Vietnam and Cambodia and then Vietnam Again Part 2

The 22nd we set out on the bus to the outskirts of Saigon. Our crooner (video later) of a guide, Linh, shared a little about his history. Apparently, his father was a captain in the South Vietnamese army. When then North took control, they sent all members of the South Vietnamese army (and probably police) to "reeducation" camps. The higher up in rank, the more time in the camps. Linh's father spent 8 years doing manual labor. Linh also told us that because his father was a captain, Linh is not able to join the communist party. If Linh has children, they too will not be able to join the communist party -- three generations removed is the rule. So in spite of his university degree he isn't able to easily get a government job (as most are in Vietnam). Hence why he is a tour operator and not a chemist.

When the bus stopped we met our bikes as well as the truck driver, and a man who would only be known mysteriously as "The Mechanic" like in some sort of Sergio Leone spaghetti western. We would ride for about 20km to the Cu Chi tunnels and get to short tour of that area. The short ride was mostly to get fitted for our bikes. Despite being on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, there was still an abundance of traffic, mostly motorbikes, but the occasional person on a bicycle. Our first and only break on the ride was at a rubber tree farm. They basically shave off a piece of the bark and the rubber (white in colour) slowly oozes out of the tree filling up a cup.

We arrived on our bikes at what looked like a theme park with many large air conditioned buses parked out front. These were the Cu Chi Tunnels, at least those open to the public. There are over a hundred kilometers of tunnels in the area, consisting of three levels, each going deeper. The Americans tried to bomb and destroy the tunnels, but they were extremely difficult to find. After a brief indoctrination video that looked like it was produced in the 1960s with a camera from the 1920s, we were taken to the different exhibits. Some demonstrated the boobytraps that were set up by the Viet Cong, others the entrances to the tunnels. In true Disney-fashion they even had exhibits with animatronic Vietnamese soldiers working as blacksmiths extracting gun powder from unexploded bombs. The coup de grace of course were the tunnels that have been reinforced for the tourists to enter. The first stage has been enlarged for westerners, the second stage, only slightly enlarged, and the third stage was just the way it was. Jenni went through all three, but David dropped out after the first stage. Even though they had been enlarged, it was all on hands and knees for David. One cannot help but admire the ingenuity and tenacity that went into buidling and maintaining the tunnels.

For ventilation they used termite mounds, simply punching a whole in them.

Trap door with spikes at the bottom.

Jenni getting into the tunnel.


You could pay to go fire an M-16 at the "National Defence Sports Shooting Range."



Video inside the tunnels.



After a fast-paced 10km ride after the tunnels, suggested by none other than Jenni :), we headed back to Saigon. The rest of the evening/afternoon was free for everyone. We went to a dingy little Indian Restaurant that had dingy Indian food that wasn't too bad.

Last view of Saigon traffic:


The 23rd we left Saigon for the Mekong Delta. We drove for about two hours before biking, stopping at a Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is a religion that was established in 1926 in South Vietnam. It is a mixture of a number of different religions including Christianity and Buddhism, and Victor Hugo is considered a saint. So there you go...We're sure Caodaiists appreciate the detailed summary we have just given their religion. Don't be alarmed by the Swastikas. You see them all over Buddhist countries, and were an important symbol long before the Nazis ruined it.

While the roadside duck was a tempting offer, we had a schedule to keep and 50-60 km to cover on the bikes. This was perhaps the busiest day of the tour. Our biking crossed terrains that varied as widely as busy paved roads to roads made entirely of sand. We crossed many tributaries of the Mekong either by bridge our little ferry boats. Eventually, we loaded our bikes onto a diesel powered boat that took us along the Mekong for lunch.

"The Mechanic"
Lunch was a 4 course meal that included Elephant Ear fish.

After lunch we got back on the boat, and did a short tour along the Mekong to a small stretch of land where they make coconut candies, and poprice. Poprice is just like popcorn, only with rice. When the rice has been "popped" they mix it with caramel, and it is sort of like a rice crispy treat. They use the rice husk to fuel the fires for both the coconut candies and poprice. We then took the boats past the floating market, which was a cluster of various sized boats. Each boat had a particular item hanging on the outside which designated what they sold.

Poprice popping...

Along the Mekong and the floating markets.

Each house had a TV Antenna sticking out of it.

At the end of the floating market we met three row boats that took us through the narrower and shallower channels of the Mekong. There are thousands of little islands in the mouth of the Mekong. As we boarded these tiny rafts, we were give the traditional Vietnamese conical shaped hat to wear and keep the sun out of our eyes (at least that's what we were told). The we were taken along the little channel past people's homes. Our guide, Linh, serenaded us with traditional Vietnamese songs about the Mekong as we jerkily navigated the river. It lasted a bit too long for David, given his aversion to boats of all sizes, but he survived. And as we got back into our larger boat next to the bikes, the friendly rowboaters pulled out their engines and sped back through the channel.





Much to David's relief we finally left the boats behind and took our bikes on to one of the islands. This was probably the best biking we did on the whole trip as we navigated through the back roads of these little houses, barely wide enough for a person let alone 7 bikes, crossing small arched bridges. In a shocking turn of events, David was cycling in front of Jenni (a rarity) when we hit a steep slope where Jenni came off her bike. David turned to see Jenni standing there having nearly been dunked in the Mekong. We eventually reached our Homestay in one piece as the light had just faded away. It was a lovely little place with one big communal room. Dinner was excellent and well-received, and slowly we all left the table at different times and fell asleep on our cots.

Vietnam and Cambodia and then Vietnam Again Part 1

For our summer holidays we decided to take a trip around Southeast Asia. We signed up with Peregrine tours for a cycling trip from Saigon, Vietnam to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The cycling lasted 12 days, and from there we went to Singapore took the train up to Kuala Lumpur and then back to Singapore for our flight home.


We arrived in Hồ Chí Minh City (Sài Gòn) on December 19th, 2008, a couple of days before the tour started. We were greeted at the airport by someone we presumed worked for Peregrine. "Hey he has our names on a piece of paper, let's go with him!" He spoke English we couldn't understand and giggled a lot, to which we responded by giggling also, but got us to the right hotel and was very nice. The night time drive through the streets was an adventure. As we found out later, Saigon has 8 million people with 3.5 million motorbikes/scooters. While most countries drive on either the left or the right side, Vietnam has developed a Mostly Right side system where, regardless of oncoming traffic, you are allowed to leave your side of the road to pass. Since it was late by the time we got in, we went straight to bed.

The 20th we ventured out to the buffet style breakfast and navigated the noodles and Froot Loops in order to fuel ourselves for the adventure. Jenni tried to console David when the ran out of American-style bacon before he got there, "There's always tomorrow." Our first test was to learn how to cross the streets. The traffic doesn't stop unless there is a red light (and these are a rarity), and really then it's just the majority of the traffic that stops. A delicate balance between pedestrians and scooters has been worked out where if the pedestrian moves at a constant slow rate across the street the scooters and cars will try to avoid them. The key is to keep moving. Our first stop was a food market that was just down the street from the Vien Dong hotel on Ph. Ngu Lao. You could find a whole range of Vietnamese items, from frogs to noodles.

From there we made our way through the streets to the Reunification palace. This was the former "white house" of the South Vietnamese dictator/prime minister and since has turned into a symbol of the unification of North and South Vietnam after 1975. It is used for official business still, but probably mostly a tourist destination. There are two basement levels with at least 4 foot thick concrete walls that served as a bomb shelter. The prime minister lived and worked there throughout the war.

This Excitation Meter must have been broken, because we were way more excited than 0.

After the palace, we went to the Binh Tanh market, which is a big mass of tiny little shops that sold everything from novelty t-shirts, knock off watches, to fish. It was like a maze that would be the envy of any casino designer in the world. Across the street from the market was some weird Heineken Christmas display. In fact, almost every store and hotel had some sort of christmas display. All of them with a snow theme...Seems odd for a country that is 80% Budhist.


Back at the hotel, Jenni went to the hotel "spa" for a simple foot message. Here's her account: After some nasty looks from the male patrons sipping tea in the waiting area, I was ushered down a corridor of candlelit private rooms and into a large, also dimly lit room with several recliner chairs. Some men were sitting and drinking the water and tea already provided, their feet being massaged by young women. While the Lonely Planet had described SE Asia as a conservatively dressed country, these women all had on short shorts and tank tops. I was then given a pair of silk shorts to change into by probably the only male masseuse on duty that evening and ushered to the "female" changing room - a storage closet. The "foot" part of the massage description was misleading and challenged my knowledge of human anatomy. I hadn't realized the foot extends all the way to the upper thigh. When the massage ended the masseur said, "Are you sure all you want is a massage." To which I quickly responded, "Yes..." despite my curiosity as to what else he would offer. Apparently my experience wasn't unique. Another woman on the tour also had a foot massage, which she described as a bit more intimate than she had anticipated. And another man in our group, when he went in for a late night massage, was asked if he wanted one girl or two. He made it clear he just wanted a massage, which apparently was a waste of time because they talked him into a facial instead. As we came to learn, massage parlors are everywhere in SE Asia and mostly frequented by Asian businessmen. It helps to specify that you want a "tourist massage," meaning a massage without "perks" or "happy endings."

For our first dinner in Vietnam, we did what every tourist does and went out for Mexican. The salsa was quite good, although the dishes were a little plain. It was interesting to see the take on Mexican with Vietnamese ingredients.

The 21st was the official start of the tour, but we weren't meeting the group till that evening. So we walked to the War Remnants Museum. This museum is interesting on many different levels, from the many photographs of the war to visiting a museum from the perspective of the (North) Vietnamese. It provided a lot of information, and was really no more biased than any country would be regarding its own wars. Many sections were very graphic, especially the Agent Orange area (which not only showed the impact on the multiple generations of Vietnamese but also U.S. / Australian Service Men/Women after 1975). They also had replicas of the prisons where political prisoners were held by the South Vietnamese government. Most of the blame seem to be directed towards the ex South Vietnamese Government, the Americans, and to a lesser extent the French, leaving one with the impression everything was hunky-dory when North, Central, and South were reunited. Regardless, this was a powerful museum to see and was akin to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.. It was difficult not to draw comparisons between the current Iraq war and the Vietnam War - determined entrenched soldiers, bombing supply lines in neighboring countries, or a lack of a clear justifications...

After the Museum, Jenni decided she wanted to see the U.S. Embassy which wasn't too far away. We stopped in front of the U.S. Seal and Jenni pulled out her camera. Immediately the armed Vietnamese guard blew his whistle and indicated that we weren't allowed to take pictures. Jenni decided she would attempt to look sad and "argue" with the guard, David said "Probably shouldn't argue with an 18 year old carrying a semi-automatic rifle."

We meandered our way through the more upscale neighborhoods closer to the Saigon river where the Continental Hotel (from Greene's "Quiet American") is, and then back to our Hotel for a group dinner with the other 7 members of the trip with our intrepid leader, Linh.

Here's a video of crossing a Saigon street: