Week 1 - Saigon and Mekong Delta

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Hey All! In our first week we spent 4 fast paced days in Saigon (/Ho Chi Min City), and 3 days traveling around the Mekong Delta.

Saigon was quite an experience. I liked it from the beginning, but by the last day I was ready to escape to a slower pace. The first day (post nap) we spent exploring the non-touristy district 3 (the city is separated into 12 districts, district 1 being the tourist center). After getting to know the city and eating very good pho, we spent the next three days getting all the touristy things done: museums and hotels in the main area, pogadas all around the city, and then a tour of Cao Dai temple (a religion that is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, and something else) and a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels (Viet Cong tunnels). One of the most absurd parts was in the Cu Chi tunnels, they have a shooting range of AK 47's and other guns used during the Vietnam War.

The thing that stuck with me most about Saigon is the motorscotters, and life on the sidewalks. Sidewalks are used for everything - for walking of course, but also for restaurants, extension of stores, cigarette sellers, and worst of all they are used as two way streets during rush hour. Getting used to everything on the sidewalk was all fine, until on the second day we walked home during rush hour. THAT WAS INTENSE. First of all the motorbikes never follow normal driving protocol. Not just during rush hour but all the time. For example, they go the wrong way on the street, turn left into on coming traffic, and run red lights. But all of this was fine, once we got used to crossing the street at a slow pace looking both ways continuously. But adding an endless sea of cars, and constant traffic on the sidewalk was extremely difficult. You never get a break from looking around you! There was a couple of close calls, but luckily we made it through in tact, and vowed to not walk during rush hour again!

Another comment on the motorbikes - one of my favorite things is how the kids sit on them. In the US, I've never seen a kid on a motorcycle, but here they are everywhere, even little babies. Sometimes their parents just hold them in, and sometimes they have actually bothered to buy some kind of seat contraption for them. You'd think after a week of this, I'd get used to it, but for some reason it still puzzles and amuses me constantly.

Anyways, after Saigon we decided to go to a little non touristy town in Mekong Delta called Ben Tre. It was so non touristy that on our minibus (of only Vietenemse) to get there, two students were very puzzled as to why we would want to go there. When Dan answered for "fun", they said, "we don't think it is a fun place." Also on our bus we were quite scrunched up as we were seated on the wheel. One student said she would try to get us better seats, but the other student responded, “No, they want the challenge.” He had decided since we went to non touristy places on a local bus, we also would choose to be as uncomfortable as possible, it was pretty priceless.

When we got there it was pouring rain, to the point that it looked like a scene from twister. We decided to stay at a hotel run by the communist party that was very strange. It was a huge building, that was completely vacant. It’s hard to describe, but it was one of the weirdest places I’m sure I will ever stay in but at $12 a night it is hard to be too disappointed. Also, at night there was a karaoke party for members of the party.

The next day we woke up and miraculously it was not raining, so we went to take a boat trip on the Mekong. We quickly found a guy to take us for $7 an hour on a 3 hour trip. The trip started with a motorbike ride to get to his boat that consisted of taking the back roads some of which were only a foot wide and most of which were three feet wide. We ended up extending the trip to include a home stay on an island, and it was one of the most memorable days we’ve had so far (and only $10/person for lodging, lunch, dinner, and breakfast). After the boat trip, which included a walk on an island that was so muddy we couldn’t wear our shoes, we went back to the home stay for a delicious and huge lunch. Then the family asked to use Dan’s camera (and our modeling skills) to take pictures to advertise the place. So of course we obliged, and took the pictures and then a trip back through the province to a very rural internet café to load the cameras on to the tour guides mp3 player. The café was filled with teenage boys playing computer games, and Dan. The visual was amazing. To thank us for our help, we were shown around the area, and got schooled playing billiards with the tour guide. We then went back to the home stay for dinner, and unfortunately it was too rainy to do a night boat trip to see the fireflies on the river.

During dinner, we drank local rice wine with the father of the family and our guide. Instead of just drinking it slowly like sake, you pour a shot, drink half and then offer the other half to someone else at the table. And this continues until you’ve had enough. Our guide who was super intelligent and spoke quite good English got pretty drunk and treated us to a very interesting monologue about his dissatisfaction with the communist one party system, and his lack of liberty. It was quite deep but gave us lot to be thankful for, as he said, we are very lucky to be born in the USA.

After this amazing day sleeping outside on a remote island, we made our way via taxi to another Mekong destination, Vinh Long. This is the more touristy area, and it showed. (However, it’s not hard to be more touristy than Ben Tre as we did not see one other tourist during our 2 days there.) The home stay here was a nice private room, versus our bunk style open air accommodations in Ben Tre. But it was still a very nice way to explore the rural areas and take a lovely bike ride, and a early morning boat trip to see the floating markets (markets where boats acts as stalls). Now we are in the biggest city in the Mekong, Can Tho, and tomorrow make our way to the beautiful Phu Quoc island for a nice stay on the beach at a sweet $25/night deal. After that we will venture out of Vietnam and make our way to Cambodia. I will post pictures when I get a chance, but unfortunately it might not be until I return to the states. Otherwise, I hope to write weekly, thanks for reading!

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