Our 3 months in Vietnam was nearing its end but before answering the Kingdom of Cambodia's call, my brother Luke was flying out to visit us for around 2 weeks!
The bus to the financial capital of Vietnam was pretty much a 5 hour straight shot (after it was loaded up with everything from bananas to motorbikes), arriving in Ho Chi Minh was chaos and utter pandemonium! Motorbikes galore, like wasps buzzing around in every which direction, even the pavement wasn't pedestrian friendly! We were dumped off outside a tour office and after clambering over dozens of parcels we retrieved our bags. The humidity in comparison to Mui Ne was nearing on unbearable, the air felt thicker and with the population being over a dense 9 million, added with scorching sunshine and in your face humidity, it felt like we were in a tropical snow globe! The city streets did however kept you on your toes, simple tasks like popping to the shops would be a risky, eventful adventure!
We were in District 1, the backpacker area where we found a room pretty much straight away, we had a couple of days to scope out a few things before my brother arrived!
Firstly we checked out the Notre-Dame Basilica, it was weird to see such a structure with Romanesque architecture in the middle of Saigon's madness (we found Ho Chi Minh was much busier than Hanoi, and the capital was Bedlam)! Our little D.I.Y tour also included Ben Thành Market (usual souvenirs, food and general tat just on a larger scale) and the Central Post Office, built around the same time as the Basilica late in the 19th century, it is still a functioning post office today! Inside reminded us of a mini Grand Central station, there were many paintings and statues dotted around, the large clock outside gave the place a black and white film set feeling (despite the masses of Chinese tourists). Lastly we ventured to the river and the financial tower which made for some good pictures, it was also a lot quieter in this richer part of the city!
After a couple of days exploring, it was time to meet my brother. We woke up around 4am and jumped in a taxi, it was only a short ride to the airport. We were waiting for around 30 minutes before Luke bowled through arrivals, it was great to see a familiar face, we hadn't seen him for 6 months, but after 5 minutes of catching up, it was like we'd seen each other the day before! We grabbed a cab back to the city centre (the city parks were busy with early morning runners, badminton players, group yoga sessions and older folks giving their all on body weight exercise machines), we had pre-booked a room for Luke a few doors down from our place. We went through the messy reception area (the family lived on the ground floor, there were bicycles, kids toys, shoes, old T.V's, a load of junk everywhere!), the room looked a lot different online, the room was a shoe box, solitary confinement prison style, no windows and an all round miserable room! After tackling the Mount Everest sized language barrier we managed to cancel the booking! Luckily Luke was able to get a room in our guesthouse, not the most attractive place, but at least it had windows!
War Remnants Museum
After some food, we opted to walk through the bustling streets to the War Remnants Museum, 20 minutes of ducking, diving and waiting for traffic and we saw a Chinook helicopter through the trees! We paid the whopping £0.30 entrance fee and began with the remnants outside. Tanks, aircraft's, artillery, helicopters and other seized military vehicles, they're interesting to look at yet a little intimidating, simply because they're huge and probably been used to kill people!
The grounds outside showed how the area was used as a detention centre. Prison cells (similar to the room we booked for Luke), torture rooms with mannequins and facts about the methods used, as well as bats lining the ceilings it was an gruesome yet intriguing start to the Museum. The museum (with much appreciated air conditioning) inside was 4 floors, each one depicted different parts of the war. There were thousands of photographs, weapons and uniforms from both sides, storyboards, timelines and lots of information placards along with other remnants. The hardest hitting part of the place was the agent orange (a chemical used by the U.S to kill crops but had serious side effects to people that were exposed!), room, like the other rooms it had lots of information and hundreds of pictures however the photos here were shocking! The war never ended for these victims, birth defects and cancer to this day are to name a few long term effects of the chemical spaying missions. The potent images were graphic and hard hitting! The whole museum was fascinating and a real eye opener, really showed in detail the struggles and the hell the Vietnamese people went through during this tragic time! It was heavily anti American (one distraught Vietnamese man spoke to us saying about how evil the Americans were, then asked us where we were from. I feel like if we said we were from America he would've throttled us!) display with propaganda everywhere, But it was a riveting history lesson!
Cu Chi Tunnels
The next day, with Luke feeling fully functional after a sleepless long haul flight, we decided to get out of the city for the day, we decided to head to another war themed attraction, the immense tunnel network of Cu Chi! 40 minutes of our mini bus battling the bustling roads getting out of the city and it was lush green countryside and iconic scenes of farmers in leaf hats hoeing rice paddies, it was great to leave the madness for a while! It took about an hour and a half to reach the tunnels. Stepping out of the mini bus the heat basically punched us in the face, the air seemed lighter, less hazy and because of this but the sun was a lot brighter and seemed to be burning our skin instantly!
'A plough in one had, and a rifle in the other' .
A quote taken from fathers raising children during the war.
Built over a period of 25 years, the network of tunnels spans over 250 kilometres, as far as the Cambodian boarder, impressive and desperate measures to defend their country, especially as the tunnels were dug with simple tools and by hand!
The tour began with the guide taking us to what seemed like an area of un-raked leaves under a tree, he brushed some aside revealing a tiny square hatch (maybe 1ft in width and length!), he explained what life in the tunnels was like for the Viet Cong, how difficult and dire the conditions were. He told us that malaria was rife throughout the area, and that the troops would either dig or sleep during the day and fight/farm during the night! We were allowed to climb in to the entrance of the tunnel, me and Luke chose to squeeze ourselves in. It was a real struggle to wiggle in to the crawl space, the air was a lot cooler once you were inside however you have almost no space to move, and when the guide placed the hatch back on, it was pitch black and I rapidly became restless in the confined space (I was in the entrance for less than 30 seconds), I've never been buried alive but I bet that it feels similar to that! To live and fight a war in those conditions is an unreal concept to think about!
Booby Traps, we were walked through a number of different contraptions used by Northern Vietnamese troops, most used in the jungles but some were used inside the tunnels to kill off specially trained U.S 'tunnel rats' (volunteers who were sent into the tunnels with only a gun, a knife, a torch and string to try map out the tunnels and corner the Viet Cong!). Swinging spike balls, landmines, death doors, bear type traps and snake pits are just a few of the vicious but effective traps used, each one was demonstrated by a member of staff and each one made you wince at the thought of being caught in one! Our group of around 12 were also taught about other techniques and how resourceful the people of the area were, simple but incredibly effective techniques like wearing shoes that were made back to front, so that enemy soldiers would be lead the wrong way, and how they re-used shell casings, literally using anything and everything available for combat!
In the distance we could hear the odd gunshot going off, located a short walk from the main visitors area was a shooting range with the choice to fire either an M16 or an AK47, as much as we wanted to shoot one it was a little out of our price range, however Luke chose to fire 10 rounds with a trusty AK47. The noise of just one shot with ear defenders on was almost unbearably loud, an actual gun fight would've been deafening, it's scary to think how frightening war is! Luke said the AK47 had quite a kick to it, however after a couple of shots of the rifle, it was easy to handle the recoil plus it was a good buzz and another tick off the list!
By this time, the early afternoon sun was pounding down and everyone was uncomfortably sweaty, we were offered refreshment in the form of hot green tea and the type of snack eaten by the Viet Cong a tapioca, it was like a bland white potato served with crushed nuts, it was pretty tasteless but full of carbs and well received! With the tour nearing it's end we were led to a larger entrance of a tunnel, we were allowed to go through one whole section (after receiving a few safety precautions), the narrow tunnel was dimly lit and the 100 metre cramped passage was a nightmare to scramble through (made harder by wearing backpacks!), but good fun!
The tour ended with a some black and white footage on a small T.V of the Vietnamese working in the fields, on the tunnels and showing their struggles though the war! The trip was again one sided but amazing value for money and gave an intense, interesting and incredible insight to what life was like during this dark period, you can't help but admire their resilience, determination and the smart guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong!
Mekong Delta River Tour
We used the same place to book up all of our tours and taxis, a well dressed eccentric guy with a loud, high pitched voice, he reminded us of Chang from the Hangover films, he had us chuckling even with passing greetings and encounters!
For our final day we again decided to leave the frienzied financial capital of Vietnam. We booked up a day trip on the Mekong River!
There was around 15 of us on the mini bus heading out of the sizzling hot city streets, again it took around 40 minutes to get through traffic and into the countryside. Sticking to the Asian way of regular stops whilst driving, around an hour in we stopped at stupa complex, normally the drivers stop in the middle of nowhere, however this time the stop was well worth it, we had 30 minutes to stretch our legs and explore. Intricate temples, large impressive statues and beautiful gardens this little pit stop was a good start to the day and well worth a visit!
A short drive and we were at a small dockyard on the world's 12th largest river, the Mekong! Traditional long tail boats chugging along the brown waters with palms along the banks trees swaying and the cool breeze, it was brilliant to soak in the fabled countryside! We were ushered through a market place (souvenirs and other novelties as expected!) and bundled aboard a long boat, a puff of black smoke and the river tour commenced! The full day tour promised three different islands.
20 minutes of drifting across the slow moving water and learning some facts about the river we landed at the first port of call, Coconut Island. An area overwhelmed with spherical goodness, everything on this isle was made from coconuts (apart from the crocodile leather products), they were demonstrating and selling everything from ice cream and sweets to kitchen utensils. It was great to see the imaginative and crafty techniques used to earn a living on the river!
40 minutes and some ice cold coconut juice later, we returned to the boat (the sound and appearance of the boats along with the surroundings reminded us of Rambo 4). Cruising along the vast Mekong in certain areas felt we was on an ocean, there must be absolute monster fish lurking beneath!
Next up was lunch (included), we were ferried to a larger island and were seated under a large bamboo, grass roofed structure, the food was a skimpy but tasty portion of vegetable spring rolls, rice, fried vegetables and chicken. There were extras you could buy like Jurassic looking whole fish but they were expensive! We were giving an hour and a half (strict schedule) to wander around the larger island. It was a great place to relax, plus it was covered in shade thanks to the towering trees, a nice retreat from the baking sun! Other than little walking trails through the jungle, ponds and areas with dozens of hammocks, there was pretty much only one other thing to see, crocodiles, lots of them! Scores of the snappy fellas bundled on top of each other with most of them statue like, with jaws open looking creepy and menacing! They sold chunks of raw meat to feed the lifeless looking reptiles! Luke brought some and dangled the meat over the crocodile pit, it didn't take long before the stillness in the area changed, some, not all of the crocodiles casually scrambled over to the bait, once they were in striking distance they waited with their jaws open and eyes fixated on the meat, anticipation was building as they waited for quite a while before launching themselves, demonstrating devastating power and tearing off the meat from the string! It's crazy to see something look so set in stone, to then just erupt in to life with such ferociousness, the scaly beasts most definitely possess scary attributes!
Once again we climbed back on to the boat and headed towards the final island. It didn't take long to reach the last stop, after mooring up we were taken to a small seating area. Each table had 3 members of staff, they served us locally harvested sweet honey tea with lime, which tasted amazing, 2 cups later and the staff offered us to buy some honey but it was a bit pricey for us and unpractical to carry in our backpacks (no money, no honey). The next stage of the tour was a unexpected but a pleasant surprise, a series of live, traditional Vietnamese folk music performances, ranging from two old boys on guitars to teenagers singing with tinny sounding stereo systems and microphones, large plates of fruit were placed on tables to gorge on whilst watching the performances. It was an entertaining half an hour, some of the acts had decent voices. Feeling fully refreshed after the fruits, we were lead (the tour was pretty non stop) through a jungle pathway to a dusty clearing where hot, bothered and skinny looking horses with six seater carriages resting on their backs were waiting!
We climbed in the carriages and we were taken on a 10 minute trot through a rustic village (the authenticity was a little spoiled by the constant presence of motorbikes), the ride seemed a bit pointless plus we felt guilty because of the heat the small horses had to deal with, nevertheless it was an experience.
Lastly we proceeded to a rickety pier, the makeshift bamboo steps were a risky decent! The narrow canal was alive with dozens of small row boats all controlled by old ladies in leaf hats (and few teeth)! The canal was enclosed by trees like a natural tunnel, the short ride (with fingers inside the boat) was incredibly authentic and picturesque, so many colours from the lush green leaves to the brown of the river, the beige of pointed leaf hats, to all the different colours of everyone's clothes, it was truly a beautiful scene!
The day was action packed, it was crazy how much they packed in yet it didn't feel rushed at all! It gave a great insight to life on the Mekong and how the local make a living off the land! A truly authentic and a great day all round, apart from the journey back where we stopped off at an industrial estate to see a silk factory, a lame end to a fantastic tour!
Our evenings in Ho Chi Minh were spent dining on some good food (mostly with a rowdy bird that belonged to a waiter, the parrot like bird would wander around the restaurant pecking people), several beers and just chilling out and catching up after the 3 busy days spent in Ho Chi Minh and it's surrounding areas. One of the nights there was a big commotion in our guesthouse, on each floor there was three rooms, me and Kirsty had one room and Luke was next door to us, in the third room, someone had committed suicide! The staff were standing around a little shook up and at first they wouldn't talk to us but we later found out what had happened! It was a strange feeling to be staying so close to where someone had died.
After 3 non stop days in the South of Vietnam we were eager to leave the chaos of the city. The next day we hailed a taxi and headed to the airport. For the remainder of Luke's visit we decided to head to Central Vietnam to Hoi An, to get in some beach time and explore the surrounding areas on motorbike!
