Cu Chi Tunnels

Today we met up with a group tour run by Kim Travel (same as yesterdays Mekong Tour) for a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cuong didn't join us today as he had another family from Sydney to pick up from the airport, but he planned to meet us later after our return. We drove to the tunnels through very heavy traffic in Saigon, and other tour minibus drivers indicated to our driver that the traffic was worse ahead. After passing a cow on a spit, we detoured out of the city to avoid the traffic and eventually were heading back in the right direction. When we got to Cu Chi Province we stopped at a rubber tree plantation to see how they cut the bark to retrieve the sap, as well as to stretch our legs a little.

When we arrived at the car park for the Tunnels, we waited beside a large bomb crater for our turn to watch a propaganda video about the enemy (the USA) and how they wanted to kill and destroy the beautiful Cu Chi countryside. Then it was on to the tunnel area where we saw how the small entrances to the tunnels were concealed. Liam went down the hole, but we had to move on before I had a turn which was probably just as well as I likely would have become stuck. We saw how the various booby traps were made which were all quite nasty.

Walking through the jungle we passed an abandoned US Army tank as we approached the shooting range. The effect was very spooky, as it was almost like being in the war, with the bombed out tank dead in it's tracks and the sounds of AK-47's echoing through the jungle.

At the shooting range, I decided to have a go of the AK-47, even though I hate guns, the chance to fire an AK-47 doesn't present itself too often. I bought 30 rounds at US$1 per round, and preceded to shoot at the targets. The gun was alarming, with an incredible amount of power. A gentle squeeze of the trigger was followed by a huge explosion and kick back as the bullet thumped into the hillside at the back of the range. I managed to hit the target 3 times, which was good enough to earn me a book about the tunnels and a badge, as well as the admiration of the rest of the tour group.

We saw demonstrations of how the villagers lived in concealment in the tunnels; tasting some tapioca which was quite nice (though I wouldn't want to eat it years on end...), and seeing how ingeniously they got rid of smoke from the cooking fires. Liam even got a chance to try making some rice paper, which didn't turn out too badly on the second attempt!

We then crawled through some of tunnels which were well suited to Liam's height, but quite difficult going for my 6 foot height. Walking back to the exit through the jungle we saw a cashew nut tree (a fruit with only one nut hanging from it. No wonder they are so expensive!) We also saw a mango tree with lots of mangoes, but didn't pick any. Liam got some bullet casings as a souvenir, which we were assured would make it through the airport security without any problems. Then we returned back to Saigon, passing the cows on spits, which were completely depleted.

We walked over to Zen Plaza shopping centre for lunch, which was really very nice, and there was also a good view over Saigon as the foodcourt was on the top floor. I bought a Seiko watch as the prices were about half of the price back in Melbourne. All of the girls in the watch/jewelry section crowded around Liam and wanted to hug and kiss him. He was the main attraction once again! They gave him 2 glass beads in a pouch which he thinks are wonderful.

We returned to the hotel, and we had a message from Vietnam Airlines that our waitlisted flight home had been confirmed. I headed off to their offices while Liam and Michelle rested at the hotel. It was really enjoyable walking through the streets of Saigon, even though I was offered a cyclo ride every 5 minutes. The cyclo driver couldn't understand why I wanted to walk in 30 degree heat! I walked past the river, and had a little difficulty working out my location from the street signs and the map, but eventually found the airline. I walked back past the Opera House and Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as a number of other beautiful buildings. I passed the Palace as well and took ages to get across the roundabout with all of the traffic. It was getting darker, and I was walking down a street with what must have been a night club or huge party with thumping music and lots of people before returning onto the main streets, passing some cute girls with huge smiles who wanted to pose for a photo.

Cuong took us out for a fantastic dinner at a local Vietnamese Restaurant. We had our own little brazier on the table where we cooked marinated beef and chicken (including the head!) and sipped Saigon Beer. The menu on the wall even offered rat, but we passed on that choice. We had an early night as we are off to Cambodia very early in the morning.

The Mekong Delta

We had a great breakfast at our hotel. The Liberty 4. It was a fantastic spread. It was then a short walk from the hotel to the departure point for our Mekong Delta Day trip. There was quite a long wait for the bus, and some last minute traveler's were accommodated, which meant an even longer wait whilst a larger bus was arranged. We were eventually all 15 of us off and travelling through the hectic Saigon streets, teeming with motorbikes. We drove through the Chinese Quarter of Saigon (Colon) and out into the suburbs. About an hour and a half later we arrived at My Tho.

We boarded a boat and chugged down the Mekong to an island where we then all boarded separate smaller boats and traveled African Queen Style down narrow canals lined with water coconuts.

We disembarked at a fruit plantation and got to see the making of coconut candy, of course buying a couple of packets. We sat down and had honey and lime tea and Vietnamese shooters, which were rice wine and honey. Both were superb.

They had a bee hive, where the honey was sourced from, and every body got to stick their fingers into a comb full of bees to taste the fresh honey. Nobody got stung, though a few were quite apprehensive. Then the tour guide got a large python from its cage and let us all hold it.

We then boarded small row boats and went down a narrow channel, with mud skippers and crabs basking on the muddy banks. Returning back through the fruit plantation, we tasted rose apples straight from the trees.

Back onto a larger boat we made our way to an island for lunch. The restaurant was surrounded by the most lovely gardens, with topiaries, ponds and flowers. To the side near the entrance there were various animals in cages: gibbons, huge pythons and even rabbits! We had a lovely lunch as usual and Cuong ordered us extra chicken as well which was very nice and fresh (no worries about chicken flu).

Near the restaurant there were some examples of irrigation used to fill the rice paddies, including a bucket on ropes which we had seen farmers using along the roadside, as well as a people powered paddle wheel, which required more balance then I could muster to keep it going

On the walk back to the boat we saw many products being made. Wooden knickknacks from coconut trees, rattan mats, rice paper, different rice wines and we also tasted the water coconuts fruit, which was very small and tasted like normal coconut but a little salty.

We continued in the smaller boats back to our larger boat that then took us back up the Mekong to the mainland dock. We had a short wait while the bus was retrieved, and watched the old men playing various board games on the waterside.

The bus took us on a short trip to a Buddhist Temple. Cuong was telling us about the temple and as we walked around a Buddhist monk came up to Cuong and spoke to him in Vietnamese. Cuong told us the monk could tell about people by looking into their eyes.

The monk said that I had just had a change of jobs which meant I was working much harder for the business, but not for myself. I had just in the two weeks before leaving for this holiday started working in a new department at work! He then looked at Michelle and said that she could feel peoples' sorrow and had much compassion. He looked at Liam and said he was a very intelligent child.

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We all climbed back onto the bus for Saigon. It rained on the way home, and there were at least 4 accidents on the way back; one of which looked fatal between a bus and a bike. These roads are murderous. Back in Saigon, we finally found a nice restaurant which served Italian as well as local foods. Liam's pizza was amazing.

Ho Chi Minh City, now it's Saigon, Now it's...

We had an early start this morning; the taxi picked us up from the hotel at 6:30 and we were off. Leaving beautiful Hoi An we returned back to Da Nang where we caught our flight to Saigon. Saigon is hot and very humid, just liek when we arrived briefly on our first day. It's a huge, bustling city, and much more westernized than the other places we had so far visited in Vietnam. There were lots of neon lights and huge advertising billboards.

We went to the Aloo Bar for lunch. A favourite of the tourists. Prices here are twice as much as elsewhere in Vietnam. We paid about $15 for lunch, and it wasn't really that nice! Saigon was meant to have the best restaurants in Vietnam, but this was the first time we had had an average meal.

We sent an e-mail at a little internet café next door to the hotel and then Michelle retired to the hotel to sleep while us boys went on a tour of the War Remnants Museum and the Binh Tai Markets.

The War Remnants Museum was similar to the War Museum in Ha Noi with a large collection of abandoned tanks, planes and unexploded ordinances. They had one of the earth shaker bombs which was of the type dropped on My Son which flattens all buildings within 100 metres, and shakes buildings up to 3.2 kms around. Inside was a collection of photos taken by journalists chronicling the war, many of them award winning photos. Also on a wall was a list of each country and the year in which they acknowledged the communist Vietnamese government. There was also a picture of the tanks crashing through the Imperial Palace gates, the Fall of Saigon. There were photos of the Tet Offensive in the Hue Citadel, as well as many accounts of people escaping the war. There was also a tribute to the many photographers, many of whom lost their lives.

Further rooms showed some of the war crimes committed by the American and South Vietnamese and other rooms showed the affects of napalm and agent orange on the jungle, mangrove and people on both sides of the war. There was also an exhibition of paintings by school kids with the theme of peace. The last exhibit was of the "tiger cages", small cells used to lock up political prisoners during their re-education, as well as a guillotine.

From the museum we caught a taxi to the Binh Tai Market. Liam was again the star, getting lots of attention from all the girls. There was a large variety of live sea life on display for sale. Soft shelled crabs, larger crabs with tied nippers. They were tied up not because they were dangerous, but because they are sold by weight and twine is cheaper than crab meat. There was a large assortment of fish in tubs, as well as shrimps and eels, which Liam got to hold.

After walking through the market we stopped at a café and tried some Lime Soda, Jelly Drink, Coconut Milk and some soft drinks. We then walked back to the hotel through the park where the older people were doing exercises and a school group practiced high jumping. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was quite average, so we will be on a mission to find some of these reported excellent restaurants during the rest of our stay.

Look what they did to My Son

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We started off at 8:30 with a trip to the My Son Cham site. The taxi ride took us about an hour travelling through the countryside beside the river and through a number of small villages. We passed a town were Cuong said it was famous for it's Thit Cho, or Dog Meat.

We arrived at the entrance to My Son, nestled in the valley and caught a minibus up to the ruins, missing out on the jeep ride. It was extremely hot and humid; it wasn't long before we were all sweating!

The first group of ruins were the most intact and we took lots of photos as usual. Liam was pursued by a group of school kids on a school trip; they all wanted to have their photo taken with him. After about 20 photos his mouth must have been hurting from smiling so much, but he was very accomodating.

The ruins further in were pretty much decimated by American bombing during the war. The Viet Cong had a base at the site and the Americans bombed the hell out of it. There are still many large bomb craters to be seen. Excavations were being carried out on the site, and a number of the temples were being restored or strengthened to prevent them for further collapse. We spent about 2 hours exploring the site and then headed back to Hoi An and the hotel for a much needed swim.

After the pool we headed into town for the tailors to have some more tops made and I went off looking for the bank. I picked up a shuttlecock from a small shop as we had seen lots of children playing with them, standing in a circle keeping the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible.

We had lunch at a riverside cafe which as usual had very nice food and a 10 year old boy there kept us entertained, playing with Liam and the shuttlecock, which ended up off the balcony and in the street, but was safely rescued. We got a lesson in shuttlecocks, as I had been ripped off paying way to much for the inferior chicken feather shuttlecock, when I should have gotten the duck feather one. Guess they saw me coming!

We walked around the town some more, and walked through the market, buying a hat and a bag to take back all of the clothes we had been buying. We had dinner across the road again in our favourite restaurant.

Hoi An, Cua Dai Beach

After breakfast we set off with Cuong to Cua Dai Beach on a boat. The trip along the river was beautiful, passing many fishing boats, duck farms, beautiful thatched houses and the old market on the riverbanks. The boat captain made Liam a flower out of a water coconut leaf, which was quite clever. The trip in the boat took about an hour and a half to get to the resort, and it was a short walk from there to the beach. The beach was really beautiful, with warm water, nice clean sand, mountains off in the distance and lines of umbrellas and deck chairs placed along the beach by the little beach side restaurants, which in return for their use you were expected to buy at least a drink.

Michelle sat in the shade and had a drink while us boys all went swimming. There were lots of tourists on the beach and almost as many if not more people trying to sell stuff. Beaded jewelry, toys, food, manicures. One lady even wanted to shave Michelle's legs!

Then it was onto lunch at the beachside café under the shade. There was a cool breeze blowing off the water while we gorged ourselves on seafood - fish, squid, spring rolls and lots of cold drinks. Lovely.

After lunch we headed back to Hoi An on the boat, again a very relaxing tour. We had traveled on quite a few boat rides on this holiday. Liam had never traveled on a boat before in his life, and he had certainly made up for it over the past 2 weeks!

We walked back to the hotel past the Japanese Bridge, stopping in at the tailors to test the fit of the clothes. The suit jacket seemed a bit tight, but everything else fitted perfectly.

Hoi An: All of old Asia in one beautiful little town

We had breakfast across the road in the restaurant with Cuong and then went on a walking tour of Hoi An.

First we went to the Buddhist Temple and watched the service. Then we were off to a local Chinese meeting hall, which had gaudy paintings on the walls and lovely gardens out the back with a huge fountain with mosaic dragons.

We continued walking through the streets, passing over the Japanese covered bridge

We visited an old Japanese village house where we had green tea, bought a really nice table cloth, and Liam rolled the dice to test his luck and fortune.

We then went to the Cham Museum with many relics from the Cham Dynasty, and enjoyed a coconut and peanut brittle at a roadside stall across the road.

For lunch we tried some specialities of Hoi An, such as the Shrimp Pancakes which of course were absolutley delicious!

After lunch we went to hear some traditional Vietnamese music and bought more souvenirs, including some really nice tealight lanterns and some more clothes.

We stopped off at a tailor and got fitted for some clothes - I got fitted for a suit jacket and 3 pairs of pants, Michelle bought 3 shirts and a kimono and Liam got 2 shirts and a lot of attention. Paid A$198 for the lot, and we need to drop back tomorrow to test the fit.

We lazed away the late afternoon in the pool and had dinner across the road. I love the food in this town! We met up with Jeanne and Fred again at the restaurant, they are a day ahead of us on a similar tour.

China Beach and Mountains of Marble

Michelle spent most of the night up with Liam while he vomited and had diarrhea throughout the night. Liam felt better when he woke up but he was still a little seedy all day.
We started off the day by taking a minibus from Hue to Lang Co Beach. We were accosted by teenage kids on the beach trying to get foreign money and an old fisherman who offered a photo pose for small change. The beach was nice - but it was an overcast and misty day: not very good for taking photos.

As we continued south, we travelled over the Hai Van pass. It was a fairly hair raising trip with steep S bends with slow trucks and cars and bikes overtaking on the wrong side of the road. Due to the mist and fog, we couldn't enjoy the views, and we eventually reached the top with some bunker fortifications shrouded in mist. The clouds started to clear as we continued on, and we stopped for a short time to enjoy them.



In Da nang we stopped for lunch at a really nice Chinese Restaurant and stopped off at China Beach. I really enjoyed the TV Series, so wanted to see the actual beach since we were here. The Vietnamese have bad memories of this area, so there were few if any locals here. The beach isn't good for swimming anyway, due to the strong currents and rips, so Liam paddled and jumped in the shallows.



From China Beach we went to Marble Mountain. There were lots of families in the marble trade with small shops lining the streets as we approached the mountain. We looked through the huge assortment of marble carvings on display and bought a nice carved Chinese dragon.




From Marble Mountain we continued through the country side soon arriving in Hoi An. The hotel had a pool up on the roof, which quite impressed Michelle and Liam. We had a light dinner at a restaurant over the road from the hotel, which also had an Internet Cafe, so after dinner and sending some e-mails we retired for the evening, with Michelle and Liam still feeling a bit on the delicate side.