Michelle and John: Vietnam HoChiMinh City

Bikes:

Not much different here – except that almost everyone wears a helmet.

We are still seeing massive loads, whole families and animals. Just none of it seems that unusual.

I did, however notice a woman on a bike in massive high heels, and a woman on the very next bike in wellies.

Here there are many stalls on the side of the road, that sell drinks, crisps, sweets etc. I think I saw the entire contents of one of these on the back of a bike - a crate of drinks, and everything else hanging off it.

A big, smelly, crate of fish!

One nearly hit John going down the wrong side of the street.

I’m not online as I write this, so apologies if there is an overlap or a day missing. I’m not entirely sure where we were when we last posted! We have left Cambodia, and are now in Vietnam. We arrived here on Wednesday, when we got to Ho Chi Minh city by bus from Cambodia. The border crossing seemed to be a bit more ordered than the one on the other side of Cambodia, and we got through fairly quick.

It is great being here – we are millionaires. Generally at the ATMs I withdraw 2,000,000 Vietnamese Dong! However it has taken some getting to used to, with all the zeros, as we fast learned in our first taxi trip. We had been told that the dollar was the normal currency here, so that was all we had. The taxi meter read a cool 40,000 dong. I handed the driver $20, and he handed me back a few notes, adding up to about 30,000 dong. I knew that wasn’t right, because there is about 20,000 dong to a dollar. I looked at him and said “I gave you $20” He handed me about the same again – still well under ten dollars change for a two dollar journey. Fortunately John had $2, so we took the twenty back and gave him that instead. I’m guessing the Vietnamese meet a lot of people confused by all the zeros.

And I love the outfits that some of the women wear here. Many of them were these gorgeous long dresses with a slit up both sides, and silk trousers underneath. They look cool and comfortable, with very little skin on display for mosquitos, and yet so very feminine and beautiful. They are mainly chiffon or silk, and they are in lovely colours.

On Wednesday evening we met Karl, a friend of John’s from college. He has been out here since June, teaching English. We gave the Asian food a miss and went out for pizza instead. After the “mixed with duck” of the previous day I was very happy to this. Karl informed us that very recently most businesses had changed back to Dong, because the dollar was weak. He also told us that it’s very difficult to get dollars, as they are only available on the black market. He also informed us the facebook is blocked in Vietnam. He wasn’t sure why – we went on the assumption of the government supressing the people. He said that it could be because the Vietnamese don’t know how to use it, and that they constantly add strangers as friends, with the view of getting to know them online and then becoming friends in real life. (So, if anyone is sending me messages on Facebook I can’t see them. I can however see and reply to comments left on my page, through my email account) On Wednesday we also arranged a tour of the city the next day, and our journey to Hanoi, which is a long one (almost two full days by train).

Our tour of Ho Chi Minh City was quite good. The guide was funny and informative. He told us that in Viet nam, if you have no kids, and are asked the answer is “not yet” or “they are on the waiting list”. Ancestor worship is part of life here, and if you have no children you will not be worshipped in death. He also loved the camera. And by this I mean taking pictures. There were only 5 people on the tour. He offered to take a picture for the girl, and she said no thank you. So he came to us next, and we handed over the camera for the picture. The other couple then handed over their camera for him to take their picture in the same spot. Nothing doing. “ No, you wait here, five minutes, and I will come back”. He then directed us on where to stand, where to look and how to pose for many different shots. He did this in several of the tour locations. I reckon we easily have more pictures of the two of us together from this one day, than the rest of the trip put together. (including the “romantical” pictures he took). He also informed us that in Vietnam if you have a bike, you have one girlfriend, if you have a car, you have four girlfriends. But if you have no bike and no car, you have no girlfriend. And to be a good citizen, you must have one official wife, whtever that meant.

The stops of the tour included a few temples, a chinese tea shop, the Central Post Office, the Notre Dame cathedral (our first catholic church in a while, and it had a statue of St Patricks), a market, the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants museum. Some of what went on during the “American War” is absolutely horrific, particularly the use of Orange Agent, a very harmful chemical which was sprayed liberally. We also visited a workshop where they had disabled people working, making pictures using eggshells and seashells. Some of the pieces were very beautiful.

We spent the evening in a coffee shop, where we were approached by a few people selling stuff. We ended up adding a lot of weight to our baggage buying counterfeit books! (Something I wasn’t even aware existed!) We moved on to get some dinner, and one of the booksellers came into the restaurant. She recognised us, and laughed when we said no. At least she didn’t hang around trying to convince us to buy more.

Thursday night was our first experience of a sleeper bus. We have bought an open ticket to Hanoi, meaning that we can get off at a stop and stay for a while and then get the next bus. To put it mildly, it was a very bouncy experience, with several instances of us being bounced right up off our (very narrow, hardish) beds. We slept ok. Not great, but not as bad as I had expected.

We arrived in Nha Trang the following morning. Nha Trang is a beach town, and it really does have a beautiful beach. Unfortunately we didn’t get very beachy weather. We stayed here for one night ($8, including air con!). Yesterday we did a tour of the town. We ended up being the only people on the tour, and the guide was lovely. Because the weather was bad we skipped the beach part, but he brought us some other places instead. We went to the aquarium, where in spite of the many aqauriums we have visited, we still saw quite a few fish we haven’t seen before. He brought us to the market, where he showed us an alcoholic drink, that is taken to make the men stronger. Some of these had dried seahorses in them, while others had cobras and scorpions. He said that he doesn’t drink them himself. I don’t blame him. We also saw a restored old temple, and another Catholic church. (Two in two days!). I also managed to get breakfast cereal for the first time in a long time.

Today our plan had been to sleep in (Which between catching buses, and going on tours we haven’t done in a long time, and probably won’t do again until we are home!), and then to go to the beach. Unfortunately it was raining so we went to a mineral spa instead. We spend the day sitting in warm muck, and then in a heart shaped hot tub filled with mineral water. We stood under a hot waterfall for a while, and swam in the warmest pool I’ve ever been in. It was lovely! We are currently on a night bus (our second in three days) on the way to Noi An. Hope to get some sleep tonight. So far it doesn’t seem quite so bouncy.