is no proven link between agent orange and cancer or genetic defects. Fact or not the communist party of vietnam clearly think so as do many US servicemen who were affected by the chemicals) Not unlike Toul Sleng in Cambodia the war remnants museum was a sobering experience. After we left I couldn't help wondering if an American equivalent would be as biased, I would hope not. I have read that after the reunification of Vietnam and the movement of the capital from Saigon to Hanoi in the north that the government has made no attempt at national reconcilliation. There are no memorials for the 250,000 southern dead and some south Vietnamese soldiers are still refused jobs. Apparently the tensions between the north and south continue although the desire to move forward and become a part of the countries succesful economy seems to be more important for the average vietnamese. In many ways I can see paralells with China. Like China, Vietnam is a one party state with a burgeoning economy but with the paradox of little or no political and religious freedom. I keep seeing statistics about foreign investment in both countries and how there economies are accelerating forward but can't help but wonder how they can continue as communist countries whilst embracing capatilism and consumerist ideals. This is not marxism or lenin's communism its a bastardised version that for now seems to be working, at least on a monetary level.

On Friday we left early for the Mekong delta. The Mekong river starts its life in China, working its way south forming part of the border between Burma and Loas and Loas and Thailand before entering Cambodia and Vietnam and then breaking off into nine subsidaries known as Cuu long or the nine dragons. Our trip in Virtnam took us to Vinh Long and Cantho, both of which (amongst others) act as trading towns along the river. On our first day we visited a small town and saw how rice paper and various types of coconut sweets are made. We also saw how rice crispies are made which was fun; first the husk is removed from the rice and then the rice is thrown into a wok of heated sand whch was blackened with the continous heat, the rice then pops under the pressure of the heat like pop corn and forms what we know as rice crispies. After this we got to taste particularly sweet rice crispy cakes, yum. That night we stayed in Cantho where I sampled the culinary delights of river snake. It was more chewy than delightful, I think I would give it a miss next time. The following morning we got up at 6am to visit the floating market and then visited a rice production factory where we politly declined the rice wine, 8am's a bit early, even for a little tipple. After this we travelled down river seeing how the mekong people live and returned to Cantho for lunch before heading back to saigon.

Sunday was spent relaxing at Hanh's spa where we had full body massages, a sauna, lunch and use of the pool. Helen also had a wax, naturally I wanted one but apparently they didn't have enough wax for my hairy legs! It was very very decadent but sooo worth it. In the evening we went for dinner with our friend khaleel (from our China trip) who was passing through Saigon on to Phnom Penh. After dinner we went for a cocktail at the top of the hotel Caravelle in the 'Saigon Saigon bar' which has views all over the city, very cool.

We are leaving for Da Lat on Wednesday which is in the mountains and is home to much lower and humane temperatures. Helen is very excited about this although she is feeling a bit of the flu at the moment. I think the massage on Sunday must have disturbed some travel bugs and made them manifest themselves. Hopefully the mountain air will sort them out. Until then I will be a dutiful husband and ignore her while I write another travel blog. Ha, you know i am joking. I have already made 11 cups of tea, poured 8 glasses of water, 6 glasses of juice, made three rounds of toast, been to the shops, twice, ran a bath, bought chocolate..... Its all true.

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