After our full day of sightseeing, we had two more days and nights in Ho Chi Minh City. On our second day we had booked a full day tour with our hotel, to the Mekong Delta (Vietnamese for Nine Dragon river delta). This river is actually huge, so it's impossible to actually boat around the place in a single day - this tour simply gives you a feel for the area.
The tour started off like many of the upcoming tours would: we got picked up at our hotel by a guide in a mini bus, trawled around a few more hotels to pick up the rest of the guests, then started the two hour drive down towards where we would eventually access the delta. Our guide, whose English name is Tommy, was actually quite charismatic, very chatty and spoke English quite well. He liked to attract our attention throughout the day by yelling out 'Tommy Tommy' - I will never forget this guy. Funnily enough, we encountered him the next day as well when on our next tour, but I'll get to that later.
As with all the tours, we stopped for a rest stop en route, this time at Mekong Tram Dung, which is has beautiful gardens and ponds filled with lotus flowers. Mum and I picked up our Vietnamese hats (paddy hats) at this place, and thoroughly enjoyed wearing them the rest of the day (Note that we did not enjoy carrying these beasts around on all our subsequent flights and trips).
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| One of many beautiful lotus flowers |
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| A sea of lotus plants |
We finally arrived at My Tho, which sits on a branch of the delta called Tien River, which is where we prepared to embark on our motor boat (check our the pictures). There are four large islands in that region, called Unicorn Island (Con Lan), Dragon Island (Con Tan Long), Turtle Island (Con Qui) and Phoenix Island (Con Phung). Interestingly, these four animals are also the sacred animals of Vietnam. We set off for Unicorn Island, and started the tour with a visit to the Bee Farm. This is where they produce lychee honey, using the worker bees, and Royal Jelly, using the Queen bee. After showing us the bees, they sat us down at tables and prepared us Lychee Honey Tea, which was delicious!! They also set out some plates of sesame seed snacks and dried fruits, and then of course after we had eaten and drunk our fill, they tried to sell us honey and jelly. We didn't buy any in the end, but I'm kind of regretting it - that honey was amazing!!
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| Mum posing in front of river |
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| One of these was the boat we spent the day on |
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| I got to put my finger on this frame and lick the fresh honey! |
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| One of the bee frames |
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This fruit is amazing
- they grow on the bottom of trees! |
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| Lots of fresh fruit just for us!! |
After the honey experience, we got back on the boat and they took us to another part of the island, where we were going to experience some traditional Vietnamese singing. They took us through a small area filled with people selling souvenirs, and then they sat us down at some more tables where we were once again presented with green tea and some fruit which is currently in season in the area. The fruit was beautifully fresh, and the pineapple was especially delicious, but there's only so much fruit I can eat! The Vietnamese singers moved between the tables and were actually quite funny: I didn't realise the 'Hokey Cokey' was a Vietnamese song but they were certainly singing that song! To be honest I would have preferred it if they had sung traditional Vietnamese songs, but this place was extremely commercialised so I'm not surprised they didn't.
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| Rowing Boats |
They then arranged a new form of transport for us to get back to the boat. We walked over the island until we came to a small canal type river flowing through the island. Here they had a host of four-person rowing boats, which we got into to enjoy a fast paced trip back down to the Mekong. Bear in mind that it was about 35 degrees out here - I found it incredible that the people rowing these boats don't pass out from a combination of exhaustion and dehydration!! I really enjoyed this experience though - the boats are quite small and you're going quite fast while practically touching the water. Word of advice, keep all body parts inside the boat!!! There are rowing boats coming back in the opposite direction, and they do have a tendency to bash against each other.
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| My own personal rowing lady |
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| Boating along in my paddy hat |
There was then even more to do before lunch. We went to a coconut candy making workshop, where Tommy showed us how they extract the coconut juice and flesh from the fruit, and the process of turning it into candy. It's an incredible convoluted process and you do need a lot of coconuts to extract even a small amount (no worries - they're in good supply in Vietnam). Of course we got to taste some of the resultant candies and spend some time shopping for them - quite nice actually.
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| Breaking open the coconut |
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| Extracting coconut flesh |
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| Our horse and carriage |
We then had to cross the island for lunch, so naturally it was time for a new mode of transportation, this time pony and carriage. This was great fun, and the pony travelled along at a pretty rapid pace, especially considering it was pulling five passengers and the horses there are pretty small. We nearly got into a collision with other horses and carriages a couple of times, but eventually we made it to the little outdoor restaurant where we were to have lunch.
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| Elephant ear fish |
Lunch was an interesting experience. It was included in the tour price, so naturally Tommy showed us what we were getting when we got to the restaurant: this rather crappy looking plate of rice and pork. Of course we had the option to order from the menu, which contained this rather alarming array of overpriced weird meats. These included but were not limited to fried elephant ear fish, crocodile and rabbit. We decided to stick to the prepaid lunch but a group of girls from Singapore who were in our group ordered the fish, which is supposedly a delicacy of the Mekong Delta. This is prepared in a really interesting way: they deep fry the whole fish, place it on the table in its full form and then they take bits of the fish, wrap it up spring roll style in rice paper and chow down!!
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| Eating lunch by the river |
After lunch we had some free time, so we wandered around the restaurant and relaxed in the hammocks. A brilliant way to enjoy the sun actually, and we were pretty full :D
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| Exploring the restaurant |
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Digesting lunch. Shame I didn't film her
trying to get off this thing!! |
After lunch we went on yet another boat that took us to our main boat, and then we made it back to the bus and set off back for HCMC. We were pretty knackered by this point, and most people fell asleep on the way back. We got back to the hotel around 5pm, and I relaxed for a bit, while mum went back to Ben Thanh market to get a bit more shopping done. Shocker!!
For dinner that night we went to a place that I had seen some pretty good reviews for. It's called Nha Hang Ngon (mouthful huh?) and I thoroughly recommend it. It's a massive restaurant, continuously full of both locals and tourists, and the amazing thing about it is the stalls surrounding the restaurant walls, where people cook the food. The menu is huge, and the idea is to go amongst the stalls, choose the food you like the look of and get the cooks to write it down for you on a menu pad. Then they deliver the food to your table. This was totally awesome: we ordered a bunch of traditional Vietnamese dishes including pork meatball (wrap-your-own in rice paper) spring rolls, chilli and salted chicken, vietnamese pork spring rolls and Banh Xeo, which looks like a weird omelette wrapped around prawns and pork (this was presented so beautifully!!!). I later found out that although the latter dish looks like an omelette, it isn't actually as it doesn't contain any egg!!
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| Pork spring rolls |
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| chilli chicken thighs, with a chilli salt |
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| Prawn and pork Banh Xeo |
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Post dinner pose :D
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The next day was our last day in Saigon, and once again we had to get up early, as we were going on a half day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. This is an immense network of underground tunnels so-called because they are located in the Cu Chi district of HCMC, and were an important part of the Vietnam war, because they were used as hiding spots by the Viet Cong, as well as communication and supply routes, hospitals and actual living space! We had heard that this was a 'must-do' tour in Saigon, and having done it, I completely agree!
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| One of my favourite duck egg shell pictures |
Once again we had a two hour drive to get to this place. We got picked up at our hotel, introduced to our group and tour guide, heard all the same jokes made all over again (tour guides must go to tour guide school together) and got on our way. This time, our rest stop was at a factory run by the government for people with disabilities. These sort of places are quite common in Vietnam - I believe they were created as a way to create employment particularly for people suffering the after effects of Agent Orange. Two things struck me about this place: first the toilets were absolutely foul and made it onto my list of top ten worst toilets I've ever encountered (Quite a few toilets in Vietnam, and one particularly foul place in Malaysia, made it onto this list during the holiday...but I digress). The second, and more important, thing that struck me was the amazing amount of skill displayed by the people working at this factory. Chiefly they produce pictures made out of duck egg shell, a process that they demonstrated to us as we walked along. They take tiny shards of these shells and fix them into place to make the most beautifully textured and colourful paintings. I would have loved to buy a few, but knew that carrying them around for the rest of my journey would have been impossible. However, you have to admire the resourcefulness of these people - I can't imagine ever having the sort of skills and particularly patience that they demonstrated!
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| Testing out a hidden entrance to the tunnels |
We eventually made it to Cu Chi, and began our day of hiking about. It's a massive open space, filled with young trees (nothing old because it was massively bombed in the war), many MANY giant millipedes, and the tunnels. I've been in tunnels and caves before but this was so different: the Vietnamese carved this intricate warren during the war and continued to expand them throughout. They exist on multiple levels underground, with hidden spaces and walls placed tactically throughout to aid them in their resistance against the Americans. The entrances are found in many locations, but are very small and well camouflaged by flaps in the ground and leaves. Mummy got a bit jealous when she saw a couple of children and a skinny adult take a picture getting into one of the entrances; she then decided she wanted a picture of her own and after I took it, she couldn't get out!! It took two men in our group to heave her out. Pretty funny actually but she wouldn't let me keep the pictures!! :( It's incredible just how small these entrances are.
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| Booby Trap |
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| Booby Trap |
Throughout the day we got the opportunity to check out different defence mechanisms employed by the Vietnamese. Booby traps (the kind we've only experienced in Looney Tunes) were found in multiple places, where the ground gives way to expose you to an array of sharpened bamboo sticks that will instantly gore you. The Vietnamese kept track of where these traps were by twisting shapes in the leaves of nearby trees. There were also land mines placed in strategic locations: note that although I think they have all been removed from Cu Chi, there are still land mines that have not been found throughout Vietnam and every now and then some unsuspecting person steps on one...ugh, not a pleasant thought. Interestingly, the Vietnamese used to evade being found by the Americans' dogs by donning whatever American garb they could - apparently other tactics that killed the dogs would just lead to gassing the tunnels near where the dog was found dead.
The last part of the day ended with our being given the opportunity to experience the tunnels first hand. They had widened a set of entrances to allow us 'big westerners' (something we had to get used to hearing throughout the day) to get into a 100m stretch of tunnel and walk along it. Exits were placed at every 20m to allow those who are faint of heart to get out whenever they wanted. This was the most claustrophobic experience I've ever encountered. We all got into the tunnel pretty easily, but of course you can only walk in single file and the line of people was slow moving as people shuffled and even crawled along the tunnel. Tiny air holes allowed small shafts of light to enter the tunnel, but everything was covered jn shadow and occasionally you would step into a completely dark space. The tunnel was extremely uneven: in places you had to jump down while avoiding hitting your head on the low wall, and there was always that fear of large bugs dropping down on my head (I hate creepy crawlies), and it was a sweltering 35 degrees celsius. But the absolute worst thing in this tunnel was when the line stopped moving and you had to stop walking - it made the panic rise in your throat and the thought of 'I'm never getting out of here' kept hitting me. As with many people, mum and I left the tunnel after the first 20m - I can't imagine having done the full 100m. This experience really hit home the fact that the Vietnamese actually LIVED inside these tunnels. *shudder*
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| Fat Westerner tunnel entrance |
Well, that saw the end of our day at Cu Chi tunnels. I have to say that this tour was something that I am extremely glad I did - it was a life-changing experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. We got back two hours later to a very rainy HCMC and prepared for the next step of our journey: that night we were flying out to Hoi an, in the centre of Vietnam. More on that tomorrow!!
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