22 - 28th March 2003, We arrived in Saigon......sorry, Ho Chi Minh City; after at least three nervous breakdowns due to the horror stories we'd heard from other travellers and read in the 'Dangers & Annoyances' section of Lonely Planet. The strange thing was though, that as soon as we got there it felt kind of good to be back in a city again, the place didn't really feel any more dangerous than Bangkok, or London. We got in late but managed to find a room without any problem on De Tham street, District 1 - slap bang in the centre of backpacker central! We set out next morning to find STA travel, to see if we could change our return ticket to Bangkok for a flight to Phnom Penh, unfortunately the Vietnamese guy didn't understand a word of Belgian, so we scrapped the idea - looks like we're going back to Bangkok! Slightly disheartened we set off for the old Presidential Palace, the place where the old news-reels showed the North Vietnamese Army tanks crashing through the railings to end the last war. It was a great place, the interior decor was fantastic, never thought i'd get excited about Chinese print armchairs - strange feeling for sure! After that we headed to the War remnants museum, previously called the Museum of American and Chinese attrocities; can't understand why they dropped the name it has a nice welcoming tone to it! The 'renamed' museum was basically a display of photography by some of the great combat photographers, Cappa, McCullin etc , covering the French and American wars, I have to say the collection of photography was some of the most shocking, but some of the best combat shots I have ever seen. We headed back to De Tham later on and booked onto a three day Mekong Delta tour with TNK travel. As we were leaving the following day, we then had to rush back to the room and pack our day-packs' with just enough to get us through (spare T-shirt, wash-kit etc) before hitting the sack - shattered!
We were up early to leave for the Delta by coach, which eventually dropped us at a small pier on a tributary of the Mekong. From there we took a 'long-tail' boat through the backwaters visiting traditional village industries on the way. We lunched on Turtle Island in the centre of the Mekong and later drank honey tea (the honey straight out of the hive beside us!) with lime, also rice and banana wine. Just to make it a nice relaxed lunch, the guide decided to drop a Python round my neck - as you do. We visited a couple of food markets later in day where literally everything was for sale; dog, lizard, turtle, insects, you name it, it was there. We reached Can Tho deep in the Delta that evening, where we were staying for the night. We ate then got an early night as we had to be up early to see the floating markets. Next morning we hopped back in the long-tail and headed upstream. The markets themselves are fantastic, basically hundreds of boats just rammed together, buying and selling market goods. The guide just points the boat into the biggest crowd then slowly forces (rams!) through, so you are literally in the centre of the action. It was so interesting to see all these people going about their daily routine, shouting, bartering each other down, throwing goods form one boat to the next, most of them actually live on the boats - incredible stuff. The guide then took us back to Can Tho where me and Sarah left the main group and spent the afternoon in the town, waiting for our ride to the 'homestay' we'd paid extra for. For five dollars more we took the opportunity stay with a Vietnamese family in their traditional home in the Delta.
Hung, the house owner, picked us up around five thirty and we took a motorbike taxi to his mooring on the river. From there he ferried us up the backwaters to his house on the Delta. It was amazing just me and Sarah, riding up the river as the sun set. River people were washing all along the river, they would stop and wave or shout 'hello' as we passed by. When we finally got to Hung's house his wife and two sons, Nhan and Nghia, ran out to greet us, they grabbed us both and literally dragged us into their house to show us round. We were introduced to Hung's Mother and Father, nextdoor neighbour, the dog, everybody! The nextdoor neighbour and Hung's wife, Thu Mai, had prepared a huge meal for us including catfish (a special type that only live in the paddy fields - sometimes called snake head fish), spring rolls, vegetables, rice, fruit. Hung broke out the homebrew Jackfruit wine and we all ate and drank until we basically fell over - it was a great night. To end the evening on a high note, once we were all totally drunk Hung decided it would be a great idea to row out in to the river and see the fireflies that lived in the tree upstream. Once he'd assured us we wouldn't drown and that he could actually stand, off we went. We'd never seen fireflies before, let alone blue AND yellow ones. The tree looked like a Christmas tree, it was an amazing thing to see, we even caught some and stuck them up my shirt which looked bizarre as they glowed through the material in the dark! The river was like a mill pond and once we'd all stopped messing around and sat still it was beautiful, all you could hear were the sounds of the jungle, we saw to two shooting stars also streaking overhead - or we're they Scuds? Just before we hit the sack we watched Thu Mai giving traditional medicine to her Father-in-law, she was applying small glass jars by suction all over his back - it was all a bit voodoo for us and we left them to it! The kids woke us up at six, after a surprisingly comfortable night on a hard coconut mat. Hung had such a hangover he forgot to get up on time, subsequently the kids didn't get to school and people were probably still waiting for his water taxi service as we left for breakfast. Thu Mai rowed us over the river to a small breakfast bar in the jungle, we ate soup with the locals for breakfast who seemed quite amused that we were there. We then went back over the river to the house and walked around the orchards and paddies for a while with the children and Hung's Mother, who picked us fresh Water apples of the trees. We were totally surprised when at nine thirty we got back to the house and Thu Mai had cooked us another huge meal, and we weren't getting away with not eating anything! Hung's mum had taken a shine to Sarah and each time our bowls were emptied she literally piled them full again, by the time we left around eleven I feared I might actually explode. We joined the group later that morning and carried on the tour before returning to Saigon, this had been by the far the best tour we'd done since getting to Vietnam and we actually felt like we'd experienced Vietnamese life a little - eating lots, getting blind drunk and larking about on the river all night etc.
Not wishing to be 'under-toured' we booked another tour to the Cu Chi tunnels within ten minutes of getting back to Saigon, leaving the following morning! I'd been reading a book on the tunnels and their importance during the American war and really wanted to see them. I'd also heard you could fire and AK47 and I wasn't going to miss that for anything! So the following morning we headed to Cu Chi district and the tunnels. When we got there we watched a short propaganda video about the tunnels which to be fair was pretty poor, before being led to the surviving tunnel complex. Tung the guide (who later in the day revealed he'd been a guerilla fighter and lived and fought in the tunnels for 5 years - he'd also been shot in the arm and had the wound to prove it!)asked for a volunteer and Sarah stuck her hand up, being fascinated by the tunnels ever since hearing about them. Tung lifted a wire hidden under leaves which opened a small wooden trapdoor, then motioned to Sarah to take a torch and head down a section of unlit tunnel. Off she went , the hole was tiny, really tiny, Sarah went about five feet down then re-appeared grubby and a little shaken by the bats that had flown past as she went in, it looked pretty scary. Tung explained he'd only asked Sarah and not the rest of the group because she was so small, the tunnels were designed originally for slim Vietnamese only - how unlucky, because i'd really wanted to go down there - NOT! Tung led us down ever tightening tunnels, until most of the group had declined to go further and gone back to the surface using escape exits. He explained the last 100m got very tight, you had to crawl in places and asked who wanted to go on. Sarah, Me and an Australian guy agreed to carry on. It got pretty hairy in places, bats constantly got in your hair, and it was so hot we were soaked in sweat as we crawled along. In places the tunnel dropped to around three feet by three, naturally we we're filthy when we got out - not nice. After that ordeal, we headed to the live firing range. For a dollar a shot you could fire any service pistol or rifle used in the American war - great. Twenty dollars later i'd fired an AK47, M16, Colt 45 and best of all a belt fed M60 heavy machine gun which was just awesome. The M60 just destroyed the target as it blasted away on automatic, I couldn't believe i'd found the perfect way to blow all our daily budget in thirty seconds - great! After Sarah pried my fingers off the guns we headed back to Saigon, Sarah swore I was still grinning when I got in bed! We met a great couple on the tour from Melbourne, Mark & Michelle. We hope to see them when we're in Oz
We spent our last day in Saigon on a walking tour of District 1, using the Lonely Planet guide. We had a good day until we got to the Zoo which was quite a sickening experience. Most of the animals were kept in cramped cages and looked undernourished. As per ususal, the eveing before we left we found the best cafe in town - Cafe Van, nevermind.
We've had a great time in Vietnam, the countries pretty diverse with a huge difference between life in the North and that in the South. Tomorrow we head for the airport, then on to Bangkok. I'm not sure we'd return here immediately but there is definately something about the place.
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