Miss Saigon
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
8
27
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Just about to head off to bed on our last night in this bustling city of 8 million. We arrived here from Mui Ne three days ago, which means a small mention of our last day there is in order.
So Mui Ne is known mainly on the backpacker trail for two things, surfing and sand sledding. On our second day there we hired two jeeps (actual Russian military relics) and headed to see some sights. Our first stop was the "Fairy River". I have no idea why it is called this as there is no evidence of ferries anywhere, which means it probably was translated from Vietnamese incorrectly hmmm... Anyways we head down this trail to be met by a group of boys who proceed to tell us to remove our shoes (which they will keep safe for a price of course)
Fairy River
. We then are lead down a hill and into a small creek, which we (barefooted remember) begin to wade our way through. We continue our way through the water and come upon a large hill which one of our young guides encourages to climb (or race up in a certain someones case). The view from the top was worth it. The hills all around "Ferry River" are bright red and the jungle is so green it is quite the sight. We then return to the water and make our way up it, stopping to squish our toes in quick sand and various other forms of red mud. At the end is suppose to be this major waterfall which turns out to be a minor sprinkling of water off the rocks above...oh well. We head back, this time along the rice paddies, where we stumble upon large fish ponds and hidden barbed wire...Yipeee! Once we have paid the "guide" the shoe "protector" and return to our jeeps, we all turn to each other and discuss how this little adventure went against everything you should do in a south east Asian country. Wade through muddy rivers in bare feet, follow some random kids, walk barefooted through the forest, where who knows what is left behind from wars, and basically :go off the beaten path". Collectively as a group (consisting of 10) we would like to say "sorry mom/mum". But we survived and the views and experience were worth it I promise... Our second stop was these amazing white sand dunes. It was honestly like we were in Africa somewhere. They were huge. We received some sort of plastic Crazy Carpets (for a fee of course) and hiked our way up to spend an hour riding some sand dunes
Kings of the red castle
. Good, but sandy times. Our way home we stopped at a set of red sand dunes overlooking the ocean and city to watch the sun set. Bought a few beers sat down at the top and shared a romantic view with 9 other people. Can't beat it! Got back to the hotel and packed it in early (the Centurion effect was still impacting the ability to stay up). Time for Saigon. Took a 3 hour bus, which turned into 4, which turned into 51/2 but with 10 ipods to share and lots of snacks we were all good. Arrived in Saigon at around 7 at night, ended up following some lady down an alley and arrived in backpacker central (Pham Ngu Lao District 1). Bumped into other group members that were a day ahead, found a hotel and checked out the night life. Happy hour, dancing, riding tuks tuks, Paul accidentally hitting a little street girl (not badly), but had to pay a hefty price for a pack of gum to get her to stop crying, witnessed some crazy Venezuelan girl hopefully doing a culture dance of some sort, and the night was done.
Woke up yesterday and headed to the famous Reunification Palace. Saw the tanks (replicas do not get your hopes up) and lovely 50s decor. Little disappointing. From there we walked to the War Remnants Museum which was a pretty humbling place. Lots of pictures and items from the Vietnamese War(or as they call it here the American War). Very horrific and very sad images, but it is something everyone must see. Just seeing pictures of what happened in the places we have been these past weeks, pretty much brought all of us to tears. Hard to take it all in, but at the same time very amazing to see how far the Vietnamese people have come since the war, and how they are so friendly and welcoming to this day. Makes you wonder if North American would be able to do the same if something like that happened on our home turf..
Our guide
. After the museum we felt a lite in spirits was need so the girls headed to the market for some shopping and the guy headed to the tailors to work on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes (long story, but in short they have been so excited for the showing of the new animated TMNT movie on the movie channel here that they felt the need to dress the part). Night included pizza for dinner (of course), lots of pictures, Happy Hour, dancing, some guy approaching us trying to sell us mashed up mint chocolate bars as opium, and a rooftop party with out hotel staff. YupToday we headed for breakfast and then to book our bus to Cambodia. As most of the crew was not feeling quite pleasant, only Jamie, Adam, and myself ventured off to the Cu Chi tunnels (everyone else opted to go tomorrow). An hour drive later we arrived at the tunnels. These tunnels are a crazy big interconnecting network of tunnels which were used by guerrilla fighters for hiding spots against the Americans. Basically a community underground including hospitals, churches, supply routes etc... You first have to watch quite the propaganda film then a guide takes you around the above ground area of some of the tunnels. We then descended into them and it was the craziest feeling ever. Straight down, pitch black, hot, muddy, and really small. So much fun!! Although I can't believe people actually lived down there. They also showed us all the man made weapons and traps used against the Americans, which match any of the painful items I've seen at the Tower of London. Absolute torture. We got back into the city and headed for our final Vietnamese dinner (excellent as per usual). The girls took in a movie at the coffee house across the street (a real theater with food service and big plushy couches...for free!) while the boys finally viewed their beloved Turtle movie. Bed early tonight, then off to Cambodia tomorrow. So sad to be leaving Vietnam. Its pretty funny that it feels like we are leaving our comfort zone here, when only a month ago Canada was our comfort zone. Pretty amazing how fast one can adjust.
I'm compiling a list of quirks on our time in the Vietnamese culture, which I will hope to get up in the next couple of days, just to give you guys an idea of what life has been like over here these last weeks...entertaining you can bet!
Off to bed we go, hope this finds you all well!
