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Published: November 16th 2007
The rains finally got us!
Tail end of Typhoon Peipah descended on us for a day before leaving and taking all the waves with it tooSo its blog time again! We've pretty much done everything we wanted to do touristwise in Saigon, so think its a safe time to wrap it up in a blog before we get on the road to Phnom Penh. We'll see what we can pull together here!
We wrapped up in Mui ne, after having 3 surfs in total, waves dỉed down, wind dropped, so it was no more surf for the lads 😞 . It rained quite a lot one of the days, and we gathered all our books and our south east asia lonely planet and spent the day in the pub reading and drinking beer, stopping only to eat dinner, before we continued on. Thats the thing with Mui ne, if the sun isn't shining there isn't much to do, but we did like it I have to say.
So lots of tourist activities in Saigon. We're liking it here, its different to Hanoi, and crossing the road is a little easier- altho Paul is still strictly confined to hand holding duty for all road crossing events! The touristy centre is more manageable with the places to eat and drink all bunched together (at
Surfs up!
Nice to get back in the water, could rent boards for 10 dollars for an hour. No need for wet suit :D ... NOTE: Yes I KNOW I still have a belly and yes I KNOW most people get really skinny after 3 months of travelling SE Asia, but come on the food is just too good here, and it does have a tan now at least :D ... ah sure its not that bad? if you poke it Il giggle least where we are staying). We have a nice hotel Ngoc Binh for $12 a night including internet and breakfast with aircon, so we're not doing too bad. (Fear vietnam has spoilt us quality wise when it comes to accomadation and service, and we may find it hard to go back from flashpacker to backpacker). Our first day we went to the reunification palace in Saigon. This is where the South Vietnamese president stayed and conducted business until the day the northern Vietnamese army drove their tanks through the gates when they suceeded in winning the south back in the Vietnam war. It hasnt been changed since that day so is really 1960's in it's decor in some of the rooms. It has a helicopter on the roof left there since the war, and a couple of tanks out front and a fighter jet, so it was a 'little' boys paradise.. Paul thought it was ok too. In the basement of the palace, they had a command centre, with all the old phones, and typewriters, and maps and co-ordinates all over the walls.
Straight after that museum, we went to the war remnants museum. That was quite a
sombre visit. They had a lot of photos of children and adults who were born deformed as a result of their mothers and fathers exposure to agent orange during the Vietnam war. They even had two jars containing foetuses , one of siamese twins and the other foetus had an enlarged skill and cleft palate; the two obviously hadn't survived childbirth or long after. It's amazing really how much the Vietnamese have moved on since the war. From the official side they seem to have decided to promote positive relations with the US after the war, and also to encourage people to move on from it all. We have met people who will remain nameless, who really wanted South Vietnam to remain a democracy (they can be put in prison here for saying they dont like communism or for making any critisms of it). But for the most part Vietnam seems to be a modernising county, whose economy is growing fast. They have no welfare system etc, but its hard to really get a good grasp of what the people think given the controls on freedom of speech. The people in the north seem happy, but then they were communist
to start with? Hmm, I wont pretend to be an expert, but its gas, we've seen some video's and documents and photo captions in museums that are definitley the governments attempts to warp the truth of things. All the photos of American Vietnam War demonstrations have photos with captions saying '50,000 Americans supporting the North Vietnamese Army in ridding the South of their puppet president etc etc' which isn't the truth at all But for the most part, as a tourist, Vietnam has been a great country, a great experience, and the people have been wonderful.
Anyway, our 2nd day, we decided to give history a break, and went to the Suio Thien amusement park. Hopped on a local bus, (only tourists on board) and off we went. The park was good in lots of ways, didnt have that many rides, and definitley nothing too impressive. But the structures and monuments were fairly cool. We went on the roller coaster (I wondered about that-going on a Vietnamese roller coaster, given asian safety standards). We had a seat belt with a clip like a airplane seatbelt, and then a u-shaped metal harness thing that comes down over your head.
Now on a normal roller coaster, these lock just before the roller coaster takes off, but ours didn't. I waved frantically at the guy working there and he shrugged me off nodding suggested he knew and it was ok. We were sorry we hadnt had a good look at the track then before we got on the ride, but knew there was no loops at least, thank god. Well it was a rickety ride, and HIGH HIGH HIGH, but it wasnt too hairy (or at least it wouldnt have been if we'd be properly strapped in) and we made it off it in one piece. We also went to their crocodile park. We were on a maze of low bridges over seriously crocodile infested waters. There were thousands of them, and the railing on the bridge was barely hip height. Lots of signs saying 'dont tease the crocodiles' or dont put your arms or bodies outside railing' AS IF!!!!! They had meat you could buy and put on a fishing rod to feed them, and there were people really 'teasing' them. Had to watch but from a distance. There were literally THOUSANDS of them... seriously!!! Scary creatures! We'd actually watched
a national geographic documentary late one night on crocodiles a few days before so it was paticularly unnerving! A bit of a thrill though, once you survived!! Also, The park had a little water park in it with a few slides so we went in there too to recouperate from all the excitement. It was like something out of a fairy garden. We left around 4pm and got back on the bus. The traffic was heavier, and the driver and conducter seemed to be in a hurry. The conducter leaned across our laps and out the window making nee naw noises and shouting at moto drivers and pedestrians to get out the the way for the whole journey. The driver and conducter were even shouting at one another, obviously about the effectiveness of the procedure/driving or something. Anyway, again, we survived another crazy day out on the vietnamese roads!
That night, we were out for a drink, and out of the blue, a girl Mairead Boyle, a neighbour of Pauls (in Shambogh) came up to us! She had been at John Staceys 30th a few weeks earlier and John had told her to look out for us, but
Reunification Palace, Uncle Ho
When the VC took Saigon in 1975 they headed straight for this Palace and broke through the gates with 2 tanks. This was the offices and war room of the "capitalist american puppet president" (not my words :) ) what are the chances! Anyway had a few drinks with herself, her boyfriend, and their travelling buddy (- Actually this is one for my mum: Conor Kiely, mother June, born 17/8/79 in the Coombe hospital - Think i may have been too - another coincidence). Anyway, they headed home at about 2am we think, but we were in high spirits after, so a nightcap turned into 2, and we met another two drunk but lovely irish lads from dingle, and didnt get home until oooer... 5am! A great night had by all, but unfortunatley we had booked into an all day trip for the next morning that involved getting up at 7.30am!
Another day of survival in Vietnam! We headed off on minivan for our day trip. Unfortunatley our plans for naps on the bus were scuppered as we were last to be picked up, so got the crappy fold down mini chairs on overcrowded minibus. We nearly cried, sleep deprived, and full of beer breath that we were! First stop anyway, was a workshop for the 'handicapped' (very un-politically correct; they were victims of agent orange in a goverment sponsered workshop). They worked at making mother of
pearl and eggshell designs on plates and pictures, fantastic intricate work. If we were just on holidays we would have bought some of the stuff.
Back on the bus then. We were on Highway 22 (the road to the cambodian border). We passed the junction where the Napalm attack by US army that burned Kim Phuc occured. Kim Phuc is the girl the book 'the girl in the picture' is about, a famous picture from the Vietnam war - see our photos below for a copy of the picture.Her clothes, pretty much were burnt at the back where her napalm burns are and fell off, or else she pulled them off from the heat. Napalm was like molton metal, extremely hot, the burns from it wẻre horrendous, if you managed to survive. We drove past what was once her mothers noodle shop (Mother, Father and Kim Phuc now live in Canada). We had both read the book and learnt lots about the Vietnam war from it so that was really interesting for us. Next stop was at a Caodai temple (religion built on various teachings from catholicism, hinduism, buddhism, and a couple of writings from poets and the
like). We got to come in for 'mass' and watch from the balcony - they have mass 4 times a day, but only really the old people get to go that much. Anyway there is a lot of dressing up, and chanting, and ceremony it seems about the 'mass', and Paul and I left halfway thru, partially cos of hangovers, and partially cos it felt wrong to be a spectator of someones religion with all the tourists taking photos and camera flashing etc.
{Paul is a few computers down from me at the moment, and as usual has the tedious job of resizing and uploading and putting captions on photo's while I sit here doing the usual waffle; so you should get a look at the temple and outfits and Kim Phuc when we upload this blog.}
Next was the highlight of the day, the Cu Chi tunnels. These were the tunnels that the viet cong (the communist supporters in the south during the war) hid in and attacked from during the war. The tunnel we were in was 'tourist sized', i.e. had been widened to be double the size for the larger westerners. There were 3
exit points, one after 30m, one after 60m, and one after 100m. We opted out at the first one, since it seemed to go much deeper underground at that point, and there was a lot of people in there! Paul said 'i could go on, but i think i'm done'. No arguments from me! 😊 There was also the option to shoot a range of guns, bazooka's etc, which we were tempted to do, but after the war remnants museum the day before, it seemed wrong or something. The hangover helped tho - the bangs were really loud and we'd both shot guns at cans down on a friends farm before, so we weren't hungering for the experience! At the tunnels also, we watched a black and white film about the war, which was definitley propaganda, probably filmed to show prisoners at the 're-education camps' (prisons). They are still re-education camps that u can get sent to for 3 months if you are vietnamese and complain about communism! I wont go on more, because I'll prob get stuff wrong, and some Vietnam History buff will be reading and post that i'm full of poop! Anyway, Paul's finally got his boy
fix with all the aircraft and tanks and war stuff, and we've both enjoyed learning about all this stuff in a practical way!
Anyway, then it was back to Saigon! We really enjoyed the trip, but felt guilty, as we spoiled it a bit for ourselves staying out so late the night before! A headache had been threatening for me all day, and really got bad on the bus home... There was not a pain killer to be had amongst the women on the bus, so tiger balm had to do. Thank god for it, it didnt get rid of headache, but calmed it down, until i got back to hotel. Had about half a tub all over forehead and temples and back of neck! So last night we went for a big feed (after the parecetomol of course), and bought some chocolate and watched HBO and Star movies with the air con on full from about 9pm. And today we've been really kind to ourselves, relaxing, gettin laundry done, booking our bus to Phnom Penh etc. Meeting Mairead and co. again tonight for a drink (now that we are sufficiently recovered, and have ZERO plans for tmrw),
My new mode of transport :D
Copy of a fighter Jet that bombed the Palace and maybe 2 guys from our Cu Chi tunnel trip, so we're back in the social loop again!
We've really liked Vietnam, we have to say! It has a lot going for it, and we really liked the people here. I think to get a feel for it, you have to do the whole coast, and it's taken us the month, we'll be just up on our months visa the day we leave. If the weather had been better, i'd say you would even need longer. Its still cheap here - cheaper than thailand, and better quality for what you are spending too. And it has surf, so it tick's all our boxes. We're ready to wrap up here now though, and onto to country number 4!
We're contemplating changing our flights; we've talked to a couple a people who've been to S. America. It sounds fantastic, and also we underestimated the distances involved so the more time the better. We also like the idea of spending xmas in a western country, but we'll have to see about costs etc for flight changes as we would have to change a few. This journey has been so
good to date, that we might also feel like we are backtracking a bit in Thailand; But sure whatever we do it'll be fun i'm sure!
Hope you're all well; i hear that grafton street has new christmas lights, and the bus guys are tempting strikes, and the birds dont know what season it is anymore!! Sure its all fun in Ireland eh!
Mind yourselves, and Miss you all! x
P.s. Vang vieng - Paul's Literary Masterpiece, is still low on the blog views, whose not reading??? He's feeling dejected and unmotivated now, may never blog again!
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Jack
non-member comment
Tunnels
If I ever go to Vietnam there is absolutely NO WAY I'm going into one of those tunnels. I'm suffering from claustrophobia just looking at the photos!! Just shows what can be achieved by determined low-tech locals against a "superpower".