Saigon
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
178
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Thursday, September 18, 2008
From a 1220 pm takeoff it was a slightly bumpy, sixty minute flight to 'Saigon' or 'Ho Chi Minh City' as it was renamed after the war. A van was there to meet us and we immediately notice a more modern build to this southern city, as compared with Hanoi. Modern, higher buildings and a great deal of advertising around as well as the great number of motorbikes again. We were told there were four million people in Hanoi and three million motorbikes. Here there are seven million and a pro rata bike population, although it wasn't quite as concentrated because of the bigger streets in this old capital city
Notre Dame cathedral
.Our hotel in the city centre was old and basic but again comfortable and it was evident that this was going to be a 'big city stay', with the associated noise and bustle.
Three quarters of an hour to settle in and then we met for a 'cyclo' tour of the city. These are bicycles where you sit at the front on a big metal seat and tray over the two front wheels. Our 'cyclos' merged into the traffic and we set off through the busy afternoon streets, motorbikes flowing round and across us.
The first stop was at the 'War Remnants Museum', dedicated to the Vietnamese war and displaying pictures, reports, guns, bombs, aircraft and showing the civilian cost as well as the military action. A final section showed the continuing effects of mines and cluster bombs, sown by both sides and the chemical results of the 'agent orange' defoliant. Both are still taking their toll to this day. The museum was not a diatribe against America but rather a display of what the Vietnamese nation had endured to be what it is today. It left any conclusions to the individual.
The cyclos then took us to the main post office, an enormous French built edifice that would have been just as suitable as a central railway station
Post Office
. Across the road was the Notre Dame Cathedral, a mini version of the one in Paris. It was starting to go dark as we completed the city trip and the traffic grew heavier.Supper was at a plain, local restaurant where I ate only a little rice, not feeling hungry and suffering from a sweat rash, due to the constant heat and a stomach bug whilst, as someone put it, "my system became accustomed to unfamiliar microbes!"
Friday 19th September
A sightseeing day. Feeling a little better we boarded a van that took us south towards the great 'Mekong delta'.
The two hour journey was through a mix of fields, with the ever present cemeteries and small towns, thronged with traffic, especially motorbikes. It became a game to discover and try to photograph, what new level of ingenuity was employed to carry things on the back of a bike. I saw one guy weaving through the traffic with an oxy-acetylene cylinder strapped across the pillion seat - I suppose that's one way to get your kicks!
Cyclo tour
The main road was up to three lanes in parts, with a separate lane for the bikes. We saw ornate funeral lorries, where everyone sits on the back with the coffin and even a wedding taking place in the slow lane of the road with the traffic passing by it!
We stopped at a stretch of the river where a great new suspension bridge was being built. In the meantime car and passenger ferries carried everything (and anything) across the Mekong. We met our local guide, Duyen, a pretty (most of the Vietnamese girls are very attractive with their long, dark hair, especially in the traditional dress of trousers and long tops that cover them) local who spoke good English.
First we boarded a long boat to go across to one of the river islands, 'Ben Tre'. This region is known for its coconut growing and we visited a coconut candy factory to see the completely handmade process and (of course) buy some. They also sold rice wine, which as we had seen before, has snakes and scorpions preserved inside the bottle, which give the drinker their strength. I decided that my 'unfamiliar microbes' didn't need any extra strength and passed up on that one.
Outside the factory our next transport was waiting, a battered Honda 100 which had a people cart welded to it
Bell Huey helicopter
. The eight of us clambered in and we were given helmets, a cautious thought. We set off at a steady rate on roads and then onto narrow paths, not much wider than the one and a half metres of the cart, crossing streams and rounding tight bends, with other bikes and people coming the other way. The paths were through banana and other palms, which regularly bounced off our (thankfully helmeted) heads. Stopping at a large, covered garden plantation we were treated to fresh fruit, including pineapple that you dipped into chili and salt. Norah told me it was quite good!
Back on our chariot we continued our mix of roads and paths until we eventually stopped and walked along a jungle path to a rustic restaurant. Phuoc suggested their special selection, which was noodle soup, spring rolls made of fresh, river 'Elephant fish', (giant) freshwater prawns, salad, a honey (from the bee hives around us) lemon drink and fresh bananas. I was starting to feel better already.
Lunch done, it was back on the chariot for a short ride to a narrow river tributary where we boarded a 'rowboat', which the boatman stood on the back of the long, narrow boat and propelled it by a gyrating movement of the lashed paddle
Mekong river bridge
. Sitting in the front I found a spare paddle and couldn't resist helping out, as we twisted down the narrow, forest lined stream. You could easily imagine being in one of the Vietnam war movies, as we slid past the dense undergrowth, only encountering a lone fisherman who was inspecting his fish traps.We reached the river and transferred back to our long boat, whereupon our 'row boat' captains started their inboard engines and motored back to base! Still it had been a very pleasant row.
The long boat crossed the wide Mekong, where the car and passenger ferries were busy and river traffic from large tug pulled barges piled high with stone to small long boats, piled high with bananas, worked the fast flowing waters. In several places along the sides were floating houses with fish farms underneath them and large, tree branch built prawn traps.
Once on the other side it was back on the bus for the two hour run back to Saigon. Quite a full day out.
The 'last supper', as this was the end of the first part of the trip with Phuoc, was decided to be at a French restaurant. Silver service, four courses with even a sorbet (oooooh - posh!), enjoyed with wine was a great end to this journey through Vietnam. Thanks Phuoc for a very interesting, very enlightening experience.
Saturday 20th September
A 'free' day, arranged for leaving one tour or joining the next
Mekong river traffic
. We looked at the range of options and Norah decided she would have an easy day around town with Nim and Karen. I had heard of another area around Saigon that I wanted to see.I was waiting in the hotel lobby at 7.30am and was picked up by coach, who after several other collections at various hotels, finally set off north west from the busy, Saturday morning city.
After an hour we stopped at another factory employing disabled workers and this one made a range of fabulous, mother of pearl inlaid, lacquer panels and pictures. The range of designs was stunning and I enjoyed looking round at the range on sale.
Three quarters of an hour later we arrived at 'Cu Chi'.................
"You're going to do WHAT !!!!! "........................Part 14
...............................and the Viet Cong tunnels!
This area was a rich rice growing and rubber tree area but was staunchly communist during the Vietnam war
Elephant fish
. The South Vietnam government and the Americans knew this and regularly bombed the area to subjugate the people there. This merely hardened their resolve, especially as more relatives were killed and they developed a lifestyle by building huts, where only the roof was above ground and sheltered by tree cover and then gradually an enormous labyrinth of tunnels, over 250km in total.There were hidden entry holes, living, school and hospital areas, easily found decoys to fool the Americans, deliberate traps and restricted size escape tunnels - an amazing network. This was also the only area where, because of the number of men killed, women were active fighters.
After watching a video on the wartime background to this development of the area, we went on a jungle walk. The first entry hole was covered in leaves and only a little bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, set like the entry to a house loft in the ground. We were invited to lower ourselves into the hole and could only get through it if we wriggled to the ground with our hands over our head. "Go right, go left", came the instructions from above ground, as we crawled along in the one metre high, 70cm wide earth. A metre away from the entry hole it was pitch black and there was a sporadic puff of air occasionally passing us - which turned out to be bats who were living in the tunnel
You want prawns ???
!I had taken a torch, which illuminated about two metres of the curving tunnel in front of me. Here and there were side tunnels, thankfully only three metres long but enough to give you the idea of reaching a junction. In these side tunnels the tiny bats were hanging, regularly coming out for a quick fly by.
The people in front of me were stopped, confused by more, pitch black, dead end junctions, so I passed my torch forward. There was not so much a claustrophobic feeling, as I now couldn't see how little space there was but the drowning darkness felt overwhelming and I was glad to be distracted by shouting to the unseen voices behind me, who were reaching the earlier junctions and needed help to progress forward.
The people in front had slowly moved forward and found the exit of prepared, wide steps and I was relieved when my torch was passed back and I could continue and complete this trial by darkness and scramble up into the daylight. We must have travelled less than twenty metres but it felt like ages and that was using a torch. 250km - now that took some doing!
Tributary boat ride
We continued along the path and were shown other Viet Cong battle techniques. They had hunted animals for years by digging a pit, setting sharpened bamboo spears in the base and then covering it over with branches and leaves. The hunted animal now was human and the branches and leaves, in some designs, had been replaced by a revolving door arrangement set in the ground, lethal to unwary soldiers on foot. The VC, who ate snakes, had learnt to extract the venom and coat the bamboo spikes in it, which at least hastened many (inevitable) deaths.
Because they were so far south and away from any communist supply lines, they would collect unexploded American bombs and mines, saw them open to extract the gunpowder and make their own bombs to be used against troops or tanks, we saw a destroyed M41 tank in the woods.
Displays of kitchens, workshops and an array of other, undeniably ingenious, booby traps were on show and it gave an understanding of how this low technology had been successful against a higher and mightier one.
At the end of the tour was the inevitable gift shop, which as the guide said was "whilst we might not like the American government, we love American tourists!" The highlight was the 'Cu Chi Rifle Club', where, for the purchase of a clip of bullets, you could fire off rounds from an M16, M40, AK47, etc
Busy traffic
.I bought 10 rounds for an AK47 for less than 4 pounds sterling and walked down to the noisy range. It was over 100 metres long and just as wide, with a wall of plastic barrels and sand at the far end. The guns were tied onto a wooden wall and a soldier loaded my rounds into the gun clip and assembled it. I expected serious recoil and held the AK47 tightly but my ten bullets took nearly thirty attempts before they were all gone, almost every other shot was a misfire, which I put down to the guns being worn out. Still, an interesting experience.
As we walked through the forest there was one last 'exercise' - the 'killing tunnel'. This went underground and levelled out under a mound where the sides had a few, 20 cm square holes, spaced out at ground level looking through the surrounding undergrowth. From these the VC were able to fire at any passing troops without being seen and if detected, could then escape along the tunnel network. This tunnel had been specially enlarged to one and a half metres high by a metre wide, with electric lighting every few metres but even so, it was still a gloomy scramble and black between the lights. I scampered through for about fifty metres until it reduced to its original VC active dimensions (as the first tunnel) and then opted to take the escape to the surface
Things to cary on a motorbike 1
. I had had enough enclosed, constricted darkness for one day.The two hour bus ride back to Saigon, still observing the 'motorbike game', resulted in a few good photos, especially one of a family of four on one bike.
We hit the slow city streets, where some of the coach got off at the 'War Remnants museum' and I waited to be dropped off back at my hotel. Next call was "OK, city office, all off bus". I asked about drop off at hotel and was told "Oh no, end here!" I asked about the hotel, as I had expected to be taken back and had brought neither map nor hotel address card, all I had was my hotel name on the tour's receipt. A large scale city map was produced and the office and my hotel marked on it. The initiative test starts here.
I set off into the busy mid Saturday afternoon streets just as the heavens opened and the motorbike throng uniformly turned into the kerbs to put on waterproofs. The shower only lasted a few minutes and I continued to a large roundabout, which I recognized as being near to the hotel. There were no street names on the end of some of the roads leading onto the roundabout and in between the intermittent, heavy showers and investigating the unnamed roads, I finally found my hotel
Things to cary on a motorbike 2
.This had been quite an eventful day, especially having to find my back in a city where the (visible) street names were at least using English letters. What the exercise would have been like involving foreign letters remains, (I hope not), to be seen.
My (Norah) easy day was certainly that! After a slow start I joined Karen and Nim for breakfast, then showered and met in the lobby. We decided to treat ourselves to a cocktail in the 5 star Sheraton Saigon hotel. The taxi ride was a matter of minutes and we went straight up to the 23rd floor of the hotel, as Nim had read that we could have cocktails overlooking the city. No such luck, the bar didn't open until 4pm, so we trooped down to the posh Mojo café attached to the hotel. We ordered our cocktails, Nims was a 'mojito' and mine was called an '88 Dreaming', Karens was a cup of tea, - she didn't want anything alcoholic, but then again it was only 1130 a.m!
We had a great girlie couple of hours before we ordered lunch, which was western food (cheeseburgers for the girls and chicken ciabatta for me). We eventually caught a taxi back to the hotel about 4pm. There was no-one on the internet in the hotel, so I had a few minutes checking on one or two things just as Harry arrived back from his day out to the 'Tunnels'
Vietcong tunnel entrance
. One of the final things I wanted to see in Saigon was the American Embassy, where the final evacuation took place as the Communists surrounded the city at the end of the Vietnam war. The unassuming single storey building was almost hidden behind a big wall and is an American consulate today. As I took a photo of this piece of history, I was waved away by a rifle carrying Vietnamese guard and I retreated respectfully back to the taxi.
Showered and changed we met in the hotel dining room to meet our new team leader and fellow travelers. Under Andrea's lead we were joined by John, Pam and their son Michael from Australia and Mina from Japan. A fifth member had not yet arrived.
Outline briefing given, we set out for dinner. Andrea had planned to walk us out for about ten minutes but as we left the hotel it started to rain again and we opted for a Vietnamese restaurant just up the block and enjoyed a very tasty meal.
