Water, water; everywhere. The lives of the Vietnamese and the country
itself are dominated by the wet stuff. From the Mekong Delta in the
south to Halong Bay in the north; from the beaches along the coast to
the paddy fields that cover the rest of the country, from Pho Bo (a traditional
beef noodle soup) to the cocktails and the many rivers that lace the
hills and flats of the landscape, there is water everywhere. Admittedly,
it is currently coming to the end of the rainy season, but I think the
lifestyles of the people here are the same in the drier seasons - just
with a bit less rain to deal with.
Overall, I have to admit that I preferred Cambodia to Vietnam. The Khmer people are a lot more friendly than the Vietnamese, who are generally more aggressive and confrontational, from the market traders to the staff at restaurants and hotels. The Vietnamese are also more likely to try and scam money from you, or more blatantly try to steal from you, so you need to be a bit more on guard. Vietnam is relatively more wealthy than Cambodia too, so there is more development and billboard advertisements line the roads rather than palm trees. At least that is part of the story; some areas are really beautiful and picturesque and, in the countryside, people farm their crops using traditional methods and greet you with a smile.
Chau Doc
After crossing the border, our first port of call was Chau Doc, a small town situated in the Mekong Delta. The visit was just a stopover before a long day of travelling, but we did have some time to explore.
After lunch, we took a boat trip through one of the floating villages and called in at a couple of the workshops that are dotted throughout the village. The wooden homes are a bit ramshackle, with great big rats running along under the floors, and existence there is pretty much hand-to-mouth, but all the homes have TV aerials and one or two even have satellite dishes!
Following the boat trip, the group took a cavalcade of scooters up one of the surrounding hills to catch a view of the sunset, looking back over Cambodia, and saw how the built up areas and connecting roads around Chau Doc are really just islands amidst vast stretches of water.
Saigon
The next day, an eight-hour coach journey, broken by a ferry across the Mekong river and lunch at a roadside restaurant, took us to the main city in southern Vietnam, Saigon. (It's formal name is Ho Chi Minh City, but that is really only for Sunday best, and everybody who lives there still calls it Saigon.)
After the long coach trip, it was good to be able to walk around the city and stretch our legs. Compared to the previous places on the tour, Saigon is a big city and has that big city feel to it. In truth, it is much like any other big Asian city and in the city centre there is nothing that really distinguishes it. Perhaps the exception to this is the number of motorbikes that weave through the streets. There are cars; there are buses and trucks; there are pedal bikes; but the vast majority of vehicles on the road are motorbikes. There are hundreds of them coming from all directions, channeling across the big intersections in big packs or snaking down the narrow backstreets. One of the most important lessons here is how to cross the road, and there is a knack: you simply need to step out into the traffic (open eyes are optional) and keep walking, as the bikes flow around you, and because they are so used to it, they do manage to avoid you (and each other!). At night, the city buzzes with neon and headlights dazzle everywhere you look.
Our one night in Saigon was the last night of the trip for Marlen, Nathan and Jo, and it had a bit of everything. It started normally enough, with dinner at an Italian restaurant in the backpackers district, followed by beers and cocktails (served in jam-jars, naturally), before things started to get a bit more unusual. Our search for a dance floor took us from one empty bar to another, before we decided to turn that to our advantage and get one of the DJs to play just our requests, dancing all over the bar while at the same time playing a game of darts with darts that were so blunt, you had to hurl them like a javelin to have any chance of making them stick. Afterwards, in search of somewhere else to drink, we accidentally ended up in a brothel, where a man-mountain of an Aussie offered us free vodka to stay for a while. We politely declined and instead stumbled across a flashy night club with hard core dance music; which was full of locals who wanted to either dance with us, sell us marijuana or hear our views on communism! Amongst the suits and designer dresses, we looked a bit out of place in our travellers garb, so we eventually left and found ourselves in a local "bar", which was nothing more than a few tiny plastic chairs on the roadside and cans of beer from the fridge. Everything was closing up by now, but there was still time for Marlen to join in the road races with the street kids, running barefoot through the backstreets of Saigon in the early hours of the morning.
The following day, along with Kelly, Susan and Mike who had joined our merry band for the Vietnam portion of the tour, we headed out of the city to see the Cu Chi tunnels. As we passed the parks and open areas that are sprinkled around the city, there were lots of people getting their daily morning exercise: tai chi formations, jogging and games of badminton or jianzi (kicking a shuttlecock to each other) were the most common activities.
The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Viet Cong in their war against South Vietnam and the Americans. If you don't know, the Viet Cong are the southern Vietnamese who sided with the communist north in the war. You hear lots about the Vietnam war, and there are countless films about it, but being from a western country, I always hear the US version and it was interesting to get another take on it.
The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of over 200km of connected tunnels (obviously) on three levels, with fighting trenches and booby traps above ground. Whenever enemy troops came close by, the entire community hid in the tunnels or used them to get behind the advancing enemy and attack from the rear. The tunnels and entrances were tiny and the living conditions must have been atrocious, but because the Viet Cong were fighting for a cause and their country, their dedication, alongside inventive guerilla tactics (booby traps made from bamboo spikes, using human faeces to poison the tips) and industrious work ethic (fighting by day, farming by night) led them to their eventual victory. And rather than being communist propaganda, this view was from our tour guide, who was in the South Vietnam army during the war, working with the US in the Cu Chi area and, after the US withdrew, fighting in the Mekong Delta.
I don't know how widespread this view is within Vietnam, but our guide thinks that everybody who was in the war was a victim, and there is no animosity towards the Americans or between the opposite sides within Vietnam. Nowadays, he and an ex-Viet Cong general drink together, laughing about how lucky they were not to meet in the war because they were both crack shots!
Back in Saigon, we spent the rest of the day sight-seeing although, to be fair, there wasn't that much to see. The Reunification Palace was disappointing, a time-warp from when the north stormed the palace at the end of the war, and has been left pretty much as it was found that day, with lots of 1970s dullness! The central post office is an impressive building, with a giant picture of Ho Chi Minh looking down over the grand hall and next to it is the pretty Notre-Dame Basilica (a relic from when Vietnam was a French colony), but apart from that there is nothing particularly noteworthy. Given the short stay in Saigon, I didn't get the chance to explore any of the museums, but perhaps they would have been a better bet.
Nha Trang
That evening, we took our first night train of the trip to the beach resort of Nha Trang. Nominally four to a cabin, we spent the evening with ten crammed into one (twelve including the mice!), playing cards and chatting. The beds, when they eventually called, were surprisingly comfortable, although perhaps less so for the taller members of the group, as I only just fit into the sleeping space.
We arrived early morning and after a quick walk around the town (similar to many other beach resorts, with a slight Mediterranean feel and lots of tourists, bars and restaurants) we had a day of pampering. Heading out of the town centre to a natural spa in the hills for a (foul-smelling) mud bath and soak in the mineral waters, before returning to the town for a massage.
My dive master confirmation also came through in the afternoon and, as Nha Trang has some of the best diving in Vietnam, I celebrated with a couple of dives around the islands that are scattered off the coast. A six-thirty start was hampered by the more traditional celebration of beers and cocktails the night before (Why Not? as the name of the bar suggests), but the diving was quite good - not much coral, but lots of crustaceans, octopus and reef fish amongst the rocks.
Hoi An
After the diving, our second night train took us to Da Nang, where a three hour bus ride to Hoi An waited for us. The train journey was supposed to be 11 hours, but a couple of delays stretched that to 13, so the drinks before and during the journey, which helped make the time fly, were a good idea. They also made sleeping a bit easier, as the carriage we had on this leg was from older stock and not nearly as comfortable as the first night train.
We eventually arrived in Hoi An in time for lunch at one of the local restaurants. There has been mainly good food throughout Vietnam, although not quite as good as Cambodia and there have been a couple of awful meals, with a mix of Asian and western meals (and, contrary to popular (i.e. my) belief, there are more dogs on the streets than on the menus). However, lunch in Hoi An was probably the most fun, with possibly the most friendly restaurant host in the world. The food was basic, salad, spring rolls and pork skewers wrapped in rice paper and dipped in a chilli beef sauce, but was eaten by hand and the hostess decided that I clearly couldn't manage that by myself, so started hand feeding me and a couple of the others. Then, she took the view that I was also unable to drink by myself or use a serviette. It's a strange experience being hand feed by a complete stranger, but she was relentless and the food kept coming until I was full to bursting. The table after everybody had finished was a scene of carnage!
In the afternoon, we took a bike ride and it was nice to get out of town and not be on a bus. Only 1km out of town, we started riding through the paddy fields and vegetable patches, with farmers working using age old methods, kids playing and waving at us as we passed, cows and water buffalo munching on the verges paying us no attention whatsoever and hundreds of dragonflies buzzing around. The bikes had no gears, hardly any brakes and saddles that felt like they were made out of wood, but we went at such a leisurely pace, none of that mattered. Having been out for a couple of hours, we took a boat ride back to Hoi An centre on Hoi An river. It is such a very slow way of life, and a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of Saigon and tourist traps of Nha Trang.
The hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool, so after the bike ride we relaxed by the pool until the rain came and then spent the rest of the day playing pool in the bars (pool tables are everywhere here and we've played a lot in the evenings).
So the first week in Vietnam was a bit of a mixed bag: nondescript cities and unremarkable (but nice) beach resorts, alongside interesting history lessons and, in Hoi An, a beautiful insight into a different way of life.
In the next post, I'll have an update from the northern part of the country.
Ta ta for now.
Overall, I have to admit that I preferred Cambodia to Vietnam. The Khmer people are a lot more friendly than the Vietnamese, who are generally more aggressive and confrontational, from the market traders to the staff at restaurants and hotels. The Vietnamese are also more likely to try and scam money from you, or more blatantly try to steal from you, so you need to be a bit more on guard. Vietnam is relatively more wealthy than Cambodia too, so there is more development and billboard advertisements line the roads rather than palm trees. At least that is part of the story; some areas are really beautiful and picturesque and, in the countryside, people farm their crops using traditional methods and greet you with a smile.
Chau Doc
After crossing the border, our first port of call was Chau Doc, a small town situated in the Mekong Delta. The visit was just a stopover before a long day of travelling, but we did have some time to explore.
After lunch, we took a boat trip through one of the floating villages and called in at a couple of the workshops that are dotted throughout the village. The wooden homes are a bit ramshackle, with great big rats running along under the floors, and existence there is pretty much hand-to-mouth, but all the homes have TV aerials and one or two even have satellite dishes!
Following the boat trip, the group took a cavalcade of scooters up one of the surrounding hills to catch a view of the sunset, looking back over Cambodia, and saw how the built up areas and connecting roads around Chau Doc are really just islands amidst vast stretches of water.
Saigon
The next day, an eight-hour coach journey, broken by a ferry across the Mekong river and lunch at a roadside restaurant, took us to the main city in southern Vietnam, Saigon. (It's formal name is Ho Chi Minh City, but that is really only for Sunday best, and everybody who lives there still calls it Saigon.)
After the long coach trip, it was good to be able to walk around the city and stretch our legs. Compared to the previous places on the tour, Saigon is a big city and has that big city feel to it. In truth, it is much like any other big Asian city and in the city centre there is nothing that really distinguishes it. Perhaps the exception to this is the number of motorbikes that weave through the streets. There are cars; there are buses and trucks; there are pedal bikes; but the vast majority of vehicles on the road are motorbikes. There are hundreds of them coming from all directions, channeling across the big intersections in big packs or snaking down the narrow backstreets. One of the most important lessons here is how to cross the road, and there is a knack: you simply need to step out into the traffic (open eyes are optional) and keep walking, as the bikes flow around you, and because they are so used to it, they do manage to avoid you (and each other!). At night, the city buzzes with neon and headlights dazzle everywhere you look.
Our one night in Saigon was the last night of the trip for Marlen, Nathan and Jo, and it had a bit of everything. It started normally enough, with dinner at an Italian restaurant in the backpackers district, followed by beers and cocktails (served in jam-jars, naturally), before things started to get a bit more unusual. Our search for a dance floor took us from one empty bar to another, before we decided to turn that to our advantage and get one of the DJs to play just our requests, dancing all over the bar while at the same time playing a game of darts with darts that were so blunt, you had to hurl them like a javelin to have any chance of making them stick. Afterwards, in search of somewhere else to drink, we accidentally ended up in a brothel, where a man-mountain of an Aussie offered us free vodka to stay for a while. We politely declined and instead stumbled across a flashy night club with hard core dance music; which was full of locals who wanted to either dance with us, sell us marijuana or hear our views on communism! Amongst the suits and designer dresses, we looked a bit out of place in our travellers garb, so we eventually left and found ourselves in a local "bar", which was nothing more than a few tiny plastic chairs on the roadside and cans of beer from the fridge. Everything was closing up by now, but there was still time for Marlen to join in the road races with the street kids, running barefoot through the backstreets of Saigon in the early hours of the morning.
The following day, along with Kelly, Susan and Mike who had joined our merry band for the Vietnam portion of the tour, we headed out of the city to see the Cu Chi tunnels. As we passed the parks and open areas that are sprinkled around the city, there were lots of people getting their daily morning exercise: tai chi formations, jogging and games of badminton or jianzi (kicking a shuttlecock to each other) were the most common activities.
The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Viet Cong in their war against South Vietnam and the Americans. If you don't know, the Viet Cong are the southern Vietnamese who sided with the communist north in the war. You hear lots about the Vietnam war, and there are countless films about it, but being from a western country, I always hear the US version and it was interesting to get another take on it.
The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of over 200km of connected tunnels (obviously) on three levels, with fighting trenches and booby traps above ground. Whenever enemy troops came close by, the entire community hid in the tunnels or used them to get behind the advancing enemy and attack from the rear. The tunnels and entrances were tiny and the living conditions must have been atrocious, but because the Viet Cong were fighting for a cause and their country, their dedication, alongside inventive guerilla tactics (booby traps made from bamboo spikes, using human faeces to poison the tips) and industrious work ethic (fighting by day, farming by night) led them to their eventual victory. And rather than being communist propaganda, this view was from our tour guide, who was in the South Vietnam army during the war, working with the US in the Cu Chi area and, after the US withdrew, fighting in the Mekong Delta.
I don't know how widespread this view is within Vietnam, but our guide thinks that everybody who was in the war was a victim, and there is no animosity towards the Americans or between the opposite sides within Vietnam. Nowadays, he and an ex-Viet Cong general drink together, laughing about how lucky they were not to meet in the war because they were both crack shots!
Back in Saigon, we spent the rest of the day sight-seeing although, to be fair, there wasn't that much to see. The Reunification Palace was disappointing, a time-warp from when the north stormed the palace at the end of the war, and has been left pretty much as it was found that day, with lots of 1970s dullness! The central post office is an impressive building, with a giant picture of Ho Chi Minh looking down over the grand hall and next to it is the pretty Notre-Dame Basilica (a relic from when Vietnam was a French colony), but apart from that there is nothing particularly noteworthy. Given the short stay in Saigon, I didn't get the chance to explore any of the museums, but perhaps they would have been a better bet.
Nha Trang
That evening, we took our first night train of the trip to the beach resort of Nha Trang. Nominally four to a cabin, we spent the evening with ten crammed into one (twelve including the mice!), playing cards and chatting. The beds, when they eventually called, were surprisingly comfortable, although perhaps less so for the taller members of the group, as I only just fit into the sleeping space.
We arrived early morning and after a quick walk around the town (similar to many other beach resorts, with a slight Mediterranean feel and lots of tourists, bars and restaurants) we had a day of pampering. Heading out of the town centre to a natural spa in the hills for a (foul-smelling) mud bath and soak in the mineral waters, before returning to the town for a massage.
My dive master confirmation also came through in the afternoon and, as Nha Trang has some of the best diving in Vietnam, I celebrated with a couple of dives around the islands that are scattered off the coast. A six-thirty start was hampered by the more traditional celebration of beers and cocktails the night before (Why Not? as the name of the bar suggests), but the diving was quite good - not much coral, but lots of crustaceans, octopus and reef fish amongst the rocks.
Hoi An
After the diving, our second night train took us to Da Nang, where a three hour bus ride to Hoi An waited for us. The train journey was supposed to be 11 hours, but a couple of delays stretched that to 13, so the drinks before and during the journey, which helped make the time fly, were a good idea. They also made sleeping a bit easier, as the carriage we had on this leg was from older stock and not nearly as comfortable as the first night train.
We eventually arrived in Hoi An in time for lunch at one of the local restaurants. There has been mainly good food throughout Vietnam, although not quite as good as Cambodia and there have been a couple of awful meals, with a mix of Asian and western meals (and, contrary to popular (i.e. my) belief, there are more dogs on the streets than on the menus). However, lunch in Hoi An was probably the most fun, with possibly the most friendly restaurant host in the world. The food was basic, salad, spring rolls and pork skewers wrapped in rice paper and dipped in a chilli beef sauce, but was eaten by hand and the hostess decided that I clearly couldn't manage that by myself, so started hand feeding me and a couple of the others. Then, she took the view that I was also unable to drink by myself or use a serviette. It's a strange experience being hand feed by a complete stranger, but she was relentless and the food kept coming until I was full to bursting. The table after everybody had finished was a scene of carnage!
In the afternoon, we took a bike ride and it was nice to get out of town and not be on a bus. Only 1km out of town, we started riding through the paddy fields and vegetable patches, with farmers working using age old methods, kids playing and waving at us as we passed, cows and water buffalo munching on the verges paying us no attention whatsoever and hundreds of dragonflies buzzing around. The bikes had no gears, hardly any brakes and saddles that felt like they were made out of wood, but we went at such a leisurely pace, none of that mattered. Having been out for a couple of hours, we took a boat ride back to Hoi An centre on Hoi An river. It is such a very slow way of life, and a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of Saigon and tourist traps of Nha Trang.
The hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool, so after the bike ride we relaxed by the pool until the rain came and then spent the rest of the day playing pool in the bars (pool tables are everywhere here and we've played a lot in the evenings).
So the first week in Vietnam was a bit of a mixed bag: nondescript cities and unremarkable (but nice) beach resorts, alongside interesting history lessons and, in Hoi An, a beautiful insight into a different way of life.
In the next post, I'll have an update from the northern part of the country.
Ta ta for now.
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