We are now in beautiful Vietnam. The main slogan the locals use is "same, same, but different". Most tourists do the southeast asia loop, so when the locals are trying to sell day trips, motorbike rides, or souvenirs, that is their favourite line.
We've been in Vietnam for over a week now. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, which most people still call Saigon, and spent two days exploring the sights around the city. We spent a morning at the Cu Chi Tunnels. This huge network of underground passageways stretched from Cu Chi (just outside of Saigon) to Cambodia was used for the Viet Cong to surprise American forces. The area around the tunnels is one of the most bombed pieces of real estate on earth. The tunnels were so narrow making it difficult, or impossible for big American soldiers to make their way very far into the system. We were able to crawl through some of the narrow tunnels - you wouldn't have wanted to be claustrophobic. After the tunnels, we explored the war remnants museum, which was fascinating to learn more about the Vietnam war, but also very harsh at the same time.
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is a city of eight million people and at least one million motorbikes. And we thought we saw a lot of motorbikes in Cambodia! We spent some time wandering the streets just watching the flow of the city. We would come to a major intersection without lights and not know really how to get across. We just did what others told us - walk slowly across the street and the motorbikes just avoid you. Wild! We did get caught up in the thick of traffic when we took a cyclo home from the market. A cyclo is an old style bike with a seat on the front for the passenger. Yes, note "seat", we both had to sit on the same seat, but I guess that's nothing because entire families use this form of transportation to lug them and their groceries home.
From HCMC we headed south to the Mekong Delta for three days. We were with a small group of 12, exploring cities, towns, and villages, which all live on the river system. The Mekong river starts in China and goes through Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and ends in a delta in Vietnam before flowing into the South China Sea. The Mekong Delta is made up of a system of rivers and canals making it a great spot to explore. We did just that for three days in a variety of different boats - small, big, fast, slow, motorized, and paddle.
It was a very relaxing three days. It was the perfect type of tour because there were a lot of different stops along our journey but they were all short and sweet. Over the three days we learned how popped rice (similar to rice krispies), rice, rice paper, rice noodles, coconut candy, and incense were made. We watched the locals bargain for their groceries in the floating market. There would be boats that only sold pineapples or pumpkins and others with a variety of fruit and vegetables. We also had time to explore onland by bicycle and foot. The scenery was how you would expect Vietnam to look like - images of rice fields, houseboats, floating markets, Vietnamese hats everywhere, and river banks dotted with stilted wooden houses.
We had a great time with the other people on our boat. We met three really nice Canadian girls who are all teaching in Hong Kong - Christina, Stacey, and Kelly. We also met another couple from England who have been travelling around the world for the year, Chris and Sarah. They were also travelling with her twin sister, Sharon, for the past three months. And I thought Bow was brave to live with the Meloche sisters for a few months, this guy was travelling with twin sisters for four months. Chris and Sarah gave us some great travel tips on places to hit in Vietnam and some of the other countries we're heading to.
From there, we headed up the coast to Nha Trang, which is known for its beach. Although the beach was beautiful, we decided to explore the area with some locals on their motorbikes. Travelling seems so easy in southeast asia because buses drop you off at the door of guesthouses/hotels, these hotels all have booking agents inside, and if that doesn't suit, well you will likely be approached by a local wanting to take you to all the sights in the area. Usually when someone approaches us to give us a motorbike ride we always just say "no thanks", but this time we chatted with this guy, Sy, who approached us a bit longer than usual, which led him to pulling out his photo album to sell us his special tour. The sights looked great and the price was right so we agreed to go with him and his friend, Long, the following day.
It's so funny because here in Vietnam when locals approach us for any reason we always get the exact same questions. "Where are you from?", ""Are you from Vancouver or Toronto?", "When did you arrive here?", "How old are you?", "What hotel are you staying at?" and then "Do you want to buy a boat ride .... motorcycle ride ... bicycle rental ... tailor made clothes?". The Vietnamese are incredibly friendly people so the odd time, they just want to approach you to ask you these questions without selling you anything.
The day of the motorbike ride around Nha Trang was a real treat, especially since we weren't expecting much. They drove us 35 kms outside of town through a very scenic mountain area to a remote water fall, where no western tourists had found yet. We had a very refreshing swim before heading back closer to town to check out a huge white budda, reclining budda, and other temples. The highlight of our day was a trip to the spa. When Sy was selling us the trip he told us that we could go to some "mud baths". We were a bit shocked when we pulled up to a beautful spa of mineral baths. We spent over two and a half hours there soaking in mud minerals, a hot mineral bath, hot pools and then we finished it off with a massage and a lemon grass steam bath.
We are now in Hoi An, which is the clothing capital of Vietnam. It's a very old city with a lot of character and a small city feel. The streets are lined with very cute shops, restaurants, and tailors. It also has a river running through town with a very active fishing community.
We arrived yesterday morning on the overnight bus. After checking into our hotel and resting for a while, we headed to a tailor that a couple on the Mekong Delta tour had recommended. We went in not really knowing what we wanted. They sat us down with fivecatalogs of clothing to choose from. It took about an hour to narrow down what we wanted and then another hour to choose our fabrics. It was such a hoot - even Bow loved it. They measured us up and off we went at 1pm. By 7pm, they had us back for a fitting, which we thought was incredible since we ordered about 10 items each. We had a great time at the fitting and we loved the clothes so much we ordered a few more pieces. The prices were unbeatable, for example, Bow got a tailor made suit for $25 US.
Today we picked up our clothes, sent a box home, did some other errands before renting bikes to see the sights around town. We ran into some people we had met along our travels - Susanne who we spent some time with at Angkor, another Canadian guy we met at the spa, and another girl we were on the bus with coming into Vietnam. Tonight we went to a Vietnamese cooking course at a restaurant in town. It was just the two of us but we learned how to make marinated mackerel in banana leaves, veggie spring rolls, and squid salad. The food was delicious and it was very entertaining.
Vietnam is a wonderful place and the best thing is that it's so cheap to travel here. We're travelling up north to Hanoi and our hop-on-hop-off bus ticket from HCMC was only $23 US each, which also included a free nights stay at a three star here in Hoi Ann. It would take 44 hrs on the train to make the journey, so the price is really right. Hotel rooms range from $7 US to $13 US per night for a really nice place. A meal is around $5 - $10 Cdn for the two of us. Some hotels even include breakfast and dinner in their rate. Our three day Mekong Delta trip, including nice hotels and all boat rides was only $25 US each. Internet service ranges from 30 to 60 cents an hour. Our cooking course was only $5 Cdn each, which was dinner and entertainment. To get clothes made, shirts were $6 US, pants $8 US, suits $25 US, dresses $8 US, and custom made shoes were $6 US.
Until next time!
Jill