Day 17 Saigon & Home

Back to Saigon on the bus. It rained and rained and rained on the way back, thankfully we were in the bus. The roads were clogged with heavy traffic so the bus ride was longer than the scheduled 4 hours.

We walked around the nicer side of Saigon a bit. The shops here are definitely better than anything we saw in Hanoi and all the "standard" expensive shops are here.

I got a much needed haircut in Saigon. All I will say is that you get a lot more than a haircut for the price of a haircut! Washing my hair took a lot longer than cutting it did. I also got a shave which, in hindsight, wasn't such a great idea. It wasn't very good.

We finally got the plane home. Something I thought I would never say -> we had a really nice (and inexpensive) meal at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. Bonus!

Then a good flighyt back home with Air Asia. Melbourne Airport was a disaster, it was completely overrun with arrivals and couldn't cope with the volume of people. One brave soul did a really good job of organising a queue (for customs and immigration) that wound its way around the baggage carousels and along the walls, and making sure there was no queue jumping. He did a good job but why he had no help and why there were none of thos tapes to assist I wouldn't know. It still took us nearly 2 hours to get out, mind you.

And now we're home. The streets are quiet, they are easy to cross, and theren't hundreds of motor bikes everywhere.

More Mui Ne

Before heading back to Saigon we did a bit of a tour of Mui Ne. The locals kept pointing out the sand dunes that we just had to see, but it takes about 4 hours to get around.





So we hired a couple of local guys and their motor bikes and set off at 6am. We had to get back to the hotel in time to check out by noon, and then get on the bus to Saigon.





The port of Mui Ne is fairly busy.





I got interested in basket boats and there are many at Mui Ne. We also saw quite a few out at sea.





Along the way we stopped and walked through this channel cut in the clay.








We got to the white sand dunes and had a great time driving around on these buggies. The surrounds were quite nice too and we had a pleasant lunch there.






Then it was back on the bike and off to the red sand dunes. They were pretty neat too, though we didn't hoon around on these!





On the way back to the hotel we were taken to the home of one of our drivers. He then went out, climbed a tree, and came back with fresh cocnuts for us to drink! He had a cute little daughter who is now the proud owner of a Melbourne Victory pencil case!

Day 16 - Mui Ne

I will expand on this post later.

We had an excellent morning visiting the sand dunes near Mui Ne.

We also did get on the bus. It was running an hour late so that didn't do a lot for my confidence that we would be picked up. The inbound trip to Saigon took a lot longer than the outbound trip, as we had been warned it probably would be, because of the traffic. It also rained very heavily from about the half way point onwards. The bus driver had a tough time of it.

We have the morning in Saigon using up the last few hours before we have to catch the plane.

Interesting Signs

No trip to the non English speaking world is complete without interesting signs. Here is a very small sample.



This sign is meant to convey that only bicycles, not motor bikes, cars or other vehicles are allowed past this point.




No trip to Vietnam is complete without at least one of these. It actually is an interesting play on words for an art gallery.




The "towers" being referred to here are actually "towels". Or perhaps all the towers had already been taken by the time we got here!!

Days 14 & 15 - Mui Ne

A few hours on the bus from Saigon got us into Mui Ne.





Once we got here I spent the next 3 hours fast asleep as the flu / nasty cold set in. I got up in time to watch sunset, which is at about 6pm here. So that wrote the day off!





Day 2 was a little better, the difference being that I got my sleep outside on the beach. It was a calm, tranquil, magical morning. It is a very nice beach although the water is very murky and salty. The weather has been good, a little windy but not uncomfortable. The water is refreshing, not hot or cold but just spot on, and very very calm. If I was a surfer I would have had to move on.





The place is full of Russian tourists. This must be a popular destination for them (Aeroflot flies into Vietnam) and I know where I would rather be if I had the choice of a Russian winter or a Vietnamese one.





We went into town here. Not a lot to report, it is miles and miles of hotels. The town itself has a number of tourist shops and for the first time on this trip no one has come straight up to us to buy their wares. They left us alone and were almost disinterested even to take our money!





For the record I think the sleep, sun, and sea is paying off. I am starting to feel like the worst of my nasty cold is over and hopefully I am now on the mend.

Tomorrow we will be visiting some sand dunes early in the morning. We need to get back in time to check out of the hotel and, more importantly, to catch the bus for the long trip back to Saigon. I have my fingers crossed that the bus shows up. In Saigon we were charged 200,000vnd for the trip back but the local operator (for the same agency) wants to add a 60,000vnd surcharge. This is a "happy new year" surcharge and applies from 1-Jan to 10-Jan. Given that we bought the tickets in Saigon on 2-Jan and there was no mention of this I told him I wasn't prepared to do that. He eventually rang back and said not to worry about it but in retrospect I would worry less if I had paid the surcharge. The $3 is actually irrelevant in the scheme of things but the disruption (the next bus isn't until 1am) would be awful. We are due to fly out of Saigon at 4:30pm on the following day so we at least do have time up our sleeve if the operator decides to have the last laugh.

Stay tuned....

Day 13 - Saigon

A fairly quiet day today, as much as anything because I seem to have come down with the flu. Drat!





We walked up to the monument for the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the religious policies of the South Vietnamese government. I mentioned this topic in an earlier post because we had visited the temple in Hue where he was head priest before the drive to Saigon.



We also went for a "fish foot massage". This was an unbelievable experience! We all sat on the edge of a pool with fish in it. The fish swim over and start nibbling at the feet. I cannot begin to describe the sensation, it is awesome. The most fun you can have for $5 I'm sure!!

I'll get some photos onto here once I've copied them from the cameras.

Tomorrow we take the bus to Mui Ne, on the coast about 250km from Saigon. If the weather is good, it is time to lie on the beach for a day or two before going home.

New Year's Eve

Still in Saigon and still in Day 12.

I have never seen so many motor bikes all jammed in one spot! There were people everywhere for the New Year's Eve fireworks so we joined them. The roads ground to a halt so many people just turned off their bikes and stayed where they were. No one was going anywhere.



We watche3d a not-very-good dance performance on this massive stage, then waited the few minutes for the fireworks display. When they started a huge cheer went up, but nobody could see anything because the fireworks weren't high enough and were hidden from our view by a building.



So everyone turned their bikes on and motored home. We walked back to the hotel a little disappointed.

Day 12 - Ku Chi

Even though the tour was over most of the group went on the half day trip to visit the famous Ku Chi tunnels. The Viet Cong built a network of over 250 km of tunnels.



At least one of these tunnels was 7 km long and went directly under an American base. This allowed the Viet Cong to direct sniper fire and then vanish. The entrances to the tunnels were tiny and incredibly well concealed.



The tunnels were very cleverly organised, over 3 levels. The deepest tunnels were several metres deep. The tunnels themselves held many dangers for an unsuspecting or chasing enemy. Also the Viet Cong created clever and unbelievably nasty booby traps on the surface.



One of the highlights of the trip was going through one of these tunnels. EVen though it was close to the surface and only about 120m long it was actually fairly hard work. There is not much air down there, it is a very confined space, it is hot, and you are trying to run bent nearly double. I came out panting and perspiring and my shoulders lost a lot of skin from scraping along the tunnel walls. And I wasn't even being chased or shot at! It was a fantastic experience and really worth doing. I am sorry I did not get a photo of us inside the tunnel but it was very difficult to take one.



The guides at the site were excellent but the guide Intrepid sent us was absolutely hopeless. This was really unfortunate because everything else on the trip was excellent. Not only did she not know her stuff, many of the things she said were just plain completely wrong. Even without knowing much about the place I could tell she was wrong so I hung back and listened to one of the dite guides who was excellent. Unfortunately the rest of the group did not do this and missed out on a lot of information.

Day 11 - Mekong Delta

Today we went for a trip in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong is one of the longest rivers in the world and it reaches the sea on Saigon's doorstep.





As you would expect the vegetation is luscious. Water palms such as these are used to make rooves when dried.





After a nice boat ride across the river mouth we had great fun bouncing around in these tuk tuks, basically a small cart attached to a motor cycle. Helmets were compulsory because of falling coconuts and low branches / leaves.





We got to try some foods and fruits that are native to the delta. They suggested dipping the fruit in salta which made an interesting difference, especially for the grapefruit (which was actually really nice, not bitter like the ones we get at home).





The "cords" that surrounded the eating areas are actually hammocks, and they were very comfortable :)

After some more buzzing around on the tuk tuks we had a beautiful lunch, the highlight of which was an elephant ear fish, Never heard of it? Neither had I but it was very nice. After that it was all on board for a row down what in the US would be called a bijou.






On the boat on the way back we called in at a coconut candy factory. They went to pains to tell us that everything in the coconut is used, nothing goes to waste. That seems to be the way with everything in Vietnam so it was not hard to believe. We also got to drink some cocnut milk from a fresh coconut. I found it a bit sickly sweet.








We also called in at a lacquer factory. The workers here are victims of Agent Orange and the work they do is astounding. It is beautiful, high quality work. The images are put together using egg shells or sea shells and layer after layer of lacquer and polishing is applied. It takes about 4 months to produce a single one of these "painttings", they are unbelievable works of art.








This was the last day of our Intrepid tour. This is a photo of the group at the hotel.

Day 10 - Saigon

While Saigon is officially called Ho Chi Minh City, the locals prefer the old name of Saigon.

There are 9 million people in Saigon. Between them they own and operate 4 million motor cycles, that's a motor cycle for every man, woman and child in Melbourne. The roads are like rivers of motor bikes that never stop, with the occasional log (car or bus) thrown in. Crossing the streets here is more daunting than even Hanoi, at first, because the streets are wider (further to cross) and carry more traffic.





On arriving in Saigon we took a cyclo tour. Cyclos are the local name for bicycle powered rickshaws, at least that's my description. Being out in front while these guys pedal their way through, and across, traffic is really something.






Our first stop was the War Museum. Whilst this is a "must see" of Saigon there is nothing pleasant about it. It is sombre, grim, and very thought provoking. The museum itself is not that well done, the presentations are not very professional but they are very powerful. I am only attaching a couple of the more "stock standard" pictures. To say this was a brutal conflict is a massive understatement.





I personally have not found Saigon as interesting as Hanoi. It is a relatively modern city and well planned. It has a massive market and some respectable and even beautiful buildings, such as the Post Office. The picture is of the Post Office's interior. There are also a number of modern office blocks etc which really could be in any other city.



For dinner we went to this restaurant that had very ordinary decor. Its claim to fame was that President Clinton had dinner there on a visit to Vietnam (2002 I think?)