Ho Chi Minh Happy

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Day 15 (continued): A change of climate

After a fairly tedious seven hour flight, I left the chaos of Tokyo behind me and arrived amidst the mayhem of Ho Chi Minh City! Having had relatively little hassle in Beijing and Japan, I'd forgotten what a nightmare it can be arriving late at night in a random country in South-east Asia (without any local currency), and the considerable effort involved in getting out of the airport through a barrage of people desperate to get you into their taxi or to their hostel/hotel (and knowing that you'll have to take one of them up on their offer). Luckily I'd booked a room in a hostel in advance to save me traipsing round looking for one. It was a good job my taxi knew where the hostel was, because hidden down a random alley way in the heart of backpackersville, I'd never have found it!

I know I should probably be going for dorm accomodation, but for the equivalent of five pounds, I've managed to land a double room, en suite bathroom, fridge, air con, cable television and breakfast included! Despite having come from rainy Tokyo, it's nice to have the air conditioning. It's fairly hot and humid here day and night, but very nice to have some warm weather at last. I haven't switched on the television yet (for fear that I might not turn it off!) - I did actually have one in my room in Tokyo, but programmes were limited to pay per view porn (and no, I didn't!).


Day 16: Aimless wanderings with dirty (but still unbroken) feet

I avoided making any clear plans for the day, and after breakfast, went for a wander round 'District One' (aka Saigon) of Ho Chi Minh City.

Most striking about Saigon, has to be the motorbikes. They're everywhere covering every inch of every road in the city. When they run out of space in the roads, they have a nasty tendency of mounting the pavements, so even walking along the street can be a nerveracking experience. Crossing roads is quite scary and can take a while. I've started copying the locals, walking very slowly across roads, letting (and hoping) approaching bikes avoid me. Definitely not fun, especially since although officially using the right hand side of the road, vehicles seem able to come from any direction. No major incidents so far (touching wood), although my toes have had a couple of near misses. I'm not sure flipflops are the most appropriate footwear (am thinking steel capped boots might be more appropriate)

If people aren't trying to run you over with their bikes, they're trying to get you on the back of them. Within two minutes of leaving the hostel, I was bored of people offering rides on bikes or trying to take me somewhere by rickshaw. I know everyone's just trying to desperately make money, but the hassle is tedious (until you get away from the main tourist areas and then people just tend to stare!)

I ventured into one of the markets, with people selling all kinds of stuff, but mainly fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Having stocked up on some pears and mini bananas (much sweeter than the one's we get in England), I was making my way back to the main street when someone, attempting to clean the path in front of their fish stall, emptied a bowl of water across the pavement. Unfortuantely I managed to get caught in the water as it was being projected across the path and subsequently got more than my fair share of fish guts over my feet. My poor flipflops. Definitely not wearing them tomorrow.

In order to recover from all the foot traumas, I decided to put them up for a bit and found a cafe showing West Ham vs Derby (only about a week late), followed by Beach Soccer World Cup (I'm sure that's not good for your feet either...)! Dinner was a fully authentic Vietnamese veggie pizza, although the main topping was potato, I was just very grateful that there wasn't the tiniest bit of fish present!
I managed to get predictably lost trying to get back to the hostel and spent a long time walking down random back alleyways away from the main street until I finally found the right one (I perhaps should have tried to remember where my hostel was when I left in the morning, else gotten the address. Never mind, I'll know for next time!).


Day 17: Bikes become boats

Starting early, I joined a tour group heading for the Mekong Delta. After a slightly hairy two hour bus journey with much weaving in and out of traffic and occasional use of the pavement (the driver's other vehicle was definitely a motorbike, and I'm sure he drove both the same manner), we were offloaded into motorised wooden boats and given a tour of the waterways. Across the widest part of the waterways were an abundance of other boats, including passenger ferries, other tourist boats, locals crossing the water, and large industrial boats pushing or pulling loads of dirt and building materials from one side to the other. It was definitely not water for swimming, being very brown and murky with excessive amounts of silt (and the number of boats with associated smell of diesel probably meant that it wasn't the cleanest!). After seeing a couple of industrial ports and some local ramshackle houses on stilts, we were transferred into traditional long boats, punted at front and back by locals. We were taken down some of the narrower waterways surrounded by palms and forests. Stops en route included honey tea and banana whiskey tasting (separately), lunch (ample tofu and noodles), watching coconut sweets being made, and meeting a python. We were then transported back across the delta to our waiting bus, ready to take us back to Ho Chi Minh City. With the whole trip costing a total of 7 US dollars including lunch, it was definitely a bargain day out. Even dinner in the evening when I got back to Saigon (more veggie curry than I could eat) was less than a pound. I'm not surprised there aren't many cars here, given the evident low income, it's amazing so many people can afford to buy bikes.

All-in-all, I had a great day apart from being bitten by a load of mozzies. I wasn't sure if I'd bother with antimalarials since I'm not here for that long. I had compromised by bringing some out-of-date doxycycline I found at the back of a cupboard at home. I'm now wondering if I was being a bit hasty. Will cover myself in DEET and hope for the best hereon!


Being vegetarian in Vietnam

....is very easy! Although they're quite into beef and fish here, there's also an abundance of great veggie dishes. I'm staying in an area really geared up for backpackers, so there are loads of pizzas, chips and western food. However even sticking to vietnemese food, there are loads of vegetarian dishes incorporating lots of noodles, vegetables and tofu. With fresh coconuts, fruit smoothies and cheap beer, I'm very well catered for and am certainly getting my film of veggies and protein! As an added bonus, the 1st and 15th of every lunar month are apparently 'vegetarian days' when some stalls in the city randomly only serve vegetarian food. I'm not sure why this happens, but it definitely sound like a great idea, if only I could work out when the lunar month starts!


Day 18: After the war

I started the day with a visit to the reunification palace in the heart of Central Saigon. Overlooking some well kept gargens and a park, the building used to be the presidential palace for South Vietnam and has apparently been left unchanged since the day that Saigon surrendered to the north in 1975. Although not bursting with great exhibits, it was pleasant enough to walk around, and there was an interesting photo exhibition in the basement.

After the palace, I took my life into my own hands and crossed the main road getting to the War Remnants Museum. I'm not sure I like going to war museums any more. I'm starting to find the accounts and evidence of just what people are capable of doing to each other all a bit too harrowing. Exhibits included planes, bombs (hopefully inactive), posters and other remnants, alongside a huge number of photos. Subjects included victims of phosphor and napalm bombings, as well as pictures of other dying, dead and dismembered bodies. It was all quite traumatic. To top it off, there were replica 'tiger cage' prison cells and a guillotine (in case the photos weren't enough). Although a bit before my time, I had had no idea just how horrific the wars in Vietnam were, with high levels of indiscriminate bombing and killing. It was certainly an eyeopener and very sobering.


Day 19: Going Underground

I had planned another day trip today away from the chaos of the city, and after some initial confusion which resulted in my riding at breakneck speed on the back of a motorbike across Saigon at eight o'clock this morning, I joined a tourist bus trip to Cao Dai temple, some 100km south of Ho Chi Minh City. Although not too far from home, extensive potholing and roads without tarmac meant the trip took over three hours. What with increasing temperatures as we got closer to the equator and a lack of aircon on the bus, it wasn't the most comfortable of journeys. We got there eventually, and despite being close to midday, the temple was thankfully quite cool. Acting as headquarters for the religion of 'Caodaism', formed from a fusion of Christian, Buddhist and Confucian ideas, the Cao Dai temple was big, modern, and beautifully decorated with Chinese-style, colourful dragons climbing pillars, ornate carvings, golden alters and paintings of Jesus and Christian saints. At noon, a congregation of followers, mainly dressed in similar white robes gathered for prayers. A select number of attendees up front of the temple were dressed in red, yellow and blue to represent the three constitutive religions, making it all a rather colourful affair. Definitely worth the visit, even if it was a bit of a nightmare to get to!

After a statutory mound of lunchtime tofu, it was back towards Ho Chi Minh City, stopping at Ben Dinh village in the region of Cu Chi, a forest, which during the Vietnam war, had been an extensive battleground. With so much fighting going on above ground, the local people had been forced underground, where they built an extensive network of tunnels covering an impressive 220km. It started to rain as the bus pulled up in Ben Dinh and within a couple of minutes, the light shower had turned into a full-on tropical thunderstorm with bullet rain, thunder and lightning and flooded paths. One moment we were walking through puddles, the next, the path had become a stream several inches deep, with steps forming muddy waterfalls. The tour went ahead anyway, and despite being drenched, we learnt all about guerrilla warfare vietnam-style, with exhibited tools, weapons and booby traps all part of the experience. There was also optional shooting practice at an onsite firing range, where you could pick your gun of choice and aim at targets. The sound was deafening, even from 20m away in the middle of a tropical storm. I've no real desire to play with guns or be good at it, so I passed up this opportunity. Despite the mud and lack of space, it was actually a bit of a relief to get to the tunnels and shelter from the rain for a bit. I wouldn't have liked to have stayed down there for too long though, it wasn't overly pleasant being in a narrow tunnel less than a meter high, I can't imagine what it must have been like with a war raging overhead.

It's a shame the weather was so rubbish, since it did detract from the trip somewhat, but it was an interesting afternoon none the less. With the rain continuing, the trip back to Saigon took slightly longer than expected (4 hours to do 60km). Getting back to Saigon at about 8pm, I was still quite soggy and muddy and probably looked like I'd been in the tunnels for a month rather than just 10 minutes. Everything was better though after a shower and some food, and then it was on to the rather dull task of packing and getting ready for the next leg of the journey.


Day 20: Travel tedium

All packed and ready to go, I got a taxi to the airport ready to start a mammoth 24 hours of travelling. Although the eventual destination was Melbourne, owing to a lack of direct flights, I had to change flights at Hong Kong and Adelaide.

I had a full 8 hours to kill in Hong Kong airport, and only just managed to stay sane with the help of 2 hourly meals and a good book. It's a good job I don't fly every day, I'd probably end up the size of a house (or plane). Even then I nearly missed my flight because I didn't realise I had to get a train from the departure lounge to the gate. Had a bit of an argument on the flight when they claimed I hadn't booked veggie food (it was going to happen sooner or later). I managed to convince them in the end, and was 'in luck, because a vegetarian guy up front wasn't hungry'....Well, neither was I, but having managed to get a vegetarian meal, I felt obliged to eat it (and it passed the time)!

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Comments

[jenny]

communal bathing
don't pretend wondering round in the nuddy in front of stranges is an alien concept to you - i remember the days of naked mopping with the windows open jx