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Exploring South Vietnam
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HCM Day 1 ~ had the scariest ride of my life!
my 1st day in HCM! and i already feel so comfy here.. i guess that's bcos i've been to a number of developing c'ries.. even thou i'm travelin on my own, so far i've not felt lonely at all! in fact, i think the fact that i'm travelin on my own somehow makes it easier for me to interact with the locals..
at changi airport (budget terminal - which btw, was really budget looking), a vietnamese man, tony, approached me and asked whether i could share some of my luggage allowance with her mom, who was returning to HCM. i also helped her with her extra hand-carry luggage.
along the way, i met with another viet lady, linh, who was also helping this old lady with her hand-carry luggage. it was nice chatting with tony and linh. and linh offered to show me around in HCM tmr... and one good turn deserves another - i got a free ride to town fm HCM airport bcos the old lady's son (who's a taxi driver) came to pick her up.
i got off at de tham, which is the main backpackers stretch. most of the recommended hostels/ hotels were already fully booked. those that were not offered me cheapest US$12 and din allow me to bargain. i guess its the peak season now as tet, the vietnamese new year was jus round the corner (same dates as CNY, followin the lunar calendar). in the end, i found this hotel, which has a very strange layout - with only 1 or 2 guest rooms on each floor. i bargained for US$5 a nt, after asking for the cheapest room which is on the highest floor which has a very steep staircase leading to it (but gd for vertical marathon training haha), and which comes without cable tv nor hot water. which is perfectly fine with me. what's impt to me is that the rm is clean, bright, not too noisy and has attached bathrm =)
then took the motorcycle taxi (known as 'xe om') to the train stn to buy tix for my onward journeys. the xe om ride was scary!! i was hanging on for my dear life for the first 5-10 mins. after that, i learnt not to think about the ride, but jus to focus on the street scenes. what scared me was that the traffic was super heavy and all the motorists seem not to follow traffic rules (such as using the correct lanes and overtaking all the time). it was esp scary at the x-junctions, where there were no regulating traffic lights and it was free for all. i think it takes a very great amt of concentration to drive on HCM roads! i did consider renting a motorbike, but i dun think i wanna risk my life... well, i guess in a way, i'll never be bored in HCM cos even crossing the roads is so exciting. cos the traffic is so heavy that u either have to dash across. or jus start walking and dodge the oncoming traffic along the way. another strategy is to just close your eyes and cross and wait for the traffic to dodge you haha.
had dinner at this lovely cafe called 'wrap and roll' - very healthy meal - grilled beef wrapped around lemon grass stalks and rice rolls, which i had to diy with the rice paper, veg, vermicelli and dipping sauce. and pomelo juice. i love viet food! was really surprised when adam mentioned that he din like viet food during his recent visit to north vietnam.
after dinner, i walked around downtown viet and its q prosperous! with all the high end shops such as gucci, mango, and other names which i can't rem as i'm not into such branded stuff... but i cldn't help but step into the addidas and nike shops, the prices were similar to spore! which was a surprise since i tot the vietnam is one of the manufacturing ctries for these sports goods. anyhow.. now i wished i'd brought more clothes, cos the vietnamese are not as conservative as i'd thought and its ok for ladies to wear sleeveless tops and shorts.
HCM Day 2 ~ made 2 new vietnamese frens and ran my first hash run!
met linh, the viet lady i met on the plane yesterday and nhung, her fren. they picked me up in their motorbikes, which according to linh, she has been riding for the past 8 years. linh is a fresh biz graduate and recently visited her sis in sg who's studying in NUS. she's now looking for job and boyfriend =P. as for nhung, she has worked for the past yr in the PR dept of an investment consultancy. both of them are from hoi an and are in their early twenties. we first went to highlands coffeehouse for coffee (local coffee place which has many branches, which looks like starbucks/ coffee bean & tea leaf), followed by ice-cream at this very lovely cafe called cafe napoli. had a very nice chat with both of them - sharing about the cultures of vietnam and sg as well as personal stuff such as hobbies, plans for career, marriage and how to choose the right guy. they were really nice and i really enjoyed their company! check out nhung's blog (there's a para on me) at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-W.lUPfQ9bqjcMsjeaP2T_8Aeahst
in the afternoon, i joined the saigon hash house harriers (see http://www.saigonh3.com/ and
http://www.saigonh3.com/stats/run842.htm). it was my very first hash run and it was really really interesting! we took a 1-hr coach ride to the countryside and started the run beside the paddy fields. the format of a hash run is that there are paper shreds left along the trail to ensure that the runners are on the right trail, and when there are branch-offs, runners will have to check both trails to find out which is the right one. the correct trail will have 3 consecutive clumps of paper shreds. and there are cries for identification. when a runner sees a clump of paper, he will shout "on-on". if he doesn't see any paper for a while, that means he's on the wrong trail and he will call out "on-back". the runners are mostly expats living in HCM, though there are a few locals, i also met this s'porean lady, shu fang, who's recently posted to HCM for work and who's a marathon runner too. we ran for about 1 hr 35mins and it was rather adrenaline-pumping as we were running on the forest trails and shouting most of the time. the villagers must find us a very curious bunch! one of the runners told me that the 3 key things about a hash run is running, drinking and sex. indeed, all the regular runners have hash names which are all R rated, with the likes of 'pencil dick', 'handjob', 'pussy'. at the end of the run, all of us gather for cold drinks and the hash circle, where 'charges' were made. and the 'sinners' have to sit on blocks of ice and down mugs of beer. these charges are fun stuff like having a poor fashion sense, walking too much during the run, being disrespectful to the hash customs such as wearing caps in the hash circle. newcomers were also made to introduce themselves and the organisers to give their comments about the run. there were lots of jokes and it was great fun! even the bus ride back was fun with lots of singing (songs with lots of sexual teasing). including the traveling, the whole run took 6 hrs. now, i'm q happy with the peace & quiet and being by myself... its been quite an eventful day! and nope, i'm still not lonely yet =)
HCM Day 3 ~ visited the cu chi tunnels and met some vietnamese-chinese locals
i actually booked myself for a full-day tour, to the cu chi tunnels followed by the cao dai temples. but i was late for 5mins as i had gotten the time wrong. and the bus left without me! so i went for the 1/2 day tour instead, and no, the ticket price is not refundable. my lesson learnt is that the buses here leave really punctually!
the cu chi tunnels are a network of 200km of tunnels dug underground during the french colonisation period (about 50km dug) and during the vietnam war (about 150km). during the vietnam war (lasting about 30 years?), the viet cong/ or guerillas lived and fought the GIs from the tunnels. and the resistance at cu chi was one of the main reasons why the americans decided that they cannot win the vietnam war. the tunnels were deepest at about 8m and very narrow (only passable by asian physiques). we saw one of the many entrances to the tunnels, some of the booby traps made by the viet cong, the fighting trenches, and etc but the most interesting experience was when we went into a short section of the tunnel (40m). the passages were only about 0.6m tall and we had to crawl on all 4s. without our torchlights, i can imagine the terrible darkness. its really sad that the vietnamese pple had to endure such hardships yet at the same time, their resilience was amazing! at that point in time, i have the naive wish that all the world's political leaders will be enlightened and will prevent any future wars or sufferings.
during the bus ride to cu chi tunnels, i sat with a dutch lady, berpske, who's been living in various countries for the past 9 years, and whose husband is a soccer player who manages/ plays on teams from different c'tries. it was nice chatting with her!
felt really lethargic after getting back to town from the trip to the cu chi tunnels, as we had to endure a very slow 2 hr bus ride. so decided to chill out at gloria jean's cafe in dong khoi, the stretch of town with many designer boutiques. followed by pedicure and manicure (S$16) at some beauty salon. i was so tired that i nearly fell asleep during the beauty session. was ready to retire for the day at 7pm when i realised that i've not visited chinatown and tonight is my 2nd last night in HCM so i better check out chinatown tonight.
so i took a 20-min motorbike ride there. CNY in sg is definitely more exciting as the shops selling the CNY stuff are all clustered together. whereas the shops in HCM chinatown were very scattered. decided to try the local durians which i heard are nicer than thai durians. i guess i'm no gourmet so i couldn't really tell the difference but viet durians are definitely nice! chatted with the ladies selling the durians, who were the first people who can speak mandarin that i've met in vietnam. they were really friendly and one even gave me a ride on her motorbike. then i decided to stop to eat more food at the roadside stalls and started chatting with the hawkers selling fishballs and soya bean milk who were both vietnamese chinese too. all the chinese that i've met tonight commented that i'm brave to travel on my own. at the same time, i can sense a tinge of envy that they cannot afford to travel. i don't even dare ask them whether they have visited hanoi. well, i guess we must always count our blessings.
HCM Day 4 ~ visited mekong delta and met many fellow travelers
booked myself on a full-day tour to mekong delta. after a 3-hr bus ride, we reached the mekong delta around where we took a 1 - 2 hr boat ride to see the floating markets and to see life on the mekong river. along the way, we stopped at some villages to visit the houses and to see how local sweets were made. it was interesting to see the making of coconut candy, popped rice and etc. we also stopped to take a walk at the local land markets.
i was fortunate to be with a very nice group of fellow travelers. there were 2 middle-aged couples from israel. another middle-aged couple from canada, a older couple from south africa + oz, a young couple from oz and a dutch guy, anthony, who's my age (thou i din disclose my age to him).
one of the israeli ladies was a genetic counselor and she explained to me what genetic counseling was about. the oz lady was a nurse working in the area of public health. the canadian couple were heading for sg in a few days and i'll be emailing them some recommended things to do in sg.
my 1st (and hopefully last) accident on the trip happened today. while getting off the boat which wasn't tied to the pier (i was the first to get off), i fell and landed on my left knees. i really dunno what happened, i tot i saw the step very clearly and i stepped off the boat. then suddenly, i found myself landing very hard on the step. i was lucky that i din hit my head or something. my body was in shock for a few mins and i just stayed there on the steps. but my fellow travelers said that it was dangerous for me to stay on the pier so they moved me. and then i fainted. they carried me to the pharmacy when i was semi-conscious for a short while. it was the 1st time that i fainted. well, i guess my lesson learnt is not to be over-confident. i've alway prided myself on having a good sense of balance (i can cycle free-hand since young) so this accident has reminded me to not be over-confident and to be extra careful esp since i'm traveling on my own.. the israeli couples were esp concerned about my fall, and i felt rather touched.
the most amazing thing that happened today was about the dutch guy, anthony. on our bus ride back to HCM, our bus picked up other tourists who had gone for the 2-day mekong trip. he met another dutch tourist who was also going to have his birthday tomorrow. and they are of the same age! it was so amazingly coincidental! to be of the same age, same birthday, in the same country and same bus at the same time!
it was slightly coincidental that anthony stayed just opposite my hotel. so we had dinner together last night.
HCM Day 5 ~ last day in HCM
slept in today. then visited ben thanh markets (largest mkt in HCM) and had brunch there. ben thanh market was huge and bustling! wet market selling all sorts of meats and slimey looking stuff. stalls selling flowers, fruits & veg. dried goods, clothings and all sorts of souvenirs.
attempted to buy some clothes as i only brought 5 sets of clothes over. but the clothes were all rather 'auntie-looking'. after which i went for a 1-hr massage which is so-so (S$15). so far, i've tried massages in china, india, thailand and now vietnam. to me, the massage in china is the best, followed by thai.
also visited the war remnants museum today. its full of heart-breaking and gory images of soldiers (viet and GIs) and civilians in combat in the viet war. there were also images of victims of agent orange and naplam burns. agent orange is a defoliant and about 75million litres of it was sprayed over vietnam, to remove the forest cover under which the vietcong army hid. the effects of agent orange are still being felt today, with babies born with defects as their parents had been affected by the chemicals. it was hard to come out of the museum dry-eyed. i hope to read up more about the viet war during this trip.
after packing up and while waiting for the train to danang, i checked out this new cafe in town, called bobby breweries coffee. tot that the concept was really great! there's 3 storeys to the shop, 1st and 2nd floors are the cafe seating areas. 3rd floor is a movie theatre that can seat about 20 pax and has plush sofa seats. there're even buttons that you can press to call for service. english movies are screened whole day long FOC. and the prices were similar to that of other cafes in town. but i only had 1 hour to enjoy the facilities. if only i had discovered this place sooner! well, i guess this shows that i'm still a city kid at heart!
Latest Comments (14)View all comments
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Re: Hi hi ! U r there oredi? (reply)
Feb 28, 2007 08:13 EST by wander
hey jess!
israel sounds nice! i tot of gg there too, maybe in april, if i can find cheap air tix.
yeah, the motorbikes in vietnam are crazy! even the vietnamese themselves say that the riders are crazy! accident rate is v high!
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In reply to:
hi colleen, this is jess. i am surprised that u are oredi in Vietnam.. thought it i... show all
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Re: Enjoy yourself! (reply)
Feb 28, 2007 08:10 EST by wander
thanks lee lin! sorry for late reply, as i jus realised i can reply directly on the blog. hope u've had a great conference!
and c u for the wild rice play!
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In reply to:
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your travel blog with me. It's always very inspiring and exciting to read about your trip. Do be careful and take good care of y... show all
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Re: Take care!! (reply)
Feb 28, 2007 08:09 EST by wander
thanks michael & everyone else for your concern abt my knees. the blood clots are still there, but i've no probs running and cycling. jus have probs with squatting =P
so silly of me, i jus realised that i can reply to comments instead of posting brand new comments (and disturbing everyone on my mailing list). hee..
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Keep the blog going (reply)
Feb 22, 2007 01:07 EST by lizchix2004
I hope that the knee is healing well. Thanks for sharing the blog with me.... feels like I am traveling with you! Where to next?
Sha
(incase u wondering who is lizchix2004... haha)
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Take care!! (reply)
Feb 7, 2007 11:30 EST by michael.ong
Hi Colleen, sorry to hear that you hurt yourself while getting off the boat. Just be more careful and ensure that you have enough rest in between. Take care!
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Enjoy yourself! (reply)
Feb 7, 2007 05:32 EST by leelin
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your travel blog with me. It's always very inspiring and exciting to read about your trip. Do be careful and take good care of yourself as you travel around Vietnam. Will log on to your blog regularly :) Will be going Perth on 20 Feb for a conference. Keep in touch, yah? - Lee Lin
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thanks frens! (reply)
Feb 5, 2007 10:50 EST by wander
am pleasantly surprised & encouraged that u pple actually bothered to read my blog! heeheehee..
its my 1st blog (sort-of) as i've never believed in blogs as i didn't think that anyone will be interested in the minute boring details of my life.
was hoping to use this blog as a 'diary' to reflect on the things that i see and learn during this trip..
thanks KK for the tip on sinh ... show all
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wow! having a blast from day 1! (reply)
Feb 5, 2007 08:17 EST by doraemonsg
Heh looks like you're having great time from day 1! if you have some time, do make your way down to Mekong's delta in the south. It's beautiful down there with all the padi fields, rivers and villages. You can check out Sihn cafe (shd be close to where you're staying), which organises tour to mekong delta.
Have a safe trip and do keep on blogging!:)
rgds,
KK
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that's life.... (reply)
Feb 5, 2007 06:55 EST by hendrick
really envy you...quiet, peaceful and yet not lonely. What else can one ask for? :)
You really know how to make good friends eh! Enjoy yourself and continue to update your frens in Singapore
Cheers!
Hendrick
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