From the busy neon lit city to the quite river delta

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Following on from Mui Ne our next destination was the busy, frantic metropolis of Saigon which is also known a Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). From what a lot of people were telling me about Saigon I was expecting it so be similar or even worse than Hanoi and if you can remember I didn’t really enjoy that city. I was pleasantly surprised to find that HCNC was a great place and a hell of a lot friendly the Hanoi. We managed to get a really great room down this tiny little, narrow back alley which in many other places in the world I would never have walked down for the fear of getting mugged, but around here it felt very safe and the hotel was great. By the time we had the hotel sorted it was getting pretty late so we just had time for a much needed steak and chips washed down with some local beer hoi. This beer hoi is brewed locally and is 4000 dong per litre which works out at less than 15p which is also cheaper than water which is 5000!!!!!!!

The following day Juan, Mark and I decided to go for a walk around the city to see some of the sites that HCMC had to offer. We walked through many of the busy street markets and shopping centres before getting to the reunification palace which served as the presidential palace until 1975. It was also the site of a famous picture where the first communist tanks came crashing through the gates the day Saigon surrendered to the north on 30th April 1975. The palace was very different from any other palace I have ever seen, the design and architecture was so boring and characterless which I surpose is very communist anyway. It was a large building but nothing stood out a memorable like many other palaces I have seen just very square designs with variations tones of grey.
From the palace we walked around the corner to the war museum, which turned out to be a very chilling and disturbing experience. We walked around the museum and seen many pictures and read many truly horrific statistics of the war. We seen many pictures showing the after effects on many people that got horribly burnt by the Napalm and many other pictures showing the effects and after effects of the agent orange chemical bombs the USA dropped all over the country. We read many reports and seen many other pictures of what some of the US soldiers did to the Vietanmese civilians which in some cases can only be described as barbaric. Now I know as with the USA both sides have there stories on what happened but to see some of the pictures of US soldiers playing around with the remains to dismembered body parts of Vietnamese solders is horrific.
Next we walked into the tiger cages, which was the name given to the prison cells used to hold the prisoners of wars. Yet again seeing the pictures and reading about some of the torture’s prisons had to go through were very disturbing indeed. In some of the cages up to 15 people were kept and at the height of summer they had to take it in turns to stand at the door to get fresh air to prevent them from suffocating or passing out.
Some of the tortures included breaking arms and legs, strapping them down and dripping water on there heads (which drives you insane), pushing metal or wooden rods under the finger nails as well as putting venomous snakes up your trousers to get the prisons to admit to crimes most of them have never comitted.
Also around the museum there were many tanks, planes, guns and other army equipment but once we had finished reading and looking at all the other stuff even I had lost interest at looking at aircraft. Needless to say for the next half an hour we were all pretty quite reflecting on all the atrocities we had just seen and read about. The pictures were definitely a lot more shocking than you would be allowed in England.
We walked around much of the city seeing some other temples, pagodas and the Vietnamese version of the Notre dame cathedral that the French build when they colonized Vietnam, thou Juan who has seen the real one in France say’s it not a patch on it. By the time we got back we must have walked that many miles around town we were all shattered so just had a quite night booking our trip to the Mekong delta and Cambodia.

The next day we left Saigon and caught a bus to the Ben Tre, were we then caught a boat to take us around three of the island in the middle of the Mekong Delta. We traveled down this small river for a while before stopping at a small village on the island that specializes in making coconut sweets and whiskey. We all got shown how the sweets were made and of course and a little taste or 2, they were lovely considering I don’t usually like coconut. It this village I also got another chance to hold a snake, this time thou as the python was around my neck my heart didn’t feel like it was trying to break out of my rib cage and I actually felt quite relaxed, I think the reason was that it was only holding 1 snake this time instead of 4! We then carried on down the river a little bit more where we then got the chance to try some really good green tea with honey and a dash of lime at another village. At this village they kept the bee’s so the honey was fresh as it could be which made the tea taste great even thou the bees kept trying to fly into my cup the whole time trying to steal there honey back.
By the time we had finished at this island it was time for lunch so we headed to another island for some food before getting taken on a rowing boat down an even narrower river to the final village on the last island. Here we sampled many kinds of fruit including the mangos, papayas, leeches, jack fruit and pineapple etc while 4 Vietnamese played some traditional music for us.
I had heard many people say that the Mekong delta is disappointing and isn’t really worth seeing but I thought it was great and going down the river was beautiful seeing all these huge palm leaves either side of us coming out of the river, The river was really muddy but I was expecting that as I had seen quite a bit of the Mekong over the last few months. I thought it was a worth while trip and so different again from anything else I have seen.
We headed back to the port were we were then all arranged into our respective buses to either go to Saigon or the Cambodian border. We Arrived late at night at the Vietnamese side of the border where we all stayed in this dingy dirty fly infested hotel for the night. In the morning we headed to another boat which took us quickly to a fish farm to see how they breed the fish and then onto another little village that specializes in silk scarf’s (i have seen this being done so many times now!).
Afterwards we swapped into our 5th boat in 24hours to continue traveling up the Mekong to Cambodia, this was brilliant, I sat on the edge to the boat listening to my I-pod for most of the journey thinking how this reminds me so much of the Vietnam films you see when they’re traveling up the river Mekong. The scenery all around the Mekong is so diverse, relaxing a beautiful it’s hard not to be amazed by it. So anyway we got to the border got our passports stamped and then carried on down the river for another few hours till we got picked up by bus and transported to Phnom Penh, I cant believe how many buses, minivans and boats I have traveling on in the past 2 days its incredable (my ipod is worth its weight in gold!!)!

My first experiences on Vietnam weren’t good, I thought the Halong Bay was beautiful but the people bad-mannered and rude I had hoped that as I continued my journey south my opinion would change and I can thankfully say it had, my the end of my three weeks in Vietnam I have really falling in love with the place, it takes a bit of getting used to but I can definitely recommend it to anyone that wants something different.
As you have seen from the pictures on my blogs there is so much to see and so much history to learn. I just couldn’t get over 1 day I’m in the busiest city I have ever seen, then a day later I am seeing some of the most magnificent limestone formations, a couple of days after that I am then seeing an old citadel in Hue and French architecture in Hoi an. From her i went on to learning a about the Vietnam war in the most heavy bombed area in the world to seeing some of the most beautiful beaches and biggest sand dunes I have ever seen and then finally on the river Mekong where I’m traveling down this tiny river with Palm leaves touching each side of the boat. I just can’t get over how many sides there are to Vietnam it is a truly wonderful country that you really should take the time to come a visit even the people get a lot more friendly as I traveled south.

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Photos

The conditions inside of the tiger cells
Some times there were up to 15 people in here at any one time

The whole family on a moped!
Have have yet to get a picture of 6 people on one bike but i have seen it.

Me and my python!
isn't he beautiful

A nice selection of fruit.
Much needed after a hot cruise down the river

Comments

[Libby]

Very open-minded!
I think it is truly marvelous how you maintain such an open mind and viewpoint on everything you encounter. To not let first impressions or experiences colour your judgement and further enjoyment of a place is a superb thing to be able to do, and ensures that you do get the most out of everywhere you've been. I am proud of you. Vietnam truly sounds like a country of much greater diversity than I had imagined, and it is great to experience it even second hand. Keep up the good work/fun/travel/etc. Mum X

[June]

Hello
It seems that you are having a whale of a time over there, the photo`s are brill, you have seen some lovely sights, enjoy it while you can.