Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I recently spent a week or so in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now known. HCM City is a sprawling city with somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 million residents (and about 3.5 million motorbikes!). I stayed in an area called Pham Ngu Lao, the heart of the backpacker ghetto, full of other travelers on their way to wherever, and bustling with action and energy. A week is not nearly enough to see everything of course, and my walks around the city were concentrated mostly on Districts 1 and 10 (out of 22). Some of the sights I saw included a very somber visit to the War Remnants Museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Xa Loi Pagoda, the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a local art gallery, and many of the beautiful parks spread throughout the city. I also took a tour outside of HCM for a visit to the Cao Dai Temples. There are an estimated two to three million followers of Cao Daism worldwide, although the majority are in Vietnam. Cao Daism is an interesting fusion of East and West, born in 20th century Vietnam (around 1926), and incorporates elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, native Vietnamese spiritualism, Islam, and even Christianity. It even includes the use of Mediums, or seances, to communicate with the spiritual world. I was very intrigued when I first read about this unique religion and found the temples themselves to be absolutely fascinating and very beautiful.
This trip to the Cao Dai Temples was also part of a tour to the Cu Chi region to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels became legendary during the 1960's for its role in giving the Viet Cong control of a large rural area about 40 km outside of HCMC. At its peak, the tunnels stretched all the way from the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, to the Cambodian border and in the Cu Chi district alone there were more than 250km of tunnels. The tunnel network, some of which was barely enough to crawl through, while other parts were several stories deep, contained living quarters and kitchens, storage facilities, weapons factories, hospitals and command centers. The tunnels made possible communication and coordination between areas controlled by the Viet Cong, which were often separated from each other by South Vietnamese and American air and land operations. They also provided a means for the VC to launch surprise attacks, often within the perimeters of US military controlled areas, and were responsible for a very large number of US casualties. The tour itself was quite interesting and provided the opportunity to crawl through some of the tunnels and even shoot various weapons used in the war. I opted to try shooting an M-60, a machine gun capable of shooting 850 rounds in a single trigger pull.
Overall I found HCMC to be a fascinating city and look forward to a time in the future when I will be able to explore it some more...

A homestay in the Mekong Delta - Vinh Long, An Binh Island

After leaving Can Tho and prior to coming to Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to spend one more night in the Mekong Delta region and do a homestay on the island of An Binh, just outside of Vinh Long. Getting there was half the adventure as I decided to go by motorbike. I was riding on back of the bike with my small backpack while my driver, a very fit 62 year old vietnamese man, held my very large backpack in front of him between the handle bars. The ride to Vinh Long and An Binh would normaly only be about 30km, but we took the small side roads in order to do some sight seeing along the way, adding an additional 30km to the trip. The ride took us through endless rice paddies and fruit orchards and along the way we stopped at some factories that produce some of the local products of the region. This included a stop at a factory where they make joss sticks (incence), used when making offerings at the temples, a stop at a tofu making facility, and a stop at a local brick manufacturer. We also stopped at a couple of temples along the way, a buddhist temple and a Cao Dai temple. The journey also included two short ferry rides to finally bring me to An Binh island.
An Binh is primarily used for agriculture and there are many fruit orchards on the island. I was brought to my homestay and thanked my driver for the very informative journey as I said goodbye and parted ways. The "master" of the homestay then showed my to my bungalow - a little bamboo hut over a canal where I could hear the fish jumping underneath. I spent the hottest part of the afternoon lounging in a hammock and reading a book. Later on, just before dinner and after it had cooled off a bit, I took a short ride on a bicycle around the area and picked some fresh fruit. I returned a short while later, showered, and sat down to a feast of a meal prepared by my hosts. It consisted of elephant fish spring rolls, grilled pork with steamed rice, soup, fresh vegetables, and fresh dragonfruit for desert.
I retired early that night since theres not much to do on the island after dark and my hosts had shut the power off around 9:30 pm. I slept very well. The next morning, I woke fairly early and looked out the back opening of my bungalow - only to notice a tomb not more than 10 feet behind where I was sleeping!!! Good thing I didn't notice this the day before or I might not have slept so well. It kind of creeped me out, but this is actually very common in Vietnam. Family members are often buried on their property and many times you will see caskets right in the middle of a rice paddy. Certainly underscores the importance rice plays in the daily lives of the people of the Mekong region.
Shortyly after I ate breakfast - another wonderful meal prepared by my hosts, and we departed via motorbike back to Vinh Long where I caught a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. All in all it was a very memorable experience, and one i would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to visit the Mekong Delta region.

The Mekong Delta, Can Tho, Vietnam

Just a quick post today. Been hanging around Can Tho, Vietnam for the last couple of days. Spent most of yesterday trying to fix my camera after the humidity in Phu Quoc did a number on it. Haven't been able to take pictures because the lens was all fogged up. It's dried up and seems to be better, but you will notice the pictures have a slight haze to them still. Spent the rest of the day walking around the town. I was surprised at the size of this city, apparently Can Tho is the largest city in the Mekong Delta. Although, besides the waterfront there's not a whole lot to see.
Today was spent on a boat tour of the Mekong Delta region, the Can Tho River in particular. We started out early, 5:30 am, which provided a nice view of the sunrise in the background as we began our trip. We started off with a visit to a couple of the floating markets. First the Cai Rang floating market, then later the Phong Dien Floating market. These "markets" are a sort of organized caos of boats loaded with fresh produce, all bumping in to one another. Had the opportunity to sample some of the delicious local fruits: pinapples, pomellos, mangosteens, rambutan, and dragon fruit amogst others. We continued down the Can Tho river for about 25km, and later turned off into some of the side canals, with a visit to a local fruit orchard that had hundreds of pink ducks. I was amazed to see pink ducks! Who ever heard of a pink duck? Further inspection around the area showed signs of pink on the bushes and ground. Then I noticed the hands of one of the children at the orchard and saw that they were pink as well. They dyed their ducks! Why, I have no idea. Very strange. After a short walk through the orchard, we continued through the canals working our way back, stopping for a delicious lunch later along the canal. We stopped just in time as a major rain storm passed through, but by the time we finished it had passed. The one nice thing about the rain is that it cools the temperature down considerably and made for a very pleasant and comfortable journey back. All in all the trip was about 8 hours and gave some excellent insight to life in the Mekong Delta.
Will probably spend another day here since I'm not sure where I should go next. Maybe a homestay at another location in the delta, most likely Vinh Long, or whether I should head straight to Ho Chi Minh city. Decisions, decisions...

Crossing the Cambodian/Vietnam border, Hon Chong and the island of Phu Quoc…

A week or so ago I left Sihanoukville, Cambodia for the Vietnam island of Phu Quoc. What I thought would be a fairly straight forward, half day journey, turned out to be much more. The morning of May 27, the day my Cambodian visa expired, I was to take a hired mini-van straight to the border of Vietnam near the town of Ha Tien. After crossing the border, I would be taking a moto to the town’s ferry terminal where I would then catch a boat across to Phu Quoc. Sounded easy enough and I was looking forward to the trip. I was picked up around 8am and there were only a handful of other passengers on the mini-van. We drove for a couple of hours and soon arrived in Kampot, Cambodia. All the other passengers on the mini-van got off here and it looked as if I would be the only one making the trek all the way to the border. Upon realizing this, the driver of the van started making all kinds of excuses about having problems with the van and that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the border. I knew this was B.S. and he was just making excuses so that he wouldn’t have to take only one person the rest of the way to the border. He told me he would hire a moto to take me the rest of the way. I was livid. We were only about half way there at this point, and I had paid a considerable amount to be taken all the way to the border in that van and wasn’t about to spend the next several hours on the back of a motorbike, with a huge backpack, and in the rain, the rest of the way to the border. I tried to explain this to the driver and refused his offer. After some back and forth discussion, I compromised with him and agreed that I would take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way – at his expense of course. At least I could sit in the covered carriage and be reasonably comfortable and dry. My journey continued. The closer we got to the border, the worse the conditions of the road were. Soon we were driving on narrow dirt roads, filled with potholes and I began to wonder if I was even being taken to the border at all. We came to a small intersection with another small dirt road where an awaiting moto (motorbike) was sitting. My tuk-tuk driver explained to me that he could go no further due to the conditions of the road, and that his friend would then take me the remaining 10km to the border. At this point I really had no choice but to get on the motorbike as the road really were bad. The 10km turned out to be more like 30km, but soon I was at the Cambodia/Vietnam border. I was then transferred to yet another moto driver as the moto drivers do not cross borders. I knew that this border crossing does not issue visas, but I had arranged my visa while in Sihanoukville so I didn’t expect any problems. There were none, other than the 1 hour wait for an officer to come back from lunch or whatever and actually check and stamp my visa. This border crossing is tiny! Nothing more than a dirt road with a gate, a couple of small buildings, and some heavily armed officers.
Finally I was in Vietnam! I told my new moto driver that I needed to get to the ferry terminal in Ha Tien so I could catch an afternoon boat over to Phu Quoc. To my dismay, I was informed that there were no afternoon boats (contrary to what I was told when planning this trip), and that the only boats leaving in the afternoon left from the town of Hon Chong, another 45km away. Not really wanting to have to spend the night in Ha Tien, I opted to take the moto all the way to Hon Chong. It was still raining, and it would be a long ride, but at least I would be on Phu Quoc by early evening as there was a boat scheduled to leave Hon Chong at 2:30. We should just make it, so I pressed on. The driver provided a pullover type rain jackets for himself and I, so at least I was reasonably dry. I arrived at the ferry terminal in Hon Chong with about half hour to spare, only to find out that there were no more boats for the day and the next one wasn’t until 10:30 the following morning. Its slow season now and apparently the boat schedules had cut back. I was stuck. I was going to be spending the night in Hon Chong. I had my driver take me to a guesthouse. It was cheap, but somewhat dirty. Frustrated and too tired to care, I checked in and took a nap. Woke up a few hours later, went for a walk around town to find some dinner (unsuccessfully), but I did come across a beautiful pagoda built into a mountain at the edge of the sea. I took some photos and returned to my guesthouse. They fixed me a plate of really bad fried rice. I ate it and retired to my room for the evening where I watched TV. I had 5 channels, 4 of which were showing the same thing. I watched the news, pretending like I understood Vietnamese, and drifted off to sleep.
Well rested, I awoke early the following morning, anxious to get to the ferry terminal and secure my seat on the boat just in case it was to sell out. The guesthouse owner was kind enough to take me to the ferry terminal. I arrived an hour early and bought my ticket. Three Indonesian seamen, excited to see a westerner, invited me to sit with them while I waited. I had some coffee and we engaged in some funny conversation. This was nice and my mood had definitely improved from the day before. Soon it was time to go and I walked the short distance to the dock, where I was surprised to see that the boat we would be taking was a hydrofoil. This boat moved! The inside cabin was very similar to being on an airplane – seats, sounds, and all. 1 hour later (29 hours after I initially left Cambodia), I was at my destination. What an ordeal, but things like this are to be expected when traveling in this part of the world
As I mentioned, it’s now slow season in this part of S.E. Asia. I hired a taxi to take me to Long Beach where I wanted to stay. He was very insistent on taking me to a particular set of bungalows on the beach, telling me that it was the best deal for a bungalow that would be right on the beach. Knowing that there was probably a commission involved for him, I agreed to see the place he suggested but wanted to check out a couple of others as well. “No problem”, he said. I checked out the others, which were completely deserted, and ended up going with his recommendation. I was quite happy I did. This place, called Nhat Lan, seemed to be the only place that had anyone staying at it and I met a handful of other really cool travelers. The island is really nice, with beautiful beaches, and at least I would have some good company while I stayed here.
Spent the first two days just relaxing on the beach and catching up on some reading. Went on a snorkeling trip another day to some neighboring islands and another beautiful beach, Bai Sao, with pristine waters and sand the consistency of talcum powder. A huge seafood lunch was prepared consisting of crab, octopus, fish, sea urchin, snails, squid, some sort of soup, and fresh fruit. Very nice! One night we celebrated the birthday of another traveler, Pierka from Finland, and pretty much everyone staying at the bungalows came out to celebrate. Another day was spent getting lost on motorbikes while touring the island with a couple of people from Australia, Emma and Ryan from Tazmania. That was an exhausting but fun adventure, but it was very late and dark by the time we found our way back. The next day was spent chillin’ on the beach again and more reading. Last night a huge storm blew through and it is still raining today. Perfect for catching up on this computer stuff.
Phu Quoc is a beautiful island and I’ve met some really great people while here. I’ll probably spend another day here, then head back to the mainland and tour the Mekong Delta a bit before making my way to Ho Chi Minh City. More adventures to come…