Vietnam 2012/2013

12/25
I arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh city aka Saigon at about 1:30am. There were few people arriving at this time and the customs clearance was quick and hassle free. Our Guesthouse, the Thanh Thuong Guesthouse, located in the heart of the city organized a taxi for me. He picked me up quickly and drove me through the illuminated streets. The city seemed clean and very large. When we arrived he parked on the side of the street and we crossed the motorbike ridden street, a skill I have come to acquire since. The guesthouse is in the middle of a small alleyway. Inside the alleyway are tons of restaurants and small shops. Its very quaint yet picturesquely urban. The staff at the Guesthouse greeted me with a warm smile. Its owners are a 20 something man from the US and his Vietnamese wife. Polly arrived at the Hostel an hour before I did. I was very happy to see her.
In the morning we woke up and went out for our first Vietnamese coffee. Vietnamese coffees are world famous. After Brazil it is the world's second largest coffee producing country. Something they take very seriously. And I have to say a Vietnamese coffee is something you will remember for a long time. After we finished our coffees we headed out into the motorbike filled, noisy and chaotic streets around our place. We are located near the largest park in Saigon. They were preparing a New Years festival. There were tents and people working on stages all over. 
We walked to the famous Ben Thanh market. We bought some Durian and ate it at the guesthouse. We walked around the park a bit and then I started feeling very week from the heat and flight. I think the temperature was around 35 Celsius or 95 Fahrenheit.
After napping we walked out for dinner. We ate a bunch of street food along the way. It was great. Vietnamese food is full of fresh vegetables and boiled meats. Its mostly if not all organic because the Vietnamese don't believe in pesticides or inorganic fertilizers. Actually they use  burned rice husks collected from barbecues as one of their most useful fertilizers. 

We called it a night early. I was very tired. We had a full day of sightseeing and eating saved for the 26th. 

12/26

After waking up early and drinking some coffee and eating about a pound of fruit each we walked about a kilometer to the famous Reunification Palace. On the way we bought some coconuts from a street vendor. He was a nice guy and employed a very genuine sale's pitch. He let me try supporting his baskets on my shoulder for a picture. I give the guy a lot of respect, it was very heavy. We continued around the gates and came into the main gate of the palace. It was here that the famous footage of a tank crushing down the gates and storming the grounds to end the war happened on April 30th, 1975. The Palace is now a type of museum and a must see for visitors to Saigon. It contains all the rooms of the former president, vice president and chief's of staff for South Vietnam. There are old American military jets and tanks decorating the manicured gardens surrounding the Palace. On the rooftop was an old Vietnam War era American helicopter resting on the rooftop, hearkening back to some old war movie. The 90 degree heat was starting to  tire me out again....

 After lunch we walked a few blocks toward the war museum. It was one of the best war museums I've been too. The walls were decorated by all kinds of pictures, testimonials, propaganda posters, guns and weaponry and a huge amount of sad statistics. All these things culminate in an emotional tour through the three stories. You really get the feeling that war is hell and nothing else. It's a pointless thing and in every case the innocent civilians bear the brunt of it. The war wasn't just an American war. It was originally between Vietnam and France from 1950 to 1960 and then it became our war. When the mighty American military got involved and became desperate to win this long struggle things turned ugly. The US killed millions of civilians using indiscriminate carpet bombing, chemical weapons including agent orange and lethal raids on villages. Whatever honor we acquired in WW1 and WW2 was lost during this war, not to mention Korea. The museum does point out that both sides committed war crimes. The only difference is the degree at which they occurred. What I liked most was the world wide antiwar letters and posters. The museum honors all the Americans opposed to the war and also troops who turned coat during the war. They're was a whole section dedicated to Americans opposed to the conflict and each one is labeled a hero. 

After the museum we walked around downtown for a while. We saw the main streets which had all the famous Gucci-type brand name stores you could imagine. This is what communism turns to. We couldn't believe how many motorbikes. Everybody has one, or two. The city is moving so fast around us. Its clean but at the same time has that Asian grittiness that gives it it's chic factor. After our walk we went back to the Pakistani curry restaurant and ate some delicious curry for dinner. Afterward we walked around the park and listened to live music. It was about this time that we found a jovial lady near our guesthouse who makes the best sugar cane juice around. She only charges 30 cents a glass but we made it a habit of paying her double. She deserved every Pennie. She always smiled when we walked by and her cane juice was always made with fresh sugar cane, a lime and lots of love.

sugar cane juice

12/27

Today we took a bus ride west to the Cu Chi tunnels. On the way we passed by the vast metropolis of Saigon. Its motorcycle ridden streets created an endless web of urban jungle which eventually gave way to green rice paddies strewn out as far as the eye could see. Our tour guide was a 70 year old Vietnam war vet; he fought with the South. He was full of horrible tales of the war.
Before we arrived at Cu Chi we stopped by the famous temple of Cao Dai. Click this link to read about the temple....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Dai   This religion is one of the world's newest and it was created in Vietnam. The prayers were interesting to see. But what we remember most was the intense heat. It was nice to leave.

Finally we arrived at the Cu Chi tunnels at about 3pm. These tunnels lie to the west of Saigon. They were a critical strategic point for the Vietcong. If the Vietcong lost Cu Chi they would have lost the war. They started our tour off with a short video about the tunnels. The tunnels are dug under clay soil. They were extremely cramped; the one's we climbed through were made for tourists but still unbearably claustrophobic. There were all kinds of bomb craters scattered through the jungle. Also there were fenced off booby traps which showcase the sharp spears at the bottom used to impale unsuspecting G.I's. It was a wonderful tour. At the end they let us shoot ak-47's for a few thousand dong, about 10 dollars. I didn't shoot them. Because of the recent shooting in the states I felt it inappropriate and hypocritical. During this trip we met a brother and sister from South Africa. We spent a while talking with them. They were in their late 30's. He was a construction consultant in Australia and she lives in Dubai and works as a stewardess for Emirate's airlines. Good people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu_Chi_tunnels  Click this link for an explanation on the tunnels. 

12/28




We got on the bus early for a three day trip down on the Mekong delta. The delta comprises an area of 39,000 square kilometers and has a population of about 17.5 million people. Its a biological hot spot because it contains a large amount of rare species of flora and fauna. The bus ride took us well over four hours due to incredible traffic. We took a river boat down river to see a rice paper and coconut candy factory. There we saw them make the candies and I got to try cobra wine for the first time. Afterward we took another boat to the city of Can tho, which is the fifth largest city in Vietnam. On the way we saw a small floating market and stopped to eat on a small island. I ordered fried river fish and lemon grass chicken. It was delicious and fresh. The restaurant/ guesthouse has a pet python. The snake was huge. There were also tons of beautiful birds making nose in the trees. We got back on the river boat and headed toward Vietnam's fifth largest city, Can Tho. On the way we made a stop at a small riverside shop where we bought juice and enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets ever overlooking miles of rice paddies. The trip down the river took us three hours but it was one of the most memorable times in Vietnam. I played my ukulele in the tropical sun while kids and villagers all waved to us as we passed by. Everybody had smiles from ear to ear and a casual laid back attitude which was famous in this region. Polly and I felt very relaxed on the boat. We arrived in Can Tho at night. That night we enjoyed a festival that was taking place in the city. The city, like Saigon, was full of motorbikes and food carts. we ate tons of street food and enjoyed smiling at people. Everybody was almost too kind. It was nice to experience such hospitality. 

12/29


"It's my birthday..." I kept saying to Polly. Today we got up early and got back on another boat to go check out the largest river market in the Mekong. While we were waiting in the lobby our friend's from South Africa just so happened to be in the same tour. We were happy to be reacquainted with them once again. The markets were awesome! Some boats were selling pineapples, some grains, some teas, some melons, etc... It was a large wholesale market, one that was, well... floating. 

After gorging ourselves on the most delicious pineapple and mango we've ever tasted we went down the river to visit a rice polishing factory and a rice paper factory. The methods are all organic and they were very interesting to watch. The most interesting was the rice paper and rice noodle process.

After our tour of the factories ended we headed back to Can tho for lunch. We went to lunch with our South African friends. At the restaurant I decided to order my birthday meal: rat. It was my first time eating rat meat and well it tasted like chicken. With a bit of hot sauce it tasted pretty good. The meal was paid for by our friends. It was a very nice gesture, we will miss them. We parted with them at around 3pm. They were headed north and we were headed to a river boat hotel up river in the town of Chao Doc only a kilometer from the Cambodian border. The bus ride was going to take about 4 hours. When we got there it was dark, but the hotel was awesome! It was like something out of a Ernest Hemingway novel. It felt like a 1950's tropical amazon river house. Dinner was something special. Polly organized the delivery of a birthday cake for me via our tour guide. It was really nice of him to go through with it. The waitresses were all really smiley and the service and food was excellent. It was a wonderful birthday and I was very happy to spend it with Polly. At night the sound of birds and jungle animals mixed with Vietnamese karaoke and motorbike engines. This is a place which is hard to describe in words but the feeling it leaves in the visitor is permanent.

rat meat

12/30


Again an early morning. We got on another boat and checked out some fish farms and a small village where the majority of the population is Muslim.  The local Mosque was small but nice. There was also a small Chinese Taoist temple in the village. The villagers were lovely as usual. After we walked around the area we went back to the boat which took us to a bus bound for Chua Hang Pagoda which is one of several large Buddhist pagoda's in the area. We were impressed with the large temple and it's many caves and meditation areas. We had two hours to explore and look out into the vast horizon which was mostly Cambodia.

After our time at the Pagoda we got back on the bus and drove six hours to Saigon. It was a long ride but my lunch on the way, a saffron and lemongrass chicken, was delicious. Once we got back in the city we ate a ton of street food in the park. I came to love Vietnamese food.

Vietnamese pancake "Banh Xeo" made with a coconut rice flour batter and always served with tons of fresh herbs. This is what I ate most out of all the dishes.

A delicious oyster

Sunday night

12/31

For New Years eve we walked down to the waterfront and visited Saigon's tallest building, the Bitexco Financial Tower. Its 68 stories tall and offers a magnificent panoramic view of Saigon.

In the afternoon we hung out around the park until dark. We ate Vietnamese pancakes and spring rolls for dinner. Desert was sweet sticky rice topped with Durian and of course fresh squeezed sugar cane juice from the lady down the street.

Once it hit 9:00 we started making our way downtown through the crowds of motorbikes and people. There was a pedestrian only area starting a kilometer from the central New Years stage. It took us about a half an hour to make our way passed the taped off area and into safety. Even though there were nine or so million people crowded into that small area everything was safe and organized. There was surprisingly very little, almost non existent police and military presence. Nobody was too drunk and there were kids and elderly people strewn into the mix. Everybody had elbow room and nobody was pushing. We made our way central pretty fast and we even had enough time to have a couple drinks in a small restaurant near the main stage. By 11:30 we made our way outside and rang in the New Year with  the largest crowd I've ever seen. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The way back was again pretty uneventful given the sheer number of people and motorbikes. We spent the rest of the night drinking beers with the wonderful staff at our guesthouse and saying "Happy New Years!" to anyone and everyone walking by.

01/01/2013

New Years day. We went to the National art museum. It holds a large collection of ancient and modern Vietnamese art. Some of the art was from the war period and very VERY un-American.

Agent Orange art

Agent Orange art

For dinner Polly took me to one of Saigon's very best restaurants. It was one of the best meals of the trip. I ordered a passion fruit sea bass with tons of local vegetables on the side. She even got me another birthday cake. I love this girl, she is the best.

01/02

Polly went back to Thailand.....

With Polly gone I had two days to spend walking around the city by myself. I took a bus to China town and toured a beautiful pagoda. Other than that I just ate and ate and ate and ate.......

Vietnam was a wonderful place. We both fell in love with the food, sights, sounds and people. It will not be the last time we visit this magical foodie paradise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZadSzx1v_U Anthony Bordain's No Reservations Vietnam.