Vietnam: Mekong Delta, Saigon Traffic and Fame at Last

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First of all, I'm in trouble for forgetting to mention our haircut on the last entry. In Phnom Penh we both decided to go to the barbers. I had the basic shaved head, shaved face while Allee had her hair washed, cut and straightened, a head massage, a manicure and nails painted. At one point there were three women pampering her at the same time. Anyways, this was a real dent to the budget, coming in at a total of 2 pounds fifty for both of us. How they dare charge these prices I don't know.

We are now in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, previously known as Saigon which is what everyone here still seems to call it so we've joined the trend. To get here we decided to take a 2-day tour from Phnom Penh which let us see some of the Mekong Delta. We took a boat down the Mekong to the Vietnamese border where we had to pay 2,000 Dong for a slip of paper saying we'd been medically quarantined. The quarantine seems to have been the 5 minutes spent queuing to pay but as 2,000 Dong is only about 6p we couldn't be bothered to argue the point.
Once over the border we continued on down the Mekong, passing lots of villages on the banks where life really does revolve around the river. Everyone seemed to be fishing, or mending fishing nets, or scooping water out of boats. It was really interesting and made a change to what we see travelling by bus. We spent the night at Chau Doc, a nice little place which takes about 5 minutes to walk around and is full of miserable, unsmiling people. All we could hope was that they did not represent Vietnam as a whole.
Day 2 of the tour was a 06:00 start to get out onto the delta in rowing boats. In our boat there was only the two of us and the oarsman so when we got off the main river it was really peaceful and a nice change to the noise and chaos of Asia. We stopped to see cage fish farming and a Cham village. There we were met by girls in traditional Cham tribal dress selling cakes which were lovely. There was another girl weaving cloth and we bought one of the large skirts to use as a table cloth. From there we visited two temples which were heaving with people as there were many offerings being made for the new year, including full roasted pigs and huge baskets of fruit. Finally we stopped at a crocodile farm which wasn't a particularly good experience although the guide was amusing, explaining how crocs mate through their belly buttons. Whether or not this is true I don't know. At the end of the trip around the farm we had the chance to buy croc skin wallets and belts and even the feet of baby crocs which had died were made into keyrings. That night was spent in Can Tho, a small city where the people seemed much nicer and we got the chance to tuck into some Vietnamese spring rolls and Pho (noodle soup). The food here seems really nice and we're thinking of doing another cooking course at some point.

The following day was another 06:00 start to go to a floating market at Cai Rong. It was a nice enough place, selling mainly fruit and veg. The sellers would paddle up to offer you what they have and then float away again. I bought some lovely mangos, they were really sweet and juicy, although I did give one to a homeless boy. Next stop from the boat was a rice-husking workshop, the most interesting part of which was trying rice wine. It didn't taste of much except for alcohol but it would be good in winter as a substitute for fire. The guide brought me a second shot telling me, 'It's ok, only 50% alcohol.' It would have been rude not to but I was a bit worried about climbing back onto the boat. Luckily we then went to fruit farm where we were given free samples which chased the rice wine flavoured burps away, although poor Allee had to settle for water and crisps. From there it was bus and ferry to Saigon.
There are 8 million people in Saigon and between them they have 4 million motorbikes so the roads are pretty hectic. The trick is just to step out in front of them and walk slowly across the road in a straight line. This way the motorbikes all swerve around you. It's hard going at first but gets easier and we have a great sense of achievement each time we get to the other side alive. Allee tends to get hold of my arm, close her eyes and trust me to get her across. Despite this we decided to go on a walk around the city the next day, stopping at the market and marvelling at some of the French style architecture. We went to the Reunification Palace where we toured the war bunkers in the basement. As part of our walk we also stopped at an ice-cream parlour which serves Vietnam's premium brand of ice-cream, Fanny. What with that and the currency being called Dong we had a great time coming up with smut and innuendo, my personal favourite being,'I blew my Dong on Fanny.' We made up for this by paying a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral which apparently looks just like the one in Paris.
The next day it was another tour as we wanted to get out of the city to see the main temple of Cao Daism and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The temple was amazing. A mass of bright colours and carvings. Cao Dai is a mixture of the world's major religions as well as some of its smaller ones and so there were statues of Jesus alongside Buddhas. One of the stranger aspects is that Victor Hugo is a Cao Dai Saint, I'm not sure why but there's probably a good reason(?). Followers dressed in brightly coloured robes began to file into the temple to the sound of a live band. Once they had settled we stayed around and saw part of the service which involved chanting and lots of nodding. I couldn't help but think that if more people followed a religion which incorporates all religions that there might be less wars in the world.
The Cu Chi tunnels are where the Vietcong dug their way out of the reach of American bombs. Starting with a highly impartial video gloating about the number of Americans killed at Cu Chi we learned about people like the schoolgirl who 'looked sweet and innocent until she came upon enemy Americans, she won American Killer Hero Medal on her first trip onto the battle field.' This seems to be accepted as just fine, maybe schoolgirls really do make the best soldiers. From there we went to the tunnel entrance. Allee took one look and walked back out, I tried but took the first short-cut out I could find. The tunnels were small and narrow and walking through them, bent double in the pitch black was a very claustrophobic experience. After that I was ready for a drink, and as it happens it was possible to sample some snake wine. Snake wine is rice wine which has an assortment of dead snakes and scorpions (still whole) floating around in it. It was actually ok, tastier than plain rice wine. Saltier, which may have been something to do with the dead snakes. Anyway it's a cure for impotency so I thought I should bring plenty back as presents for all you floppy men - you know who you are. That night we went to the night market which is where I finally found fame. I was stopped and asked if I would mind being interviewed for a Vietnamese TV station so I stood with a boom mike under my chin saying how fantastic I think Ben Than night market is - marvelling at the seafood and cheap clothes. I then had to write my name on a notepad, presumably for my title when I'm on tv.

Today has been a nightmare day. First some cyclo drivers ripped us off by taking us to the wrong temple (it turned out to be just around the corner from where we'd started) and trying to charge us treble what we'd agreed on for the privilege. An argument later we got some money back and discovered that we were nowhere near where we wanted to be. We had a look in the temple anyway which was empty except for us and a few incense sticks. It's not even on the map so we don't know what it's called. From there we got a bus to another part of the city to go to a water park. When we got there we were told that it had closed down, as had another we tried to get to. A confusing wait for a bus later and we were back where we started.

We leave Saigon tomorrow for Da Lat in the Central Highlands. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but there's something I like about this crazy city and I'll be half sad to leave.

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Photos

Cake Sellers
Cham Village, Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Welcoming Committee
Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Cao Dai Followers
On their back is the all-seeing eye. The different coloured robes symbolise different religions which make up Cao Dai.

Cao Dai Elder
Men and women are segregated throughout the ceremony.

Climbing out of the Cu Chi Tunnels
Vietcong would live in here for up to 4 weeks at a time.

Ant Licking Fanny in Saigon
...and very tasty it was too!

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