Thursday, March 3rd.
After an overnight bus back to Bangkok from Khon Kaen I made an early van back to Bangplama to re-pack for my next adventure to Vietnam. Katie and I flew AirAsia from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City Thursday afternoon. Let me tell you AirAsia’s website is rather frustrating along with the lack of leg room on their planes. I guess that’s what you get for purchasing cheap flights. Minus the lack of leg room, the flight went fine and we landed in Vietnam in about an hour. My first observation of Vietnam was, “Holy Mopeds!” There had to have been at least 50 mopeds for every car on the street. The streets were packed with them.
Another observation was like back home, they drive on the right hand side of the road. I thought when I would be back home it would be strange to see cars driving on the right hand side, it really wasn’t as strange as I thought while I was in Vietnam. After we settled in our nice accommodations in District 1, aka the backpacker/touristy area, we explored for some dinner. As we were talking to someone from the restaurant down the alley way our hotel was on, I felt something hit my head. I look on the ground and it’s a spoon! It must have fallen from the porch above us and landed right on top of my head. Apparently, you have to beware of falling spoons in the alleyways! Katie and I found a great place for dinner. The entire infrastructure in Vietnam builds up rather than out, so each building has at least 5 floors and is very narrow. We found a place with out door dining that overlooked the main drag, great for people/moped watching. Vietnamese food deserves an A+! It was delicious! We ordered a few different dishes to try a little bit of everything. My favorite was the stuffed pumpkin nugget. It tasted more like a Mexican dish than Vietnamese but it was aroi!! Friday we decided to explore Ho Chi Minh by ourselves. We did our own walking tour which included a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the War Remnants Museum, and a coffee/sandwich shop for lunch. The War Remnants Museum was very educational. I learned a lot about the Vietnam War. It was quite emotional, as well, viewing the different photographs that were taken throughout the war along with the stories behind them. It was hard visiting as an American; I sensed a strong feeling of animosity towards the American soldiers/government by the war relics displayed. It gave me a whole different perspective on things after seeing such a war from the American enemy’s side.
Lunch included one of my favorite shakes on this trip, a peanut butter coffee shake. I don’t know why I never thought of creating such a thing but it was yummy. You could taste each ingredient separately; it mixed together so nicely. We also found a place near our hotel that had really yummy fruit smoothies. For the 4 days we were in Ho Chi Minh, Katie and I became regulars to this smoothie stand. Every time we walked by the smoothie ladies they made sure to smile and say hello. Friday night we met up with Connor, Becca, Lee and Steph who trained it down from Hanoi. They said it was a very long train ride, 15 hours or something ridiculous like that. We went to dinner back at the same place Katie and I went the night before. After dinner, we went to a few different bars. It was interesting drinking the Vietnamese beer (Bia Saigaon) instead of the familiar Leo or Singha I’m used to drinking in Thailand. Katie and I woke up early the next day to head to the Mekong Delta for a two day tour and one night homestay with a Vietnamese family. The tour of the delta was really fun! One of my main missions of coming to Vietnam was to wear and buy one of the cone shaped, Vietnamese style hats. Check that off the list!! The tour included a visit to a coconut candy manufacturing plant, a secluded place for lunch, a honey manufacturer, the floating market, and a rice paper manufacturer. It also included a more private tour of the delta with a ride on small canoe boats through the canals. After the first day of the tour as we were on our way to drop some of the tourists at the hotel it began to down pour. It rained so much that the streets of Can Tho were flooded. It was flooded so badly that there was water in the buildings. It was actually pretty scary. I have never been in such bad flood conditions before. Katie and I didn’t know what to expect for our home stay. We were still able to do the home stay. Without really knowing what was going on, the tour guide shoved Katie and I in a SUV taxi along with 5 other people. The taxi drove us to what looked like an abandoned market. We waited for a bit until the man said “follow me”. He guided us to a canoe boat on the delta and loaded us all on, then decided to act like he was going to push us off the dock into the dark night sky without him getting on. He was just joking, thank goodness. After about a 20 minute boat ride we arrived to our home stay. The group all stayed together. They provided mini bungalow/huts for us to stay in. Katie and I enjoyed the company of a very diverse group of people from all over the world, Spain, France, Canada, Finland, Vietnam and America. The family made us a delicious dinner that entailed elephant fish, the fish of the Mekong Delta, wrapped in spring rolls along with some other vegetable and rice dishes.
They also served us rice wine, aka very strong vodka. It was fun saying “cheers” in Vietnamese though, the one time we all tasted the rice wine. It was nasty tasting and too bad I don’t remember how to say cheers in Vietnamese. In Thai, it’s Choke Dee ka! One thing special about doing the home stay was being able to see a way of life very different than anything I’ve seen in Thailand, and especially different than America. The homes along the Mekong River Delta use the river water for pretty much everything. As we were boating through the river/canal, I noticed numerous people using the water as a source for washing pots and pans, scrubbing laundry, washing their hair, and brushing their teeth. I couldn’t help but notice how dirty the water seemed. It was sad to see the Mekong Delta families have to use such unsanitary water as their main water source. Katie and I arrived back to Ho Chi Minh later that day and decided we’d go to one of the nearby markets. There was a lot of clothing and accessories at this market. On our way back from the market, we were trying to cross the street but there were so many mopeds coming from all directions it was nearly impossible. Another tourist trying to cross with us told us he heard it would almost be best if we just walk across the street blindfolded, that way the mopeds can just maneuver around us. We of course didn’t do that but it may have been a good idea. The next morning Katie and I packed our bags and hired a private driver to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels before we had to go back to Thailand later that afternoon. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. It was very interesting learning and seeing the different war tactics that were used against the United States. It was really incredible how they were able to create such a tunnel system throughout the country. The main purpose of the tunnels was for communication, supply routes, hospitals, and even living quarters. There were also camouflaged holes in the ground where the Viet Cong hid and waited for the enemy. Part of our tour included a chance to squeeze and hide in one of the holes. Those soldiers had to make sure they were in tip top tiny shape, because I barely fit through the hole. Also, we were able to crawl in part of the tunnel which of course had been made bigger in order to fit the Western tourists. I can’t imagine it being much smaller than it was!
After the tunnels, Katie and I got dropped off at the airport hours earlier than we really needed to be. We had a fun photo shoot with the Vietnamese cone shaped hats while we waited J Also we splurged on a nice glass of wine and a yummy sandwich. Vietnam was fun and educational! Overall, my impression of the people was friendly in Ho Chi Minh; a little pushy with trying to get us to make purchases though. Some differences I saw between the Vietnamese and Thai people was the lack of similar religion between the people, a lack of patriotism towards an anarchy like in the Kingdom of Thailand, and the woman of Vietnam love wearing very colorful silk/cotton like material pant and top suites with the cone shaped hats!
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