sapa

another place i didn't get to go the last time i was in vietnam was sapa...there are two reasons travelers go to sapa; one, to see members of vietnam's minority tribes...and two, to go trekking...i got to do both...to get to sapa, i took a night train from hanoi to lao cai, the vietnamese of the side of the border with china...from there i took a minivan to sapa...the tour was supposed to start with breakfast at the hotel in sapa at 0800, but my train arrived later than expected, which means my minivan was late too...i arrived at the hotel after 0900, which was when the first trek was supposed to start...so i ate breakfast as fast as possible, taking some of it to go with me on the trek...i felt bad for the other people in my group, since they had to wait for me...but they didn't seem to mind...the day i arrived, it was sunny, and lovely...

my trek started at the hotel, and walked down, out of town toward catcat village...our guide is a member of the black hmong...tourism is one of the ways the tribes make a living now...from what i understand, they stopped wearing much of their traditional clothing, but then realized that's what tourists want to see...so now the "city" of sapa is filled with villagers wearing their traditional clothing...when our group started walking, a whole bunch of tribespeople walked with us...they tried to make friends with us, and everyone knew that they would try to sell stuff to us...the english they know is all related to tourists, but at least they've made the effort to learn...most of them know bits and pieces of a number of different languages...from this lookout point, we were able to look over the valley where catcat village is located...we could see the school, and some of the housing...

we could also see rice terraces...this wasn't the optimal season for seeing the terraces, but oh well...if i remember correctly, there is only one rice crop a year...

she was just sitting there, looking beautiful:)

this is typical housing in the village of catcat...according to our guide, only about 500 people live in the village...walking through, we saw random animals, but mostly houses with stalls set up selling stuff to tourists...i don't know how i feel about that...

and of course, there were super cute kids in the village...they're too young to know that they probably won't have an easy life...

at the "bottom" of the trek, we took a break at this waterfall...not surprisingly, there were places set up where people could order kabobs, drinks, and other trinkets...our guide told us we would have a 10 minute break...which of course ended up being closer to half an hour...

one of the places sold apple wine...

on the way back up to sapa, we saw the back side of the school...our guide said there are 42 students at this school, serving kids up to age 13...she called it a family school...she said that after that age, there are two options...one, to go to the school in sapa, and pay for it, or two, drop out of school and start earning money...sadly, most of the kids take option number 2...

after the hike, we had the rest of the day to explore the town of sapa...there isn't much to see...in the middle of town is a market catering entirely to tourists...nearly every stall sold the same thing, and all the vendors are aggressive...just in case that's not enough, there were ladies in the middle who walk up to you and try to get you while you're wandering...

underneath that pile of cloth in the middle is a little baby...who was just staring at the world...i have no idea who he/she belonged to, but i'm guessing all the women in this picture had half an eye on the baby...

the next day our group wasn't nearly as lucky with the weather...it was pea soup thick fog...we couldn't see a thing other than the road/trail in front of us, and not even much of that...

even petrol pumps need to be protected:)

at our first break on this trek, the boy was playing in the tree...i'm pretty sure he was walking with another group, as every trekking group has lots of villagers walking with them...

since i couldn't see any of the countryside, i spent the trek trying to take photos of the ladies...(i never did figure out where the men were)

the fog never did go away...

i spent a lot of time talking to a couple living in singapore, they're both originally from china...you can barely see the suspension bridge we crossed behind us...

it turned out there was a newer suspension bridge, from which i took this photo of the old suspension bridge...it's easy enough to see why the new bridge was built...

one of the beverage options at lunch...obviously, this wasn't the choice i made...

our guide is from this village...population 2600...

at the school in our guide's village, there are 52 students...again, it's a family school, serving only children up to age 13...

it goes w/out saying that i have no idea what was written on the board...

these indigo plants are where indigo dye comes from...the dye is used to make the dark blue of the black hmong people's clothing...

at the very end of the trek we waited by this bridge for a van that took us back to sapa...

halong bay

one of the places i didn't get to go the last time i was in vietnam is also one of the most well-known areas in vietnam, halong bay...i ate breakfast, checked out of my hotel, and was picked up by the tour bus, near the start of all the pickups...i got a seat near the front of the bus, which is always important to me, given my tendency to end up with motion sickness...

boarding the boat:)

it's a four hour drive from hanoi to get to the port where everyone gets on a boat...not surprisingly, there was a stop about halfway through, at a (huge) place where we could buy snacks and souvenirs...tons and tons of tour buses stopped at this place, there was nothing else anywhere close...i always wonder how many people actually buy stuff (other than food i mean) at these places...during the bus ride i figured out where most of the others were from, it was fun to listen to the conversations...there were two other american girls sitting in the back, and i learned that they were also teaching in korea...they didn't stop talking the entire bus ride, and their voices carried...i was once told that i'm the loudest person a certain someone knows, so now, everytime i hear people who are louder, i laugh and wonder what that original person would think...(does that make sense to anyone but me?)...also on the bus were three dutch, a spaniard, and i've forgotten who else...the american girls dominated the conversation...the guide tried to teach us a few things to say, but the only one i remembered was "thank you"...it sounded like 'gom eun' to me...
at the port, our guide collected our passports, and went to get our boat tickets...there were a lot of people milling around, so the whole area was rather confusing...when he came back with the tickets, he handed those out, as well as our passports...this was when he told us that our tour included everything but drinks, and that there would be drinks available for purchase on the boat...he also told us that if we brought drinks on the boat from other sources that we'd have to pay a service fee...i HATE when those sorts of things are told to the guests when it's too late to do anything about it...that's not what i signed up for, and i wasn't inclined to "obey"...

we got on the boat, and he gave a longer speech, telling us the schedule for the rest of the day...he also introduced the captain, and gave us a few details about the boat...(where it was built, how much it cost, etc)...after the speech we were checked into our rooms, i ended up sharing with one of the dutch girls...then lunch was served...5 or 6 courses? it was great food, i enjoyed every bite...and ate way too much, of course...i was sitting at a table with the three dutch folks, so the conversation was in both languages...

after lunch was over everyone went outside and relaxed, enjoying the scenery...it was sooo nice to lay in the sun and just watch the world go by...who doesn't like this kind of scenery? it wasn't as stunning as i expected, but still absolutely lovely...two hours after leaving the dock, the boat arrived at a cave...

i've forgotten the name of it, which can probably be found in my guidebook...not surprisingly, our boat arrived about the same time as every other boat, which meant the area was uber crowded...yuck...howeva, i knew going in that halong bay would be busy, and that i wasn't going somewhere secret...our guide bought our tickets, we got off the boat and walked up the stairs...the cave isn't at water level, you have to walk up about 50 stairs (give or take) to get to the entrance...and it's not a spelunking kind of cave...the caverns were HUGE, there were pathways through the whole thing...

 our guide told the group various facts about the cave, like how old it is, how big it is, how many people see the cave, etc...at least, i assume he did, i wasn't paying much attention to him...many areas were lit with coloured lights, i tried to get a few good photos...i kept getting distracted by photo opportunities, and ended up behind most of the group, but oh well...i reasoned to myself that i wasn't missing much...i've seen a fair number of caves, and i've never heard anything super different from "this cave has been around for a long time"...hee hee...

eventually we all got out and gathered together to get back on a smaller boat...(this smaller boat took us from the big boat to the cave earlier)...the smaller boat then took us to an area where we could go kayaking...think recreational kayaking, like you did at summer camp years ago...not kayaking on whitewater rapids where you need a skirt...i ended up in a boat with an aussie girl, we had fun paddling around for 45 minutes...when we brought our kayak back to the kayak place we were losing light, fast...

halong bay isn't mountainous exactly, but when the sun goes behind one of the karsts, you don't see much anymore...the american girls were 15 minutes late bringing back their kayak, and since it was chilly by that point, people weren't happy...they apologized, saying they didn't know what time they were supposed to come back...the little boat took us all back to our big boat...just after getting back on the big boat, ladies rowing boats filled with snacks and drinks rowed up to the big boat and tried to get us to buy stuff...

their prices were way cheaper than the big boat...they were pretty persistent, but i didn't want anything, so i was good at ignoring them...a few folks did buy from rowboat ladies, and that's when one of the big boat waiters came out and handed them a laminated paper that said how much they had to pay as the service fee: $8 for a bottle of wine, $1 for soft drinks and cans of beer!!! how ridiculous is that? i said it was ridiculous, AND that we hadn't been told about this 'service fee' before the tour started, and he told me to be quiet...i told him that i would not, and that he shouldn't tell me to be quiet, because i'm the customer...he said the boat had drinks, so we didn't need to buy from the rowboat ladies...i told him the big boat drink prices were ridiculous ($1 for a small bottle of water on the big boat, vs less than 50 cents for a big bottle of water in hanoi) so it wasn't a service to the customers at all...i don't think anyone paid the service fee, because it was such a ridiculous amount, and we all felt the whole thing to be underhanded...first, in not telling any of the guests that the fee existed, and second in not telling how much it was until after people bought stuff off the rowboat ladies...
anywho, after that was dinner, another 5 or 6 course meal...YUM...when we all finished  eating and the plates/food had been cleared, our guide turned on the karaoke machine...he seemed oblivious to the massive feedback, though the rest of us were covering our ears...one of the american chickies seemed keen to sing all night long, the rest of us didn't care...i stayed for a little while, then went to my cabin and read for a while before sleeping...the chick i shared with came in not too much later, having stayed up drinking with her friends...about an hour later, she puked...whoops!! fortunately, nothing other than her sheets got dirty...i'm sure the housekeepers enjoyed the smell...whoops...

the next morning my cabin partner slept and slept and slept, i woke up early (0600 local time) and changed quietly, the went out to the deck to wait for breakfast to be served...in keeping with what had happened at every previous meal, it was served later than the time they told us...oh well...also in keeping with every previous meal, there was a lot of food, and it was good...i continued to overeat...hee hee...we weren't able to get into the dining room at all early, because that's where the boat staff slept...after breakfast everyone checked out of the rooms...the boat then 'drove' through more of the bay, which was again nice and relaxing...after another hour or so, all of us on the 3 day/2 night tour got off the big boat and switched onto a smaller boat...those on the 2 day/1 night tour stayed on the big boat, which then made it's way back to the original port...the smaller boat then went for an hour to cat ba island...it's an island in the bay that has a national park...we got off the boat, and got on bicycles that were conveniently waiting for us...i remembered to check my tires and my brakes before taking off, thank goodness...

the ride went around part of cat ba island, which has it's own national park...the bikes were one speed cruisers, not exactly built for speed...one of the ladies in the group is really into triathlons, and does a lot of riding at home in/around london (she's an aussie) so this bike wasn't exactly up to par...hee hee...there were a few hills, which were probably only challenging because the bikes weren't exactly speedy...our guide paused several times, so no one ever got too out of breath...

 the ride took us through a couple really small villages...surprisingly, as we rode through, no one tried to sell us anything...at least, not that i was aware...that was a nice difference from the rest of the country...who can resist taking a photo of one of the super cute kids we saw? she didn't talk at all, she just looked...

after riding one way, everyone took a break...well, sorta...i didn't feel the need to buy a drink or any food, so i went walking...the ladies i walked with were both aussie, including the one i mentioned previously...this trip was a catch up for them, they hadn't seen each other for three years, though they had both previously worked together at a hospital...they're physio therapists...they get to work out while at work, how awesome is that? the triathlete and i kept getting into discussions about gadgets and races and training in general...

eventually this boat took us to our hotel on cat ba island...i had the choice of staying in a bungalow, which sounded rustic, and during this trip, i was over that...as we dropped off those who had chosen the bungalows, i was glad i had gone for the hotel...the bungalow was on a nice beach, but it was small, and there was no where else to go...the benefit i would've had if i had stayed there would've been a lot more area in which to swim...there wasn't a decent swimming area in cat ba town, which is where my hotel was located...a bay filled with boats...the triathlete did find a small swimming area, but was creeped out by the locals watching her swim, so she was only in the water for 15 minutes...i walked around cat ba town with the other aussie...we strolled through a local market (which was definitely for locals, as no one tried to sell us anything, and we were just stared at more than anything) and of course i spotted a bakery...i think there is some part of my genetic makeup that never misses a bakery...lol...we both bought treats, she shared with the triathlete...i was thinking only of myself, and of course bought more than i should've...lol...

 after the walk/bakery stop/swimming the three of us rested up before dinner...also choosing the hotel were two aussie boys, but they'd spent most of the tour drinking, so we weren't expecting them to be on time...as it turned out, they didn't show up for dinner at all...which was a mistake on their part, as the food was the best of the entire tour...the same 5 or 6 course meal as usual, all of it great food...breakfast the next morning was lovely as well...a buffet with LOTS of options...fruit, rice, porridge, fried eggs, soup, etc...i ate...too much...again...the boys did make it to breakfast:)
after breakfast we checked out, and got back on the boat...just before boarding i bought blueberry ice cream flavoured oreos...i'd seen them around, and just because i thought the flavour sounded interesting, i figured i should try them...oreos aren't something i crave very often, and i wasn't craving them at this point either, but i wanted to try the flavour...they were good...from there, the boat went by to pick up the folks at the bungalows (the three dutch and the two loud americans)...from there we rode about an hour, then transferred to a bigger boat, just like the one we'd been on earlier in the tour...that boat took us back to the original port in halong bay...and from there, we all got back on the bus, and "enjoyed" the ride back to hanoi...over all, i enjoyed the tour, and i'm glad i did it...but halong bay didn't stun me like i expected...i'm probably just jaded...the best part of it all was being on the "roof" of the boat, and just relaxing as it cruised through the bay...soooo nice:)

vietnam 1

our point of arrival in vietnam was a land border crossing...easily the least efficient crossing we've done...as we were on a bus, it was annoying...get off the bus at the cambodian exit, hand our passports to an official...as he called off our names, get back on the bus...ride to the vietnamese immigration side (during which time i guess our passports received the exit stamps from cambodia)...get off the bus, grab all our stuff, go inside the arrivals hall and wait...there were railings set up as if to guide lines, but there were no lines...we just stood around with our stuff and waited until our name was called and we were handed back our passport with the new vietnamese stamp...not all countries need a visa to enter vietnam...japan, and norway are among them...one of the travelers on our bus was from iceland...he was traveling with a norweigan...while in norway (i think they both lived in oslo) the icelandic guy went to the vietnamese embassy to ask if he needed a visa, and they said no...so he didn't get one...well, according to the guys at the border, he did need one...they turned him back and said he had to go back to phnom penh (or sihanoukville) and get a visa!! how awful is that? all of us had been wondering what happens if you show up w/out a visa, and i guess we got our answer...i wonder if he decided it was worth it or not...
anywho, our first city was saigon...the former capital of the republic of south vietnam...(which ceased to exist 30 april 1973)...a crazy city...the largest city in vietnam, with 12 million people...many residents of the city aren't legal, as they don't have proper residence permits...at the end of the war, the new government sent them out into the sticks, but they snuck back and have stayed...but not having the proper permits means they can't own businesses...traffic in saigon is crazy...probably the craziest i've ever seen, and i've seen traffic in a lot of places...it never stops...if you wait for traffic to stop before crossing a street, you'll never get to cross...(on a side note, i did see a chicken cross, without being hit!!)...there are gbillions of motorbikes, usually with more than one person on each bike...
we saw the notre dame cathedral (which has no stained glass windows since they were blown out during the war, the post office (it's huge, and for some odd reason, on a bunch of postcards,) and the war remnants museum...the museum has a few planes and tanks left over from the war, but what is most interesting are all the photos on display...quite a few from photojournalists during the war...of the people involved, the action each day, etc...some are really disturbing...and some just make you stop and stare...there are also photos of victims of toxic chemical poisoning...it's never been proven conclusively that all the toxic chemicals the US dumped on the country during the war have caused the abnormalities, but i'd say the statistics are pretty hard to deny...again, some of the pictures are horrifying, but at the same time, it's hard to look away...
as a city, saigon isn't all that pretty, and there isn't a whole lot to see, but it's great to walk around and soak up the atmosphere...it's the commercial capital of the country...
one day we took a day tour out to see a cao dai temple in tay ninh...cao daism is only followed in southern vietnam, by about 3 million people...it's a combination of confucionism, buddhism, taoism, christianity, and a bit of animism...the temple we saw is the HQ for the religion overall...it's really really colourful...the worshippers are dressed in one of four colours, i'm assuming they are based on rank, though i don't know anything about the religion...most people in white, but also some men in red, blue, or yellow...they have services 4 times a day, we were able to observe some of the noon service...the other half of our day tour was to the tunnels at cu chi...during the war, the villages in the south were often bombed a LOT...so they built tunnels for survival...the viet cong used these tunnels for fighting as well...not too far from saigon, the tunnel network is over 200km long!!...well, it was...in 1968 the US found out about the tunnels (they had wondered why their own soldiers were being shot in their tents in their bases...it turned out that several of the secret entrances were in the bases themselves) and ended up bombing them to smithereens...there is very little left of the original network...there are a few entrances left though, and they're tiny...most foreigners don't fit!! cu chi was one of the hamlets where people lived in the tunnels as well...we got a chance to see some of the booby traps, as well as the chance to go through 50-100m of a rebuilt (and slightly enlarged, though still not big by anyone's definition) tunnel...
after saigon, our destination was mui ne...it's a beach town about 5 hours north of saigon...it's having problems with coastal erosion though...at high tide, the beach doesn't exist anymore in several places...it's set up oddly, at least in comparison to other beach towns...the whole thing is set along one road...which means you end up walking quite a ways to get anywhere...but that's fine...we didn't really go to mui ne to see the beach though...i had read about sand dunes that weren't too far out of town...so one day we hired a motorbike and drove out to see them...the first dunes were red...before we even turned off and parked the bike we were approached by kids wanting us to hire sleds from them...sliding down sand dunes is a lot of fun...fortunately, i had asked what the price should be while back in town, because the first price offered was eight times higher!!! i stuck to my price, and ended up hiring from the girl...she was a sweetheart too...for each slide down, she got me started, and then ran down with me...and dragged me back up the dune for another ride down...very sweet...our second set of dunes were white...much the same, though we didn't slide down these...beautiful, nonetheless...on the way back from the dunes, we got caught in a downpour...we expected it, but still...layna had a poncho, i didn't...ooops...she drove for a while, then i drove...of course, the worst of the rain happened while i was driving...at one point visibility was so bad that i had to pull over to wait it out...i was completely soaked at that point...after it lightened up a bit, i started off again, but between the continued rain and wind, i got cold...very cold...i started shivering, and figured that wasn't a safe thing...so layna and i traded and she drove the rest of the way back...despite being soaked, the day was totally awesome...
that particular day was the first of two holidays in a row in vietnam...that was national liberation day, the day the north vietnamese tanks rolled into saigon, and the south vietnamese government surrendered...as a national holiday, that meant that mui ne was full...we ended up being kicked out of our hotel, and had to find another...we were lucky to find one that wasn't super expensive...it seemed everywhere had at least tripled their prices...our second hotel turned out to be waaaaaaay better than the first though...
after moving hotels, we went for a walk through the fairy stream...it's a regular creek, but along one side of it you can see where all the rains have eroded the rock/sand...beautiful...and being that it was a holiday, there were tons of people out walking with us...we ended up walking with a group of young'uns from phan thiet, a nearby town...they were friendly, and loved taking pictures as much as layna and i do...yay!!!

saigon and the mekong river delta

SAIGON, VIETNAM
korea has two types of holidays...those that fall on the same day every year, and those that follow the lunar calendar, meaning that they change a bit every year...most of the holidays follow a lunar calendar, which means some years have a lot of days off from work, and others have very few..this year, chusok (the korean equivalent to thanksgiving...one of the BIGGEST holidays of the year) fell on thursday, friday and saturday of a week when there was already a holiday on that tuesday...many businesses closed for the whole week, and some were open just on monday...regardless, nearly everyone got a nice vacation...like many other english teachers, i left the country...
the flight to saigon (officially known as ho chi minh city, but still called saigon by locals and southerners in general) was 5 hours...we flew asiana airlines, which seemed pretty nice...each seat had a tv in the back of it, and the person watching the tv got to control it...the passenger got to decide what to watch, and when to start/stop it...i ended up watching two movies, though i can't for the life of me remember what they were...we touched down late late evening, and customs didn't take all that long...we had put some thought into the process, and had made sure we had our visas ahead of time...i wonder what happens when someone shows up w/out a visa? we arrived so late that all we did was take a taxi to the hostel, check in a go to sleep...saigon is two hours behind seoul, so we knew that the time difference would work in our favor and we'd wake up early enough...and sure enough, we did...
coming down to breakfast the next morning was a pleasant surprise...it turned out our hostel provided breakfast free of charge...no major gourmet fare mind you, but decent, nonetheless...baguettes (they're still found all over the country, courtesy of the french colonial influence,) eggs and fruit...after eating, we all pulled out the guidebooks to get an idea of what we wanted to do...ended up deciding to do a walking tour of the city...stepping out on the street was like going back to the seoul summer...very very humid...VERY VERY humid...we started walking, and soon enough came upon our first destination...the war museum...(i don't think that's the exact name, but it escapes me as well)...throughout it's history, vietnam has been invaded countless times...the mongols, the chinese, the french, and others...much to their credit, the vietnamese have always driven back the invaders...the war that so many of us refer to as the vietnam war is referred to in vietnam as the american war...history has always been written by the winners, and in vietnam, america wasn't the winner...(america withdrew, and left the south vietnamese to fight for themselves, which resulted in the north winning the war; as well as the creation of the dream of ho chi minh, a single, united country of vietnam)...many of the captions of the pictures displayed in the museum refer to the american imperialists...during the war, america used chemicals extensively...one of the ways americans tried to make the vietcong easier to find was to defoliate large areas of jungle/forest...the countryside is still recovering from this...the chemicals used to do this were used in massive quantities, (and while no study has conclusively proved this,) and many vietnamese have deformities and other health problems as a result of the chemicals...the pictures in the museum are rather graphic in their displays...also "in" (actually, on the grounds outside the actual building) the museum are several tanks, a plane, and some of the bombs left behind...the tonnage of bombs dropped on vietnam during the war is several times the effect of the nuclear bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki during WWII...a small museum, but pretty interesting to see...it started raining while we were there, so we all took shelter for a little while, and waited until it wasn't a total downpour...the next stop was a church called notre dame...it's a pretty church, (in the style of so many churches in europe) but it's very unusual in that it has no stained glass windows...(the glass that was originally there was all broken during the bombing of WWII) there are windows of course, but they are designs in stone...combined with the rainy weather, it made for a bleak sort of atmosphere...across the street from the church is the main post office...it's big, and has traditional french architecture..we stepped inside and saw that the inside is just as grand as the outside...on the far end was a large portrait of ho chi minh...the man is everywhere...though he had been dead for a few years by the time the war was over he is still very much revered by many vietnamese, (definitely by the government) and is looked upon as the father of the country...next up was the saigon zoo and botanical gardens...we stumbled upon them, and figured "why not?"...tigers, a lion, crocodiles, a FAT hippo, birds, monkeys, rabbits, etc...sadly though, it didn't look as though the animals were cared for in the best manner possible...other than the hippo, they looked too skinny...next to the entrance of the zoo/botanical garden was the history museum (our original destination when we found the zoo)...we walked through, but to be honest, it was all a bit confusing...none of us had made a real effort to study any vietnamese history before the trip, so seeing the entire history of the country in one viewing was a bit much...keeping track of the different dynasties, invading peoples, etc was a bit overwhelming...checking our watches, we decided to try to fit in one more site before heading back to the hostel...i know this sounds like we didn't see much, but keep in mind that we had been moving nonstop for more than 6 hours by this point...we walked toward where we thought a jade pagoda was located...notice that i said "where we thought"...we must've checked the map 20 times...circled an area numerous times...looking at the map it seemed perfectly obvious, but it most certainly was not...anywho, we nearly gave up before finding someone who pointed us in the right direction...for all our searching, it didn't end up being that impressive...quite small, and rather hidden...after finally seeing it, we headed back to the hostel...we tried to figure out how far we had actually walked, but gave up on that, and just figured we had been on the move for way too long...
as one of my traveling companions is vegetarian, (in vietnam this isn't so much of a concern...not like in seoul where it means she basically has to feed herself, since koreans use meat all the time) we found a vegetarian restaurant...i felt like i ordered a lot, and ate a ton, but when the bill came, i owed a whopping $3...i love that!!
after dinner we went to one of the zillion travel/tour agents located around the backpacker area where we were staying...they offer tours to/of all sorts of places...we wanted to go see the tunnels at cu chi, so we signed up...the tour we signed up for was a full day tour, that also included a cao dai temple...
the next day we had to show up at the travel place at 8am for the tour...as is typical just about anywhere in southeast asia, they were running late...we got on the bus, and rode for way too long...we got to the cao dai temple around 1130, just one bus among many...from what we were told, there are several services at this temple during the day, but the noontime service is the most popular for tourists to see...we walked up the stairs, and observed the service...i think our little group was pretty quiet, and didn't take any pictures inside the church, but it seemed like most tourists weren't that polite...i saw many a camera being pulled out and people clicking away...the cao dai temple itself is very very colorful...the service wasn't in a language we understood, so watching the service was more of a way to watch people...
after the service, we hopped back on the bus, and drove to cu chi...cu chi was a small hamlet (wee little village) during the war...the area in which cu chi is located has a LOT of tunnels...these tunnels were built by the north vietnamese during the war, and the north vietnamese soldiers who used them often seemed like ghosts to the american troops...there are many entrances to the tunnels, each one 30 meters from the next...there are tons of entrances, but they were all hidden well, and american troops had a very difficult time finding them...some troops had the job known as being a 'tunnel rat'...that is, they went into the tunnels to find out where they went, and to find the north vietnamese soldiers...death rates for the tunnel rats were really high...some of the entrances were absolutely tiny, i don't know how they got in and out of them so easily...at one point, we were given the opportunity to go through 50 meters of one of the tunnels...our guide warned us that if we went in, we could not turn back and go back out again...the tunnel was too small for turning around...i though that 50 meters wouldn't be so bad...i'm not particularly claustrophobic, but geesh...50 meters is only half a football field...there were no bugs or anything, but moving wasnt so comfortable...we couldn't stand up, but crawling was rough on the knees...some of the soldiers who fought in the war for both sides spent a LOT of time in those tunnels...after my short experience (which probably wasn't nearly as long as it felt) i had a whole new respect, those soldiers were tough...also in this area we saw some of the traps built by the soldiers, they were vicious...camoflaged (sp?) pits with sharpened bamboo poles sticking up from the bottom, doors booby trapped so that when they were opened, bamboo poles swung down and stabbed the entrant...just plain mean...on one end of the area where you get to see the tunnels, there is a shooting range...at this shooting range, they allow you to purchase bullets to use in your choice of their weapons, which include an AK-47 (a weapon produced by the russians, admired by nearly every military person worldwide...they work well and easily, and rarely jam or otherwise break) and an M16...they hand you the bullets and you take them to the area with the guns...standing next to you as you shoot is a vietnamese soldier...though the weapons are held down to some degree, they don't want you making any effort to turn them around and shoot people...after the tunnels and the traps and shooting range, we watched a video, which naturally referred to the american imperialists...interesting to see so much which made americans out to be the bad guys after growing up in the states...after the video it was back on the bus, back to town...dinner in another restaurant, this time a nice thai place...considerably upscale from where we ate the day before, but still comparatively cheap...
the next day was another tour, this time to the mekong delta...after having had our fill of time on a bus the day before, we chose a tour where we got to spend time on several different boats...we rode a bus to my tho, a town on the mekong river, and from there got onto a boat that took us to unicorn island...population 6000, there isn't much there...just people living, no real support services...our guide told us that the people have to go to my tho to get medical services, grocery shop, etc...the people on the island mostly live off the profits made by their bee farms...they sell the honey, and of course the usual assortment of other souvenir gadgets...we saw one of the beehives, and of course the bees were very docile...are they always like that? after trying honey tea (my other companions also go to try rice wine and banana whiskey, and the men in the group were invited to try a snake whiskey...ewwww) we got into canoes, where locals paddled us down the creek, where we switched boats again...back to our first boat, we rode it through a maze of waterways to a little coconut candy factory...we got to see the process of making the candy...very labor intensive...wow...tasty stuff, i think nearly everyone in the group bought some of it...i got the kind that was half coconut, half chocolate...(it was either that or half coconut, half green tea flavor, which has never floated my boat)...after the 'factory' we got back on the boat, and rode it to a little resort, where we ate lunch...typical vietnamese fare, rice, veggies and a piece of meat...(pork)...nothing special, nothing horrid...after lunch we had some free time, so ivan and i rode bikes for a while...i don't think many people in that village see foreigners much, as we were stared at quite a bit...but it was fun, and we had an adventure trying to find our way back...we weren't lost exactly, just missed the turnoff...anywho, after the bikes, we changed boats, this time to a speedboat, which took us all the way back to saigon...a long boat ride, that's for sure...it started raining after a while, so we put the flaps down on the boat...which meant it got a bit more muggy, and we didn't get to see the riverside...but at least it wasn't another bus ride...by the time we got back, paul was feeling really sick...he was really really cold, and nauseous...not good...at dinner that night he ate almost nothing, and left fairly quickly, instead of sitting around and chatting...
the next morning paul was still feeling like crap, so correne, ivan and i figured out our daily plan in an effort to keep him involved...we had already decided to stay in the city...our first stop was a propaganda poster shop we had noticed the previous night...it was full of posters from all the way back to the 1950s...slogans from fighting in the war, to uniting together as one country, to how fabulous communism is, etc...way cool...after the shop, we went back to the hostel to check on paul...he came with us to our next spot, a huge market...correne's birthday was the following monday, so paul wanted to shop, and ivan, correne and i wanted to look around...the market was big, and had just about anything we could want or need...there is a saying: if you can't find it in saigon, then you don't need or want it...in the market we visited, we saw clothes, accessories, food, and a whole lot more...after an hour, paul was feeling worse again, so he went back to the hostel to sleep some more...correne, ivan and i went to a restaurant to eat one of the most traditional vietnamese meals, a bowl of pho...(you could describe it as chicken noodle soup, but way better than campbell's)...yummy stuff, i wish i had been able to eat more...after eating, it was off to the reunification palace...it was at this palace that the republic of vietnam (south vietnam) surrendered to the people's republic of vietnam (north vietnam) at the end of the war...they still use the palace for higher ranking meetings that don't have to be in the capital city of hanoi...we also saw the bunkers underground that had been built to sustain extended bombing, back during the war...i wouldn't not have wanted to spend time down there, it felt like the air wasn't circulating at all...parked in one of the bunkers was one of the cars used by the old south vietnamese president...a mercedes, of course...
after the palace it was back to the hostel, and out for one more dinner...then the usual ritual of packing, getting ready to travel, etc...when we got to the airport we saw notices saying that we wouldn't be allowed to have any liquids in our carryon luggage, much like what the restrictions are in the states in the moment...we conveniently ignored those, and nothing came of it...i have no idea if they are really trying to enforce that policy, or if it was only there for show...who knows...we also ran into the area where you get to pay the airport "service fee"...while it's called a service fee, it's basically an exit fee...$14 per person...it would've been nice had someone mentioned that to us earlier...i'm sure the vietnamese government is raking in the money from that fee...they take US dollars, vietnamese dong, and credit cards...i wonder what happens if you don't have any money or credit cards with you...
a simple flight back, a bus from the airport back to seoul, and resting all day sunday...
fun facts for those of you who have read this far: 1. the vietnamese currency is called dong...$1 is approximately 16,000 dong...it makes you feel rich to have so many zeroes on all the money you are carrying...until you remember that they aren't worth much at all...
2. traffic in saigon is absolutely insane...there are motorbikes everywhere...and traffic never really seems to stop...i can't remember all the streets we crossed weaving in and out of cars/motorbikes/bikes...it made seoul traffic look like a walk in the park...
3. saigon is the largest city in the country, with 10 million people...by contrast, the capital city of hanoi has only 4 million or so...
4. it's easy to tell that there aren't a lot of native english speakers teaching english in vietnam...the guides we had for both our tours spoke very differently from anything i've heard before...it wasn't that it didn't make sense...more like their cadence of speaking was different, and the way they accented the words made it difficult to understand...my traveling partners and i found that if we weren't concentrating on what was being said, then we didn't understand...
5. normally i'm not one for doing tours through a company while traveling...howeva, this time we did two of them simply because what we wanted to see would've been difficult to get to without the prearranged tours...we only had four days total, and we didn't want to spend too much time getting to out of the way places...
anymore i could say? probably, but it's not coming to me at the moment...