Ho Chi Minh City,,,busy, noisy, interesting

As I said in a previous post, the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City is unbelievable!  I've been to Bangkok and thought that was bad, but HCMC is way over the top.  I have never seen so many motorbikes & scooters in my life, and everyone (cars, buses, scooters) beeps their horn continuously - not in anger, but as a way of letting people in front know to move over or let others pass.  Crazy, but it seems to work.  Although on one tour we did, our guide told us that 40 people each day die on HCMC roads.


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 next day Lorraine, Bill, Trevor & I went on a tour to the Mekong Delta in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries.  

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. 

After viewing the floating markets, we transferred to smaller canoes and travelled through some of the canals to a small village where we had a lovely meal (Trev & I shared an Elephant Ear fish, which we wrapped up in rice rolls).  We had a short bike ride  which started badly as I fell off - the bike seat was way too high for me, and when it wobbled I couldn't get my feet to touch the ground, so I landed in a bunch of grass and nettles.  Not very dignified.... so I swapped bikes, then we headed off again.  We got back to the restaurant in time for Bill and I  to hold the giant python and have photos taken - boy, was that a heavy snake!

On the way back we visited a candy factory where we bought some lovely peanut brittle and coconut toffees and had some green tea to cool us down.  Then on to a workshop for people with disabilities, who made the most beautiful artworks out of cane and wood, with the designs made from tiny fragments of broken eggshell and mother-of-pearl.  The products were quite expensive by Vietnamese standards, but they were just amazing.  I think we all spent a few dollars in this one.

Back at the hotel we decided to try the little restaurant a couple of doors down for some Vietnamese hotpots.  Good decision - they were delicious.  The staff didn't speak much English, but the menus had plenty of photos, so we managed.  At the next table was a family celebrating a little girl's birthday, so when they started to sing happy birthday to her, we all joined in.  The family was thrilled with us, so when they cut the birthday cake the little girl's mum came over with her and brought us all a slice of birthday cake, and took photos of our group with the little girl sitting on Sheep's knee.  So cute!

Next day we were picked up from our hotel to go the Cu Chi Tunnels which were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during the war, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.  It was a really interesting tour, and our guide was very knowledgeable.  One of the sad points he mentioned is that he had a girlfriend who lived in the Cu Chi area, but was not allowed to marry her in case they had children who were deformed or affected by the after-effects of Agent Orange. 

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????