Advertisement
Published: October 29th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Thank you very much for everybody who has emailed us so far to let us know how they are getting on, anybody who hasn’t, where are you? We are a bit behind again in our updates as we are now in Laos but we will endeavor to catch up. For our descriptions of our 1 month in Vietnam we will rather alarmingly prove that history always repeats itself: we will initially concentrate on Saigon before dividing the rest of Vietnam between the North and the South.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) after being relieved of an exaggerated fare, we paid for a speedboat that was ‘full’ and were then down graded free of charge to a bus that took 6 hours, amusingly our guide on the bus was called ‘Like Em Yung’.
HCMC is a crazy city, a sprawling neon mopedopolis. Crossing the road is an experience in itself you literally take a (small) leap of faith from the curbside and walk very slowly and pray as a swarm of mopeds swerve around you. From above it must look like a small floating island drifting through a sea of lights (we later tried this in other
cities where this is not the rule to some near disastrous consequences!)
We visited the markets for our first taste of Vietnamese salesmanship, which consisted of some interesting tactics; one lady kidnapped Nat and held her until she bought something. We did all of our Christmas shopping here: everything sold there could be bartered down to a fifth of the original asking price. For a break from the markets we drank tea outside of a 24 hour chemist that was closed, but when opened apparently offered ‘natural water’ (I don’t want to know what we have been drinking), we then saw 2 men on a moped transporting a 6 foot tall mirror (see picture) whilst a man offered to polish G’s sandals, crazy city.
For our first meal out in HCMC we asked the hotel owner for a recommendation, he then walked us to a restaurant, which happened to be owned by his brother, where he sat with us for the whole meal, occasionally helping himself to our food. To escape from the hotel owner we went in search for a drinking spot and found a great little roof top bar that just so happened to show all
of the English Premiership matches, G was in his element. Suprisingly enough we proceeded to go there every night whilst in HCMC. G got so acquainted with the bar that at one point there was no one serving on the roof top so G found an internal phone where he then called down to the kitchen to order his beer.
From HCMC we visited the Mekong Delta where we saw coconut candy (Nat’s new favorite sweet) and honey being made and Nat held a Python (see picture). That evening we found a local restaurant where we ate a 2 course meal with a couple of Pepsi’s for 35 pence each. The next day we visited the floating markets on the Mekong, where the items sold on each boat are advertised on a pole (see picture).
Back in HCMC we visited the Presidential Palace, from where the war effort against the US, French and Australian allied forces was orchestrated and the reunification of Vietnam proclaimed after the war. We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels, an outdoor museum dedicated to the vast network of underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong right under the nose of the US occupied
Saigon. Here we saw how resourceful the VC were, making some pretty nasty weapons from the shells of US bombs. We experienced a small network of tunnels, recently built, to give an idea of how hot and cramped the conditions would have been. They have been made wider for Westerners, G tried to get into a real tunnel entrance (see picture) but was told he was too fat!!
It is hard for Vietnam to offer a true representation of the war as the Government would not allow anything other than total displays of heroism. The common misconception that the VC were able to defend themselves from the allied forces due to there jungle warfare expertise belies the fact that nearly all soldiers were from the cities, predominately Hanoi. Instead the hot and humid jungle conditions and lack of food meant many VC died of a range of ailments. The Cu Chi tunnels often collapsed under heavy bombardment and 25,000 soldiers and civilians were buried alive. The propaganda video that we watched before the tour did not mention this, instead it focused on how the tunnels represented the heroic struggle and the resourcefulness of the VC against the ‘evil and
imperial French and interfering US’. The video depicted a 16yr old girl who despite being ‘weak and peace loving’ was decorated for ‘continuously gunning down the enemy’. As also happened with the propaganda video at the reunification palace several Americans walked out of the viewing, I guess Fox reported things differently.
There was also a rifle range at the Cu Chi tunnels where G shot an M16. We had the chance to do this in Cambodia but there the weapons were a tool of genocide, in Vietnam for some reason G felt more comfortable holding a weapon of liberation (see picture).
The final stop from HCMC was at the Caodai temple where Caodaism is practiced, a religion that embraces aspects of several religions and belief systems on the East and West, including Catholisism, Confusianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Founded in 1920 this exceptionally colorful temple is home to all of its followers including a troop of Macaques. There are 4 ceremonies a day and we were privileged to witness one (see picture).
All Vietnamese bus tour guides seem to adopt the persona of Bill Hicks-esque stand up comedy with dramatic pauses after every joke, as if waiting for
the raucous laughter to die down. Usually after recalling horrific experiences, first hand, of war and famine they will laugh out loud.
The funniest part of Vietnam is the currency, it is called the Dong! $1 USD gets you 16,000 Dong. So in our one month in Vietnam we spent nearly 34 million Dong. Nat said she hasn’t seen that much Dong since college, G doesn’t know what she means.
As it is Monday morning enjoy the rest of our pictures from Vietnam .....
South Vietnam Until next time ........
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.038s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0552s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb