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Published: August 20th 2010
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Yumi on the boat
Right before the huge rainstorm hit There are several ways to leave Cambodia and enter Vietnam. The coolest way by far has to be taking a boat down the Mekong river. We had to take a bus a few hours south of Phnom Penh to get to the boat dock. The boat was quite late in arriving, some excuse about too strong waves along the river, and we had to wait around in a smelly hot shed for a couple of hours. The boat that was to take us down the river was actually quite decent with spacious seating and a sun deck on the roof. The sun deck was pretty useless because after 20 or so minutes of cruising a massive rain storm started. The storm started so fast that no one had time to lower the plastic window coverings before everything on board got absolutely soaked by the wind and rain. After an hour the rain stopped all at once and it was only a slight drizzle when the boat stopped at the Cambodian border for exit stamps. We had to re-board for another quick trip to the Vietnam border for entry stamps and then it was off to the Vietnamese river town of Chau
Lunch Included!
We were promised a free lunch. Turned out to be Cup-a-noodles. Doc too spend the night.
The hotel we were meant to stay at was over booked but they hooked us up with a cyclo trip to the other side of town to another especially dingy hotel. A cyclo is sort of like a peddle powered tuk tuk, only with the driver behind the passengers. The next day we had time to briefly visit a local Cham village. The Cham are an ethnic and cultural minority living in Vietnam. Walking through their village was quite fun as everyone is so friendly and welcoming. The rest of that day was spent in transit, 2 hours on a boat and 6 hours on a bus. We finally got into Ho Chi Minh City after dark.
Ho Chi Minh is my favorite city in our travels other than Bangkok. On one hand it is very modern with metered taxis, night clubs and the nearly completed Hyundai Tower. At the same time you can feel the history and authentic Vietnamese culture everywhere. Also, it is only called Ho Chi Minh city on the maps and road signs. To anybody living here it is and always will be called Saigon. To learn some first
Some Propaganda
Would anyone be offended if I pointed out that Ho Chi Minh looks like an Asian Colonel Sanders? hand history one needs to simply meet someone over the age of 40. We hired a cyclo driver to take us around the town and we got the history lesson thrown in for free. He was a veteran of the war and fought for the south alongside the Americans. He showed us his scar above his eye from a bullet wound. Despite being allies, he explained that everyone hated the Americans. The Americans treated even their allied Vietnamese like garbage, refusing them entry to the American bars and the like. After the Americans left and Saigon was taken by the north, he was sent to a re-education camp with anyone else from the southern Vietnamese army. He described spending four years here with a sad smile, working in the days and studying ideology in the evenings. I got the impression that there was a lot of resentment left unsaid, probably to both the Americans and the communist north. As for his tour, we got a good glimpse of the city. The modern downtown with the notre dame cathedral and the opera house was refreshing after coming from the gloomy streets of Cambodia. Vietnam was once part of French Indochina and
Boat to Saigon
the only way to travel French colonial architecture and gothic cathedrals remain as evidence of this. We also saw the Saigon river and a few random statues here and there, mostly of Ho Chi Minh. He gave Yumi a hard sell as well trying to get her to adopt an orphaned child he had found at a train station. I'm still not sure if he was serious or not.
Also a must do in Saigon is a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, about 1ookm to the north west of the city. The Viet Cong resistance in the south were very strong in this region, despite being on the doorstep of Saigon itself. They dug an elaborate and extensive system of tunnels under ground that stretched all the way to the Cambodian border. Now there is a large outdoor museum documenting the many ways the Americans tried to destroy the tunnels and how the Viet Cong managed to remain. Most absurd of the American plans was to divert the Saigon river through the province and flood them out. This massive project managed to destroy an unimpressive 14 meters of the tunnel. The best part of the museum is the tunnels themselves, which have actually
Cu Chi Tunnel
We probably wouldn't have made very good Viet Cong been widened a bit for foreigners to fit through. I couldn't imagine living down there for months at a time eating nothing but tapioca. Also on display were some graphic recreations of some traps and a shooting range where we got to try firing some guns used during the war.
The other highlight of war history is the war remnants museum. Outside are several large tanks, guns, helicopters and airplanes left over by the Americans in the scramble to get out of the country. Inside are extremely graphic displays of the horrors of the Vietnam war. The agent orange room is especially chilling, but perhaps the aborted, deformed baby fetuses in formaldehyde were a bit too much.
And a blog about Saigon wouldn't be complete without mentioning the traffic. Everybody here drives motorcycles. For every one hundred motorcycles you might get one person driving a private vehicle. The rest of the traffic consists of taxis, cyclos and larger trucks and buses. Crossing the road anywhere in the city is probably the most dangerous thing we've done on this entire trip. There are no rules for the motorbikes. Generally they drive on the right hand side of the road,
Saigon Streets
Motorcycle city but not always. Other than that it is a massive free for all. Even sidewalks are fair game if someone feels like driving down one randomly. To cross the street you have to walk in a strait line at a slow pace and never slow down or speed up. The bikes will never stop for you, but they will swerve around you and try to avoid hitting you. Stopping or running suddenly will confuse the driver and cause a potential accident. It takes a few days to master this.
I think I'm probably leaving a lot out here. I'm actually a good two weeks behind on the travel blog now. We are currently in Hanoi and waiting here another two days before we fly to Okinawa. I'll try to get caught up before we go so there should be another blog on the rest of Vietnam in a day or so. I won't have enough time to write a Vietnam blog in Okinawa because I'll be too busy trying to convince Hattori Hanzo to make a katana for Nairb.
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Aunt Karen
non-member comment
I hope the hyudai tower is sturdier than the cars, it looks really high! And..why the fetuses? Your river trip sounds exciting and your street crossing looks hair raising. There was a U of A sponsored river trip there for a mere $8,000, but I don't suppose you paid nearly that much.