Vietnam- Ho Chi Minh City

Fancy some snake?
see all photos »

'Sin Jauw' from Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) in Vietnam !!! Having opted for a more 'guided' exit from Cambodia we left on a toured bus to HCMC.

Fearing that I would not spot the weird and wonderful dietary foods of Cambodia I was pleased to snap a quick shot of marinated snakes from the bus as we boarded a ferry across one of the many rivers. On the bus a great old vietnam lady offered us her bamboo snack, which was hard to decline and fearing the worst we hacked our way into it to find it filled with sticky rice, some brown bean and coconut shreds which tasted half decent to say the least.... and nope no toilet marathon either from eating it!!

Mental traffic
see all photos »

Arriving into Vietnam the road improved considerably which was a relief coz the bamboo snack was rather sharp (see photo). First impression of Vietnam was the amount of water and rice fields and secondly the sheer volume of aerials rising high making hell for birds to fly home at night... no doubt?!?!

Pulling into HCMC just before dark and clearly during rush hour the third impression was the insane traffic.. not cars but ka-zillion-billion 'moto' bikes !!

Of course our first dinner had to be AUTHENTIC spring rolls and they sure well tasted DAMN outstanding !!

trying to cross!!!??!!
see all photos »

As per usual we did some recon on our first day there and decided to do a tour of the Mekong Delta area which lies just south of HCMC. Early the next day we boarded a bus to Cai Be for a 2 hour boat cruise down the Mekong River to see the floating market and all it's boats touting their wares on poles (eg. watermelon) at the front of their boats. The market is busiest in the early morning so we were able to catch the last few trades as we cruised past. Afterwards we stopped off at a production factory where they showed us how rice paper is made; we tried the local chewy coconut candy and resisted the temptation (based on the disgusted look on the prior persons face) to taste snake wine which they tried to tell me had aphrodisiac qualities..... me thinks more of an opposite effect after smelling it !!

Welcome to Vietnam
see all photos »

Relaxed the next day to do some sightseeing of the city also some shopping (bought my Vietnam hat... had too!!) and getting our final Hep B shot at the local clinic. We strolled around HCMC, seeing many colonial buildings and visited the Jade Emperor Pagoda with it's Chinese influenced belief and witnessed the daily chanting. On our search for ice-cream we stumbled upon a Hindu based temple called Sri Thendayyutthapani - very cool, yet it felt to me out of place here in Vietnam.

Reading the history of HCMC and about the Vietnam war one of the main sites to visit nearby are the elaborate Cu Chi Tunnels which were used by the Vietcong to escape, evade and ambush their attackers. The highlight of the tour was going into the tunnels which where not designed for the western frame and got very claustrophobic and dark the deeper you went.

Mekong Delta boats
see all photos »

On our last day here, while waiting for the 7:30 PM bus, we decided to post some souviners home and had to wait over 1 hour while the post guy designed and built a box that would house my Vietnam hat perfectly and strolling home we saw them preparing for the Chinese New Year celebration (they call it TET in Vietnam) which kicks off end of Jan.

Heading north we plan to bumble our way along the coast line to Hoi-An, Hue and finally on to the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. So till next blog... Chao, tam biet!