Monday 14th December
We had yet another early arrival into another city due to our overnight sleeper bus ride. Fortunately though, that was to be our last sleeper bus ride in Vietnam. Hurrah I hear you say lol! Yes, we were very very happy!
We slept off the journey in our hotel, which was tucked down a very dodgy looking alleyway just off of the main backpacking street.
As Saigon is such a large city, we decided to spend the afternoon wandering the streets and seeing the sights as they came along. No real plan at all. Initially we took a couple of wrong turnings, through some dodgy back roads, but all to Chris’s advantage in the end as we came across a KFC when we got back on track lol!
The first thing that struck us about Saigon, was how busy it is! Although it is not the capital of Vietnam, it is it’s biggest city, with it’s biggest city population of 8 million people, and it’s biggest population of mopeds at 5 million! Busy busy busy!
We then headed into the northern part of District 1, the main district in Saigon. Within a couple of blocks of each other, was the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office and the Reunification Palace. The Notre Dame Cathedral is a proper cathedral that is only open to the public when mass is being said, so we were unable to go inside. But we got to admire it from outside and the similarities it has to that of the one in Paris (except for the fact it wasn’t gothic!).
The building immediately next door to the cathedral is the Central Post Office. It is still the main post office in Saigon, but it was built in the 1920s and has some absolutely amazing architecture. There are also maps on the walls inside of Vietnam from years ago!
By this point in the day, the heat is absolutely unbearable, and we are jumping into every building possible that has air con. We had a long pit stop in a New York Dessert Cafe for a little slice of home, and funnily enough for the air con, before we headed over to the Reunification Palace.
The Reunification Palace is a very ugly 60s concrete building that is where a communist tank crashed down the gates in 1975, forcing Saigon to surrender, and thus ending the Vietnam-American war. Unfortunately, even though the building is still used by the government to this day, it has not changed much in the last 40 years! We were taken on a guided tour of the palace, but as we have found so often in Vietnam, it was yet another propaganda trail! Although the view from the top was good. The best bit about the palace was the lounge/bar that looked like something from Austin Powers/Bond!!!
The palace and the president’s office
Cabinet meeting room and ambassadors reception room.
In the bunker and the presidents office in the bunker.
We continued on our walk through Saigon after the Palace, feeling like we needed a little bit of lightening up after the very depressing palace!!! We were in the more well to do end of town with all the 5* hotels, so we headed to one of the roof top bars at one of them, the Caravelle, to treat ourselves. And Jesus did we, Chris was not happy with his 100,000Dong pint, the most expensive beer he had had since getting to Vietnam by 1000%!!!
That evening, Vietnam had been playing in the semi-final of the football part of the SEA Games, involving all the South East Asian countries. Vietnam beat Laos 4-1. We were sat in a bar after dinner and the following pictures will explain all. We were sat outside the bar, music pumping, with 10s of thousands of Vietnamese on mopeds and foot with flags having an absolutely unbelievable, and amazing street party. You couldnt help but get involved! The way they were partying, it was like they had just won the world cup!!! Made a very interesting night. Any excuse to party! Especially when we found two of our friends from other parts of Vietnam!!!
The only thing that stopped the party, was the monsoon downpour that brought everyone back inside!!!
Tuesday 15th December
After a lie in to sleep off the party from the night before, we just wandered the streets of Saigon again. Having booked two trips for the next two days that would take us out of the city. We had also decided to head out of Vietnam early, not because we didn’t enjoy it, but because we were absolutely shattered and needed to relax.
We went to the infamous Ben Thanh market where we got harassed by women who were quite prepared to grab you in any way shape or form to get your attention.
We walked through the park back to our hotel area and we found hundreds of people playing a game called Dakow (sp?). The game is played a bit like hacky sack, but with what looks like a shuttle cock. There were three old guys playing it, and their skill was inspiring all the children around them. There were even school PE classes going on in the park, trying to teach children how to play it!! Mark, Adam and Joe: We’ve got you some to see if you can play it. Will send it to you with our next package home :)
Wednesday 16th December
We thought it was only right, before leaving Vietnam, to experience the Mekong Delta. This is where the Mekong River splits into 9 different branches and becomes the River of the Nine Dragons.
It was a three hour coach ride to Can Tho, which is a major hub and a good place for seeing the floating markets. We boarded a boat, and headed out for the day. The markets here are wholesale only though, so they are on huge barges, that usually house the family involved. It was late into the morning by the time we arrived, so it was not very busy, it is best to see this market at about 7am!
The tourist harbour of the Mekong
The floating market
We got off the boat to see rice wine, snake wine, coconut sweets, rice paper, and whole lot of other goods being made by locals. We had the opportunity to try a load of different shots, like rice wine and snake wine, which we passed on. In particular the snake wine, as it is made by placing snakes, scorpions and birds into glasses and letting the wine sit over their dead carcases and ferment! Disgusting!
The brewing/production of our favourite rice wine and snake wine for the brave!
We then got back onto the boat and crossed the huge Mekong river to the other to head up one of the estuaries. But as we got halfway across the main river, a storm came in and the scenery completely changed!
If you look closely, you can actually see the rain on the water!!!
We headed up the estuary in the rain, to meet the long boats that were supposed to take us for a ‘relaxing’ trip further into the delta…… hmmmm….. in the pouring rain, it was going to be anything but relaxing. Fortunately the rain eased off a bit, and whilst we were in the long boat, it just spat a bit. We wore the traditional hats though to attempt to keep ourselves dry. We got to see the wonderful life in the Mekong as we travelled on the long boat. Everyone and everything was so chilled out!
It was a long but very enjoyable, and very wet day. We didn’t arrive back into Saigon until the evening, and as we had another early the next day, we had a quick dinner and headed to bed early!
Thursday 17th December
Our last day in Saigon, and we were all packed, ready to go on our another early trip. Today’s adventures were taking us to the Cu Chi Tunnels 70km outside Saigon. This is one of the many tunnel networks used by the Vietcong during the American war. There are many bomb craters from all the raids the Americans did to try and budge the Vietcong.
The underground web of hospitals, kitchens and armouries once stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian border. Cu Chi alone used to have over 200km of tunnels.
It is a hot and claustrophobic experience. There was the choice of going through 20m, 40m or 60m tunnels.
Once again though, the whole of the Cu Chi tourist experience was based on propaganda and the Vietnamese trying to spiel their version of the war, and once again, how great Ho Chi Minh is! After 3 weeks of this, we have both got pretty sick and tired of it. We both wish that the Vietnamese would let you form your own ideas and opinions on the sights and sounds of the country and its history.
The hospital and kitchen rooms.
We got back to Saigon in the late afternoon and as we had to get to the airport for 7.30pm, we just went out for dinner. The final of the SEA Games football was on that evening at 5pm, so we found a restaurant that was showing it, and got comfy for 60mins of the game. But we had to head after that to get to the airport, because if Vietnam won, we would never make it to the airport if the same kind of street party ensued!!!!
We conclude that although Vietnam is still set in its ways, it is a beautiful country that is still fairly untouched by tourism. Well worth a visit!
Tam biet (goodbye) Vietnam from Naomi and Chris.
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment