Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon.
2nd August - Vietnam
Despite getting up at 5am we still managed to be late for breakfast, luckily our bus was late too so everything was ok, apart from the fact that it wasn't actually a bus, it was a very small and cramped mini-bus. We all had to have both of our bags under our legs (not that we would have been able to fit our legs in the space anyway). So mu knees were up under my chin, then to make matters worse the back of my fold out char had broken, so I couldn't even relax in the slightest. Oh the joys of travelling! These journeys keep getting better and better, I still don't think this one tops the hot bus from Kampot to Phnom Penh in Cambodia (Even though Kat and Jenna both thought this journey was far worse.) I think I would rather be squashed with back ache than pouring with sweat and sticking to my seat!
Anyway, I can hardly complane, others on our bus had it much worse. One couple actually had to share a seat, and another women spent the entire journey throwing up into a plastic bag (for all to smell). After four long hours we arrived at the boarder, everyone seemed very delighted to be piling out of our bus . We all sat down for our last meal in Cambodi, wich consisted of noodles and vegitables, then headed off in hopes of getting accross the boarder swiftly. I hopes were shattered when we arrived at the desks. There was about 6 check in desks, each one with a long que of people patiently waiting with all of their bags and their passports in hand, for a moment I wondered why no one was moving, but as I looked closer I realised that there was no staff at any of the desks.
Suddenly, an un fazed looking mand slowly sauntered accross the room with a handfull of passports and slowly started stamping them and checking visas. I realised that he was the only one working in the whole place. By this time we saw that were were going to be there for a while, so took off our backpacks and sat on them. The guy moved from row to row and after a couple for ours made it to our line, within seconds are passports were stamped and we were through. It took a while to find our bus the other side. We were slightly worried that it had left due to the fact that we had taken so long to get through. Thankfully soon enough it turned up. It may not seem possible but this bus was even smaller than the one before. Kat and jenna actually had to sit on bags and my knees were even higher under my chin. I don't mean to moan, but it just got worse....About half an hour down the road we got a flat tire, we all bungled out of the bus into the road while the driver 'tried' to fix it. After about an hour of standing in the burning sun with no water we got back on our bus and finally headed to Ho Chi Minh City (formally known as Saigon). Our driver honked and got honked at all the way. I couldn't quite believ how much they used their horns. I couldn't even see what on earth they were honking at, perhaps the muddle up the horn and the brakes or something. Honk, honk, HOOOOOONNK!
Looking out of the window I noticed an imediate difference to Cambodia and Thailand, their houses were not on stilts, they were on the ground. I wonder why. I was also delighted to see all the people wearing the traditional veitnamese hats, the triangle ones. I wonderd if the people actually wore them, and they really do, and not just the women.
I was happy once we had arrived, when spent a while walking around looking for a guest house for a reasonable price. It seemed a lot more expensive than places in Cambodia. Eventually we found one for just One pound fifty each, with a hot shower, fan, fridge and even a little balcony. The only bad side is that it was on the top floor. After lugging our bags up about one hundred flights of stares, we were very pleased with our luxuary room. The first think I did, was jump inthe shower. It felt amazing to have a hot shower, for the first time since leaving Korea. I actually felt clean and I figured out that my shower gells and shampoos actually give off nice aromas when they are warm. I could get used to this.
We headed out for some dinner and found the town to be very busy and absoulutely swarming with motor bikes. Apparently there are over nine million motorbikes in Vietnam, and when I called in to a motorbike shop, just to check our prices I was surprised to find that the average price was only about 200 pounds each. Maybe I will get myself one....I think not! I enjoyed wondering around all the interesting little shops. Again there is so much beautiful stuff, I was interested to find that like Cambodia, they do still used the American Dollar, but that most or their prices are in 'Dong' so we are going to have to get used to working out yet another currency! Kat was delighted to find a street seller with a photo coppied book of the last Harry Potter, I don't think I will be getting much conversation out of her for the next few days..ha ha.
3rd August - Ben Thah Market.
I awoke early to make the most of my day, but due to the weather being rainy I spent the morning writing letters and trying desperately to catch up with my diary. By mid day, we all had a travel cup of cerial and headed out in search for tours we could do. This might be a difficult job, there was so many places that we wanted to see and fun trips that we could do. I was not sure how we would possibly decide, let alone chose a travel agent to do it with. Eventually we booked a trip to a very intersting sounding temple, where would be able to see the practicing worship of Cao Dai. I am currently reading 'The girl In the picture' about the little nine year old girl named Kim Phuk, who was severely burned in the 1972 napalm attack in South Vietnam. I am sure evryone is familiar with her photograph, which I think is one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century, of the little girl running naked down the street. Anyway the book is about her life, and she worshiped Cao Dai, so I felt intersted to learn more.
We also organised to go and see the famous Cu Chi tunnels too.
I found it almost impossible to cross the roads here, someone advised us that we were to 'simply' walk into the flow of traffic and that the motorbikes would move out of our way. This is how they crossed througt the ever flowing stream of traffic so we gave it a go. I was petrofied but it seemed to work. The most important thing to remember was not to stop. Apparently it would just confused the drivers and we would end up causing an accident.
When we arrived at the market, the air was filled with he sents of Jasmin and Insence as we walked in. It was lovely not to be greated with the horrible sench of fish and raw, rotting in the sun, meat. Soon after entering the corridors of potterey up to the rafters and brightly couloured bonnets (the traditional Vietnamese hat) , we were soon greeted by abuzz with stalls offering ill kinds of things, from dried fish, pickled vegitables, chillies pounded before our eyes and many more strange looking foods. We swiftly passed the food part and Jenna and I came a way with a brightly couloured wine holder, and she also bought an interesting eggshell laquer painting too. We all also bought a little interesting spoon each (so we could eat our cerial). It was actually made out of a combination of bafallow horn and wood, it sounds strange but it is certainly unusual. Again this place could be dangerous, so many beautiful things, for such a cheap price.
That evening we went out for a traditional mean of 'pho' (vermichelli soup), it was really nice and so cheap. It was kind of watery but filled with vegitables and little bits of beef. I found it MUCH nicer than Korean soup, there was no suspect meat in this soup and no recontituted fish :) After some mor time looking around our locas shops we found ourselves a nice little coffee shop called "bobby Brewers", basically if you buy food or drinks in there you got free access to the cinema upstairs. We hadn't seen even a tv fora while, so this opportunity was one too good to miss. We got ourselves a coffee and a cake and settled down to watch Die Hard 4. I thought it was pretty good actually. When we left Bobby Brewers it was raining so hard, we raced back to our hostel to find that we had been locked out. It was only 10.30, but we spent the next 20 minutes (along with two other girls who had also been locked out) Ringing the doorbell and banging and shouting as loudly as we could. We could see the owners sat in reception. Apparently when we eventually got in, they said that the couldn't hear us because of the loud rain. I don't believe that for a second. I think they just found it amusing to see how wet we could get.
Before I headed off to bed I found out that my boyfriend Brian is coming to meet me in Australia for a couple of weeks in October. I can't wait for that, it will be great to see him after so long.
4th August - The Fine arts Museum and the History Museum.
Again I awoke early but it was raining so hard, that we didn;t vacate our room until more like lunch time. We then took a long walk to 'The Fine arts Museum'. Inside we saw some of the countries best Cham and OcEo relics, lots of interesting sculptures (which were mainly images of soilders, War Zones). There was also lots of information on Ho Chi Minh 'Uncle Ho' and of course Buddahs and antiques. I liked it, but as usual there wasn't very much information, so Jenna along with her guidebook full of useful facts opted herself to be our 'guide'.
The rain had almost stopped so we decided to wander down a near by street that wa sknown for it antiques and bric-a-brac, I was hoping to pick up a cheap Apsara dancer made from wood. Alas the only one I found was a large one that was well out of my budget.
Next we found our way to 'The History Museum'. The building itself was very impressive, it was huge and beautiful with a crazy looking tree outside. Inside there were 15 galeries illuminating Vietnams part from primative times to now. There were many beautiful buddha statues, from all around the world. . There was also crafts and exquisit ceramics. The hight light of my day was seeing the body of a woman that had been mummified over 100 years ago, she stil had hair, all her teeth and jewelry and clothes on, it was a little creepay but pretty amazing I thought. I tried to remember all the factual information about her history but it was so long ago now (it had taken me forever to find time to catch up with this blog) I have now forgotton it all. On the whole the museum was very descriptive and I got a much better idea about Vietnams history.
After an informative day, we enjoyed an early dinner and couldn't resist going back to Bobby Brewers for a coffee and another free movie. This time we watched 'Evan Almighty', the follow up to 'Bruce Almighty', it was verry silly but i found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Kat on the other hand had her nose burried in Harry Potter through out the whole film. She really does act out the frase "I can't put this book down'. Before going to bed I managed to Phone home form a busy internet cafe. It was lovely to find out what has been going on at home and that everyone is ok. Wen't to bed happy.
5th August - Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels.
We all got up early and were delighted to see that for once it wasn't raining (for the first time in weeks). We gobbled down a travle cup of cerieal (using our new bufallo horn spoons) and headed off to catch the bus. Thank fully I got a decent seat, but I did feel rather sorry for the large Korean boy who had to sit next to me on the fold out chair, that he couldn't even fit on. Our tour guide was very informative and actually had really good english too, giving us lots of information about Vietnam in genaral and about Ho Chi Minh city too.
The first stop was the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. (the actual one that the girl from my book used to worship in) As we approached the devine temple. I was slightly amused by its apperience. As jenna put's it is is like 'Buddah meets Walk Disney) The place was certainly very colourful, I felt like I almost needed my sun glasses in side, it was an outragious mix of colours. Primarily yellow, with florescent blue and pink draggons, with mosaic-mirrored tiles and the giant 'Divine Eye'. To me it almost looked like the intire place had been constructed from sugary candyfloss. Perhaps Michel Jacson was their interior designer or something!
We were allowed to watch a service take place, from a balcony above. I didn't want to seem rude, but I wondered how I would keep a straight face. Especially when I looked up at the celing to see painted on glittery,fluffy clouds, stars, bright pink lotus blooms and a huge glittery blue sphere. I almost felt like I had taken some a far-out hallucinagenics.
The gong sounded and hundreds of elderly poeple entered the room, in their strange pointly hats to take their positions on the vast floorspace below us. Rows and rows of gracefully attired worshippers knelt down before the elevated altar. Gongs then beated time with the string instruments and then the harmonious voices chanted like in some surreal dream. It seemed almost sacrilegious to take photographs but amazingly, it's allowed so Jenna and I snapped away taking pictures of this strange service and even stranger temple.
The service took about an hour. I could see the nine steps, but with only seven filled, like I had read about. I also noticed the seven empty arm chairs for the popes and nuns (when they eventually get elected). Most of the worshipers wore While (for Cao Dai). The men at the front represented the different encoperated religions wearing either Red (catholic), Yellow (Buddhism) or blue (Taose)
I actually felt that I learned quite alot about this very strange religion. Basically Caodaism, is the third largest religion in Vietnam (after Buddhism and Roman Catholicism). "Cao" means "high"; "Dai" means "palace". Caodai refers to the supreme palace where God reigns. The word is also used as God's symbolic name.
Caodaism begun in the 1920's and is a syncretistic religion which strangely combines elements from many of the world's main religions, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, as well as Geniism. Hard to comprehend isn't it? But apparently they have about 8 million followers in Vietnam and about 30,00 members elsewhere, (primarily in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.) They believe all sorts of strange and farfetched things such as the worsip of their 'saints', which were people like Joan of Arc, Lenin, Shakespeare, Chinese nationalist Sun Yatsen, and French poet Victor Hugo. Pretty funny really, but who am I to judge, each to their own. (there were numerous statues of these icons, dotted among the devine eye's and dragons too.) It was certainly an interesting morning if a little amusing too.
The second half of the day was spent at the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were dug by the Viet Cong in the 1940's and were their 250km of network of underground supply lines. The Americans could never find them, and in fact, built a military base on top of them. It's been turned into a popular tourist spot, which was a bit of a shame, with hundreds of people taking numerous pictures of rusty tanks.
We firstly down to watch a 'Tunnel History Video' I have to say that the people who made the video didn't do a particularly good job. The footage was very old and the voice-over was wobbly and almost unaudable. The narrator spoke in a wooden-sounding monotone, resorting to cliches like, "The people of Cu Chi were triumphant over the Invader" over and over again.
There was an exhibition of various man traps, booby traps, consealed trap doors, abandoned tanks, weapons and photos. There was also the opportunitly to see what it would be like to go in one of the man 'secret trap doors' That were used to strategicly surprise and attack the enimy and then disapere into. Pretty clever I thought. Stupidly I opted myself for a go. I jumped down, and was passed the lid (covered with leaves and grass) It was verry small and cramped in there, and i felt like I was in an upright coffin or something. I was quickly ready to get out. However, me being me, I got stuck. I was wedged in fast and had no where for my arms or legs to manover myself out. Much to the amusement of Kat and Jenna I got lifted out my two passing men, as I was heaved through the hole my shorts almost fell down too. (as if i wasn't embarraced enough already). Kat then jumped at the opportinity to fire an AK 47 ant a target, almost bursting my ear drums, before heading off
We then we went on to the tunnels. There was a part of the tunnel that was widened for Westerners, to 80cm squared. We I followed an army officer in. He had done this hundreds of times and knew how to move around without getting dirty. We on the other hand had not figured this out. It was dark, sweaty and claustraphobic inside. At points I couldn't see a thing and kept putting my hands in wet patches and on milipedes. I tried not to think of he other animals that might be lerking, especially the story of the boy who had been bitten by a poisionus spider down there and died. Shortly Jenna discovered that we could used to flash on her camera as a light so using that I guided us out. I mist say I was delighted to reach the end. I was dripping with sweat and absoloutely covered with mud and durt. It was hard to believe that people lived down there for months, had their own hospitals and kitchens, and came up with some very ingenious ways to disguise their cooking smoke.
That evening we went for an Italian meal and Jenna and I headed off to do some much needed bloggin, leaving Kat with her nose still burried in Harry Potter.
6th August - Stroling around the city.
We were up and out early this mornig to take ourselves on a proper strole around the city. We had planned to go and find some more markets that were in our guide book, a mosk and a grand theater, but instead ended up spending most of the morning in more travel agents trying to book ourselves a trip to go down the 'Mekong Delta'.
It actually stopped raining an the sun came out, so we just saundered along in the sun calling in at any shop that took our fance along the way. Needless to say it took us a while to get to the market. The first part was the 'meat' section, but I wouldn't particularly called any of the items for sale Meat! Kat quickly disapperared to hang around in the fruit section as the women behind the counter, who spoke no English, delighted seeing Jenna and my faces as she mimed what all these rovulting looking things were. There were tongues, hearts, livers, cojealed blood, osofigus, stomach and much more.
After many more distractions along the way of wierd and wonderful things, we made it to the main inside market, there they were selling lovely things and beautifully made silk clothes. Once through the market we found our way to the opera house, throught the crazy traffic and multidude of motorbikes, trying our best not to get killed. The Saigon Opera House (or Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theater) Originally built by the French to host Opera shows. In 1955 it was transformed into the South Vietnam's Assembly House and is pretty impressive, unfortunately we didn't have the time or money to see any of the musical shows that they hold there. We were also advised to see the samous central post office. We had nothing to post, but were impressed by this beautiful building, built by Gustave Eiffel, dates from the time when Vietnam was part of the French colony of Indochina. There was a huge painting of 'uncle Ho' at one end and even two large gift shops at the other.
Next Kat and Jenna wanted to go to the 'War Remnants Museum' contains exhibits relating to the Vietnam War, displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism. Apparently the exhibits include graphic photographs, information covering the effects of'Agent Orange' and other chemical defoliant sprays, the use of napalm (like the bomb that changed the life of the girl in the book I am reading) and other atrocities and massacres. I had also heard about the 'tigre cages' and the jars of preserved human fetuses that had been deformed by exposure to Dioxin. I don't think that I could have psychologically handled it, I know what I was like when I went to S21 in Cambodia, and reading the book about 'the girl in the picture' again would make it all to recent and real for me to handle. Jenna and Kat went and I headed back to the hostel.
I am so glad that I didn't go, as Jenna informed me that it was even more graphic thanS21. She said there were pictures of: mass graves; filled with women and children, handicapped kids, injured GI's and lots of other horrific sounding things that I don't even want to write about. I know it is history but I don't think that I can ever put myself through seeing something like that again. Reading books and educating myself in other ways is enough I think. As I said, the book I am reading is all about Vietnam War from a Vietnamese womens point-of-view. It is a book that described everyday life during the terrible war. That is upsetting enough. I think it will most certainly have a life lingering effect on me.
That evening we headed back to Bobby Brewers (mornic I know), this time we ate there. I chose the best chicken cesar salad I had ever eaten and we managed to watch two movies. The Transformers' and 'The Simpsons Movie' I really enjoyed both. I know I won't watch another movie for a long time now, and I have most certainly had my 'film fix'
7th August - Independence Palace and A Water puppet show.
We were up early again, this time to book our trip to the mekong Delta, and also drop of some clothes an the Laundry-mat (no hand washing for once - yippee). We wandered aound the 'Notre Dame', The cathedral was built in the 18th century and decorated with stain glass windows, it was pretty beautiful but we could not go inside. WE then headed to the 'Independence Palace', also known as the 'Reunification Palace', or the Norodm Palace'. It was the work place of the President of South Vietnam during the War and also the site of the official handover of power during the 'fall of Saigon' in 1975. It was a prety hideous building to be honest, no charicter to it at all. It had a very cold feel to it, however the surroundings gardens covered by green trees, fountains and grasses were nice.
We had a guide who took us round but she was incredibly hard to understand, so my brain kept tuning her out, which was a shame because I was pretty interested at points. Icould understand when she told us about the different colours or the meeting rooms (which could holf up to 800 people). If they met in the Green Room, it was supposed to make everyone calm, if in the Yellow Room, it would make people look more beautiful, and if in the Red Room, this was supposed to increase the power of the speaker. All a little strange to me I must say.
WE had a tour around the basement, the Kitchen, the hei-pad site and were shown where a tank had crashed through the gates and where bombs had exploded, leaving big parts of the palace to be rebuilt. By the end of the tour we all felt pretty hot and lathargic, so caught a taxi to china town insearch of refreshments and a change of scenery.
Firstly we headed in to the market there: It seems markets are our favourite things to see, but this one was very diferent to all the others. It was more like a local market selling things primarily for the Vietnamest, not tourists. The aisles were narrow, the din was loud, there were hundreds of people are scurrying about or squatting in the narrow passages to talk or eat. The variety of goods here is positively astounding and gave me an uncanny glimpses into real Vietnamese life. It was also lovely not to be hassled, I think these sellers knew that we would not want to buy household goods and big sacks of rice etc. The only bad thing about the market was its toilet. It was an experience, I will tell you that much. We entered a stall, with small doors that we would all look over and it absolutely STUNK. There were literally holes in pipes that we had to releave ourselves into. I wanted to be in and out as soon as I could, but when leaving my 'stall' I swung open a door to bash it in to a woman that I hadn't seen peeing up it, I scraped my foot on the door and then this woman urinated on it. I ran to the sink as quickly as I could, and tried to rince my foot. It was not a wery pleasant toilet stop I will tell you that much.
We then headed off into China Town itself, but were very dissapointed. It was not how I imagined at all. Apperently Cho Lon or China town, is supposed to be bustling with more than 5 million Chinese inhabitants. China town was set up by the end of 18th century when the Minh dynasty in China was overthrown. However to us it seemed pretty dead, and we couldn't even find a place to get a drink. Maybe we came on the wrong day.
We didn't hand around for long after that, we instead headed off to get some food before going to see the Water Puppets' The show was amazing. Basically it combines myth and folk law and scenes from daily Vietnam life. You don't have to understand Vietnamese bueause it is mostly all musical (songs and instrumental). From befind a bamboo curtain different puppets dance around in the water. From, dragons, buffalo, frogs, ducks, foxes, fish, lions, Phoenix's, unicorns, buterflies, faries to kings, fishing and boat racing. I really enjoyed it, it was amazing. miraculusly the puppet controlers managed to avoid tangling poles as they danced around in the water. It was all so artistic. I really want a pupet of my own. After a fantastic evening we headed back to the hostel to pack ready for our trip down the Mekong Delta.
Tomorrow shouls be fun, I will keep my fingers crossed for good weather :)
- Posted by emily1183 on 07/09/2007.
- emily1183's site
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