On our first night, we went for a walk down to the river, and to cross one major intersection we had to go over 5 pedestrian crossings! We were all paralysed by the traffic, cos there was certainly no break and no-one stopped to let us cross. We watched some of the locals and figured out that no-one stops at the crossings, you simply have to start walking and the bikes/cars/buses will go around you. So..... we basically held hands and started walking, looking both ways (cos they drive on the right hand side of the road) and hoped that all the roadusers recognised that we poor foreigners hadn't a clue, and would do their best to avoid us. And yes, we made it across, then killed ourselves laughing when we arrived at the other side! And on some other major crossings, some of the local people actually flanked us either side and guided us across.... very strange, but nice of them.
So, our hotel was in quite a busy area, right next to the Bitexco Financial Tower (265.5m) which will be the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City when finished. The Tan Hai Long 3 was pretty good, rooms were modern and comfortable, and Trev & I paid an extra $10 per night for un upgrade to a deluxe room which was a good deal larger than the other rooms. We had a lovely view of the escape stairs and rooftops from our room. Staff were efficient and friendly, and the porters were very quick to open the doors for us whenever they saw us approaching. Breakfast wasn't bad, but often only lukewarm - something we found also at our Hoian hotel. Ben Thanh markets were huge, and people were packed in like sardines. We did a bit of shopping there, but bartering was much more difficult than at Hoian - starting prices were so much higher. Finding places to eat wasn't difficult and I still can't get over how much cheaper than Thailand Vietnam is for food, shopping, tours etc. Beer ranged from 18c to 90c and the most we paid for cocktails was about $4.50. Even really expensive meals for the six of us worked out at around $12 per person, including drinks and cocktails! Brilliant!
We visited the War Remnants Museum which was a horrible testament to the atrocities committed during war. The Vietnamese call the war 'The American War of Agression', and obviously this museum portrays the war from the Vietnamese point of view. I was horrified by some of the photos and accounts of activities - in particular the photos of children born deformed, limbless and with horrific cancers as a result of the US Forces' use of Agent Orange and other chemical warfare. Even now, many children born in areas where chemical weapons were used have a much higher incidence of cleft palates and other deformities. The War Remnants Museum is a very sad and shocking place, but one that should be visited.
The bus ride was about 3 hours each way along one of the major highways out of HCMC. Well, for a major highway, this has to be the bumpiest, narrowest and busiest highway ever. Every time we hit a bump (which was many) we just about hit our heads on the roof of the bus, which of course is built for tiny little Vietnamese people - ie, seats are small, narrow and legspace is almost non-existent, so needless to say it wasn't the most comfortable of trips. Anyway, we got to Cai Be, the beginning of the delta area, where we transferred to large rice barges for the next part of the journey. We sat on little cane seats on the barge, again not the most comfortable, but that's one of the joys of travelling.
We got back to our hotel around 3.00pm and had to be picked up to go to the airport for home at 6.00pm. We paid extra to have a late checkout from our room, so the other guys had stored all of their gear in our room, which meant that we could all have a shower and freshen up before we got on the plane. We found a place called 'Phatty's' to have an early dinner (a really good Australian-style hamburger), then headed back to our room in the middle of a monsoonal rainstorm - we got absolutely saturated, and all the local shopkeepers that we had walked past in the last few days had a good laugh at us. At least the rain wasn't cold!
So, a quick shower, final pack then we were picked up for our transfer to the airport. The traffic was horrendous - because the rain had driven a lot of bikes and scooters off the streets, suddenly they were all back en masse once the rain stopped. All around us was a sea of bike helmets - our driver had a slight knock on his side mirror as a car tried to push in from the right hand side - he was not happy! Anyway, he got us there safely and we headed for home on September 14.
The trip home on Vietnam Airlines (and on the way there) was awful - the seats were tiny, no legroom at all, it was a very old Boeing 777 with old-fashioned tv screens so grainy and pockmarked you couldn't see them - that is if you could even see the screen over the heads of 4 rows of passengers (which I couldn't). The shape of the seats had a huge lumbar support bit at the bottom which forced your back into a most uncomfortable 'S' shape. I have to say the seats were the worst of any airline we've flown with. Trev says the little cane chairs on the barge were more comfortable! Definitely won't fly Vietnam Airlines again!
I've just uploaded a Picasa album on HCMC - click here to have a look.
All in all, we had a fantastic trip - lovely people, lots of interesting sights, weather was incredibly humid, and we did lots of shopping. We would definitely go back to Hoian again for its slower, laidback, old-town feel - don't know if we'd do HCMC again, although it was very interesting. So..... what travel specials are on now????
