I sat up really late the night before trying to get the wifi card working on my laptop (under Ubuntu – Windows works fine) but we still got up in the morning. We had breakfast in the 333 cafe over the street – a delicious array of fresh fruit and yoghurt.
While we were there, one of the old cyclo drivers came in and asked if we’d fancy a trip round the city for around 3 hours. He quoted us $7 for the trip which is moderately high, but it’s not busy for him right now and it’s not a lot of cash to us. So we found ourselves a short while later reclining on plasticcy cushions being pedalled through the insane traffic of Ho Chi Minh City. Something I’ve not done before, anyway.
The speeds weren’t great, but it’s a novelty and it makes a change to be on the front of a small vehicle. Our “host” was one of the soldiers on the losing side of the war who had been imprisoned and then effectively banished afterwards. Along with thousands of other skilled people, they were abandoned and shunned from the city and for many years refused even the likes of an electricity supply in their homes. With Vietnam becoming slightly more westernised (though still Communist), they found these rules relaxed although they can still not get work on a professional basis. As such, a lot have become cyclo drivers – and these are soon to be extinct as the local government removes them in favour of a more developed local transport network.
He and his compatriot (only one person per cyclo) first of all took us to the War Remnants Museum which I’d visited on my last trip. Leah, like myself, was hugely impressed with the children’s art which makes up the final exhibit. The rest of the museum is still pretty impressive, though. Even though it’s small, I do heartily recommend it to anyone who’s in Saigon. It’s only a buck and they do seem to be doing a good job of keeping the exhibits in good nick.
Next stop was a laquerware shop. I guarantee our drivers were on commission, but this stuff’s pretty cool anyway. I did see some being made (and in more detail) on my Cu Chi trip last time, but this time round I have someone who can carry things home for me… so I picked up an eggshell piece. Pretty cheap and a nice momento – and a similar design to one I wanted before.
We got snarled in a very impressive traffic jam and my driver had a right go at one of the rubbish collectors who’d dumped her bin-on-wheels in a really daft place. He and a moped driver shifted it then took turns kicking it rather hard! We made it through in one piece and were passing the Reunification Palace when the heavens opened. Lids popped up on our cyclos, but this was no ordinary rain and we ended up sheltering at a ferry dock for almost an hour a the rain positively hammered down.
The river seemed to rise as we watched it and the winds blew the water in swirls. Impressive if damp. It seems the river’s not safe for swimming in, either – during the floods, a couple of crocodile farms lost around 1500 livestock which floated from the outskirts and into this major artery. 400 were caught and returned or slaughtered. Which leaves over 1000 unaccounted for. Eek.
Eventually the rain ceased and our fella gave us a quick lesson on bonsai. There were a lot of trees and a little temple setting at the ferry terminal we were sat at and we were staggered to learn the ages of some of the trees on display – in excess of 300 years! On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at another shop – again I’m sure commission would have been involved – this one stocking old coins, and “souvenirs” left by the US Army when it left. Lighters, bullet casings, dog tags and the like battled for space on the shelves with bits of ivory and old lamps. Needless to say we didn’t buy anything from this one and shortly afterwards we were back at the Phi Long getting showered and changed for dinner.
Tonight we just walked over the road to “2 Go” and staggered up 8 flights of stairs to the rooftop BBQ. This isn’t cheap, but it’s a great experience. The menu consists of a lot of meats (I chose deer) with a variety of sauces and marinades. In the middle of each table is a small barbequeue plate and a gas cylinder sits at your feet. The staff light this and you put your own meat and veg onto the plate to cook to taste. Other pallettes are catered for – Leah had pre-cooked shrimp, for example – but the novelty does cost. It was the dearest meal we’d had since splashing out in Siem Reap, but the experience and quality of the food made it worthwhile. And it still came to around ten quid with drinks. Oh, and there’s a decent platter of fresh fruit for dessert that seems to be included with all meals – it didn’t appear on the bill.
We wandered around a bit and settled in the Long Phi bar (not to be confused with our hotel!) for a quick drink. Then back to the hotel where I’m typing this up and am about to call my mother on Skype. Tomorrow – Da Nang!
An early rise to hop on a boat which took us to one of the nearby floating market in Cai Rang. Roughly 700 boats trade here between 4am and 7pm every day. After buzzing around and watching small kids shampoo their hair into mohawks and dive into the water we went back onto the canals and stopped off at a noodle “factory”.
This was effectively a large bamboo building where a watery rice mixture is poured onto material suspended over boiling water (the water is heated by burning rice husks and the resulting burned material used as fertiliser – no waste!). The thin film is covered for a few seconds and then rolled onto a spiky stick thing and then placed onto a bamboo rack. Once the rack is full, it’s put outside in the sun to dry. Once it’s the right consistency, the sheets are fed through a simple rotating guillotine to make the noodles. It’s all very repetitive work, but the simple tools used are very impressive to see in action.
Our next stop was a fruit orchard where we saw quite a few of the local crops growing – tiny juice-packed oranges, very strong chili peppers, lychee… And then sampled far too many of them. Next up was a rice processing plant where rice husks are stripped of all the outside bits and turned into the white rice that’s sold in bags. Lots of loud machinery and magic going on inside boxes.
Our boat then ferried us back to the hotel where we had a decent lunch. This time a bus picked us up direct from the front of the hotel and we headed for one of the cross-river ferries. These things run almost non-stop and fill up to the brim with each run. Locals all stayed in their vehicles while we were asked to get out and stand to the side. Apparently this is because the locals know how to get out of a vehicle should the ferry capsize… Looking around they had all the windows open just in case.
Obviously, we got across with no major incident and our bus picked us up again. Our next stop was around 2 hours down the road where we visited a “bonsai garden” – more of a series of restaurants in a nice setting. The Dutch couple took motorcycles to My Tho for their extra night and we picked up a few more people who were on a different trip.
Ninety minutes later we were in Saigon, parked right opposite the little silk shop I’d stayed in on my last visit. As Leah wanted aircon, we walked round the corner to mini-hotel alley. The first place we looked (the Happy Hotel) was lovely, but a little more than we wanted to pay. Generously, the staff said we could leave our bags there while we scouted for somewhere cheaper. We ended up in the Phi Long just around the corner in a pretty decent room with free wi-fi.
After showers and a relax, we popped out for dinner. Waking round the area, we made the most of a rain-free evening to stroll through the park and up and down most of the streets in the area before stopping at Lotteria for a burger. A series of Chaplin films were showing on the TV in the restaurant so we stayed longer than we needed to before having one drink in the Guns ‘n’ Roses bar and trailing back to bed.
Leah’s tummy was bothering her in the morning so she stayed in the hotel while the group hopped over the river to see a small fish farm and the Cham villages. Tourists feed the fish at the farm, but there’s no risk of overfeeding as they take up a total of 150kg of food a day. The farm we say spreads over 30mx10mx10m deep with approximately 150,000 fish being bred at one time. Staff have to dive in with the fish every morning to ensure any dead ones are removed before they start to float.
It costs around $60,000 to start up one of these fish farms and the return is around $6,000 every 6 months. In the photos, the water’s pretty murky due to it being the wet season. Pollution in the river is particularly high as rainwater washes through the rice fields carrying mud and soil down with it. In the middle of the dry season the water is more of a green colour and the fish are more visible. Mind, you see enough when you throw food in as they go into a frenzy fighting over the malt, seafood and vegetable tablets.
We next stopped at one of the Cham villages. These are a Muslim people, many originating from other countries and now settled here. They live in houses on stilts so that rising rivers don’t necessitate moving home too often. Having said that, signs posted on one dwelling show the flood waters with dates over the last 10 years or so. In 2000, not only this area but the main town of Chau Doc was under 1m of water.
Children ran round with waffles, selling them “six for one dallaaaaaaah!”. I haggled one of them up to 7 for a buck. The guy behind me haggled up to eight. Tightwad. There was also a girl there weaving towels using an impressive loom made from scrap wood, bamboo and string. I’ve seen such looms before, such as up in Sapa, but it never fails to amaze me what can be built from what is effectively waste material.
More children were grouped around a marbles game while several tourist parties plodded around their village. We got the boat back to the hotel where Leah was almost regaining consciousness but was still feeling a little ill. This wasn’t helped by being bundled into a dinky minibus with the rest of our group and having to squish into the back to free up all the front seats. It turns out that our “coach” was a public bus heading up to Can Tho and not just for our use.
The driver was typically manic so we made good time at the expense of some of our groups’ sanity. We only nearly died about 4 times. In my experience, not bad for a 90-minute journey. Oh, and our driver was prosecuted, which was quite funny. Not for driving like a madman, but for trafficking cigarettes. We were pulled over seemingly at random and the bus driven into a police compound. Two officers spent around 12 seconds searching the bus before “finding” around 40 cartons of cheap fags stuffed into the aircon system. Our driver and co-driver went mental at each other and people on the phone. I wish I knew more Vietnamese – I’m sure I’d have learned the full collection of swear words. “Today is meant to be Jim’s turn to be pulled over! I paid the f***ing bribe! Why do I get caught! I blame your wife!” and so on. Of course, the police took the cigs and gave the driver a nice pink sheet of paper in return.
When we got to Can Tho, we jumped out into the… erm… petrol station. I guess this is in lieu of a bus station here or something. Waiting for us was the owner (I think) of our hotel who was directing us to jump onto an available Xe Om (motorcycle taxi) for the ride to the hotel. A couple of our group were less than happy about this and voiced their complaints rather loudly. His excuse was that buses and taxis can’t get to his hotel, only motorbikes. He then relented and said maybe taxi, but it would cost more and it’s not his job as he is from the hotel and not the tour company – fair enough assuming the company hadn’t paid for taxis and he was trying to scam us. He sped off, saying he would go to the tour office and be back in 10 minutes.
While he was away (for more than 10 minutes) another bus from Chau Doc pulled up and a large bag (guess what it was full of…) was speedily thrown onto the back of a waiting motorbike and zipped off into some dodgy shop’s inventory.
The guy never did come back, but 7 motorcycles did. In honesty, this didn’t surprise or bother me. I was more concerned for Leah who’d not been on a bike before and was a little nervous about it, especially being ill, and a couple of the other tourists who didn’t seem at all happy about the idea. I’m glad to say Leah’s first ride went very well and I think Vietnam has introduced a helmet law, as we were provided with head protection – something that never happened in Hanoi. Perhaps it’s just more thoroughly policed down here.
The ride to the hotel was only a couple of minutes and – again – nobody died. Leah was definitely happier with aircon this time, so we paid an extra 80,000d (about $5.50) for the upgrade. It was lunchtime and the rest of the day was ours to spend looking around Can Tho.
We chilled in the room for a little while then went for a quick walk to have a look at one of the pagodas, another in a Chinese style like the one we saw in Chau Doc. There’s also a huge silver statue of Ho Chi Minh on a plinth surrounded by heavy chain which is very… bling. Vulgar, I suppose, but kind of cool as well.
Opposite, Leah spotted a travel agent (Cantho Tourist J.S Company, 20 Hai Ba Trung – and as it happens, the one mentioned in Lonely Planet. I’m mentioning this as they were really good so thought they deserved a plug) and we needed to sort flight tickets out. We’d been looking on Expedia for flights from Saigon to Danang, and they were weighing in at $145 each from Vietnam Airlines – far more than I’d anticipated. Pacific Airlines also do this route and the office offered both. We popped in and checked, and for the date we wanted, Vietnam was the cheapest by a small amount at a shade over $50 each. Including all taxes and so forth. Bit of a saving on Expedia’s quote all the same. The price also included the internal departure tax which is now placed on tickets instead of having to be paid at the airport. The same also applies to the $14 international departure tax (or it did later on when we flew from Hanoi, anyway).
As we walked back towards the hotel, the baking hot sun – possibly the fiercest I’ve ever felt in Asia – gave way to a sudden downpour of incredible ferocity. As we sheltered under the awning of a shop, the little old lady (and I mean this in the loveliest and sweetest way possible) signalled for us to come inside and join her. She was relaxed on a comfy chair and had some of those small kiddy plastic deelies that she was waving at.
Now, there’s no way you can ever turn down a granny with a heart-melting toothless grin, so we expressed our thanks and took our ringside seats as the downpour tried to become an up-pour with each drop that slammed into the tarmac and made its way skyward again. A Vietnamese boy, maybe 7 years old and rather chunky, ran around naked on the opposite side of the street attacking some discarded coconuts with a fluroescent green sword while the lovely granny mimed rain coming down and laughed. I’ve never done drugs, but I can believe this was like being on mushrooms.
By the time rain eased, Leah had been staring at pottery for almost 15 minutes and – partly because it was so nice and partly because the old lady was so nice – felt compelled to pick something up. She chose a nice bowl with a hole in the side and was likely overcharged for it, but we weren’t in the mood for a haggle. Job done, rain off, we did a quick internet check at Queen where Leah enjoyed a very nice strawberry ice cream while I ploughed through spam and let you lot know we were alive.
Just round the corner, we stopped for some Pho in a nice restaurant. Now I’ve had Pho in quite a few places in Vietnam, but this was without a doubt the best. For those interested, the shop lies on Hai Ba Trung almost directly between Hau an Liem (where the cybercafe is) and the next small street up, which is more like a large alley. You can’t miss it – only Pho place on that side of the street and quite large. 20,000d each for the basic soup and a home-made, sugar-loaded lemonade. Delish.
As we arrived at the hotel, we saw a minibus pull up and offload a few tourists, so the guy’s story from earlier was misinformed at best, a lie at worst. Hey ho. We still had no idea what time we were starting off in the morning. Fortunately we bumped into the Dutch couple who’d asked around and found that it was another 6:30am start.
We had a quick snooze then decided to head for the local museum. It’s opening hours are a little strange (09:00-11:00 then 18:30-21:00 on a Sunday), but it was only a short walk from the hotel and was something to do in the evening. Lonely Planet’s description of the English signage as “ample” is an exaggeration, to be frank, but doesn’t detract from otherwise how good a museum it is.
Most photographs have English descriptions underneath, but virtually nothing else does. However, most displays are easy to follow and even the gaudy electronic blinky-light things that Asian museums seem to love so much actually worked, which is a rarity. As long as you have an idea of what you’re looking at, it’s easy to follow. The life-size (thought small) pagoda inside is a wonderful exhibit, and there’s even a miniature version of the Chinese pagoda in town complete with stunning painting on the doors. Oh, and did I mention that it’s completely free? The building it’s in is gorgeous from the outside, too, with large carved stairs leading up between Romanesque pillars. Definitely worth the short walk.
On the way back we stopped at a couple of local traders and picked up snacky stuff. We weren’t up to another meal, but needed something to munch on. Laden with chocolatey, sweetie, carbonated bumph (and some baking which is sat there waiting to be munched as I type), we ambled back to our hotel.
[NOTE: please check out the gallery and videos at the bottom of this post. Too much to squeeze in between the words!] Our first errand today was to pop back to the Vietnamese embassy and collect our passports with their shiny new visas in place. Expensive, but I love Vietnam so I knew they’d be worth every dollar.
More touristy stuff followed as we did the usual run of taking a boat up the river then hopping out at pier 8 to take in the Wat Po and Grand Palace. I won’t go into detail as I’ve covered both these places before. The main point of note was that we were fortunate enough to catch the start of some kind of parade at the Wat Po. Scores of people wearing traditional dress, a marching band and video cameras everywhere. All very impressive and I still have no idea what it was all about .
The Grand Palace has increased its price since I was last there and we did have to borrow leg coverings despite wearing 3/4-length shorts. This involved a refundable deposit so didn’t increase the cost of the visit.
Leah’s wilting in the heat wasn’t helped by the usual annoying morons who try to rip tourists off. I came across a new trick where they try to convince you that you can enter by one of the side gates. The security guards generally don’t speak English and simply bar your entry at which point the con artist apologises and says that the Palace must be closed today… and would you like him to show you a new place instead? The “Golden Buddha” seems to be the new one kicking around that has “just opened”.
I would recommend the following course of action: punch them in the face and walk off. The Palace is open 7 days a week, all year round. If it’s closed for some reason, believe me you’ll know about it as it’ll be in the news and your hostel/hotel will tell you in advance.
Dinner was in a glass-fronted air-conditioned place in the pier 9 building and was very good, though we did get charged for the nice cold towels they supplied when it was obvious that Leah was about to collapse. This is commonplace in some restaurants. And this time we were in time to catch the boat back down to the BTS station.
A quick change of clothes and a shower at the YHA and we made our way to Lumphini Stadium for our ringside Muay Thai tickets. The last time I watched Thai boxing was in Hua Hinh and that was amateur bouts in a tiny little place. This stadium was much bigger though just didn’t have the same atmosphere. The fighting was still entertaining and we had our photograph taken with the boxer who won the main bout. He’d been pulverised until late in the fourth round when he launched a fierce attack on his opponent, slamming a knee into his solar plexus. Ow. Down and out .
An entertaining night, and not too expensive. A quick KFC was called for on the way home to soak up the beer, and I picked up a dodgy copy of Ong Bak on DVD from one of the market stalls. When in Thailand, at least watch one Thai film!
Frankfurt was hot. Damn hot. So hot and muggy that sleep wasn’t easy. The snoozes I’d had on various coaches probably didn’t help either.
I woke around 9-ish as Hans had told me his flight from Darfur was landing at 7:30. I’d checked the buses from the airport and that would mean he’d get here at 9:30. Time for some breakfast before he got to the hostel. As I was spooning cereal into a bowl, I heard a familar voice call out “What the hell are you doing here?”
Hans’ flight landed at 6:30 – he’d given me the times based in Darfur – so he’d caught an earlier bus and already walked into town, realised that most people were still asleep and come back to the hostel. There’s not a whole lot to do in Frankfurt, so he was pretty glad to have someone to hang out with while he tried to stay awake after the long flight.
We chilled for a while and caught up before walking into town for the briefest of looks around. My sunglasses broke but as luck would have it, I was right by a street-seller selling cheapies at €4 a pop. Big, tight-fitting, passed the head-bang test and mirrored. Spot on. Hans picked out a film to watch later, we grabbed some food from one of the market stalls put out for the day (sausage and fried potato – really good and only €3) and walked back to the hostel.
There was a free football game being organised that afternoon and people were just gearing up to head off for it. I’d been pretty ill the last couple of days (nothing too bad, but let’s just say I was very careful as regards passing wind… as it wasn’t always wind), but felt up to a bit of exercise and counted myself in. Hans went off for a lie down while the staff organised drinking water and underground tickets for us (all paid for!).
I got chatting to a few people on the walk and during the game. As you’d expect from a cheap hostel near a major transport hub, the mix was quite impressive: Mexican, Australian, Kiwi, Brit, American, Canadian, German, Italian… The game was good, but hard work in the baking heat and humidity. After an hour or so, a bunch of locals asked if they could join in and we ended up with something approaching 15-a-side, though this varied as people dropped out periodically to top up on water.
One of the hostel staff video’d things occasionally and it should pop up on YouTube at some point. At time of writing, it’s not there yet, though the user account to check out is HostelFrankfurt.
Update: here ’tis…
When we got back, a cold crate of beer was placed on a table for the footballers – again, all free! There was enough for two bottles each and they were welcomed, believe me. Hans resurfaced and hadn’t gone to see a film after all. He’d misread the timetable and the film he wanted to catch wasn’t showing on a Tuesday. Instead, we walked out and picked up dinner from a Turkish take-out nearby. There are lots of these – Turkey seems to send all it’s emigrants to Frankfurt! Good for us as the food’s pretty cheap and filling.
The rest of the evening was spent chatting to a load of other residents, and a short wander round the city at night and through the red light district (always a laugh). Hans’ bus was booked for 5:30am so he went to bed and I stayed up with an American and two Aussies chewing the cud and drinking Wild Turkey and Coke.
My sleep pattern was obviously skewed badly as I was still chatting away when Hans woke up for his bus! I eventually had “breakfast” at 06:00 and went to bed. Then struggled to sleep in the heat.
I sat up really late the night before trying to get the wifi card working on my laptop (under Ubuntu – Windows works fine) but we still got up in the morning. We had breakfast in the 333 cafe over the street – a delicious array of fresh fruit and yoghurt.
He and his compatriot (only one person per cyclo) first of all took us to the War Remnants Museum which I’d visited on my last trip. Leah, like myself, was hugely impressed with the children’s art which makes up the final exhibit. The rest of the museum is still pretty impressive, though. Even though it’s small, I do heartily recommend it to anyone who’s in Saigon. It’s only a buck and they do seem to be doing a good job of keeping the exhibits in good nick.
The river seemed to rise as we watched it and the winds blew the water in swirls. Impressive if damp. It seems the river’s not safe for swimming in, either – during the floods, a couple of crocodile farms lost around 1500 livestock which floated from the outskirts and into this major artery. 400 were caught and returned or slaughtered. Which leaves over 1000 unaccounted for. Eek.
Tonight we just walked over the road to “2 Go” and staggered up 8 flights of stairs to the rooftop BBQ. This isn’t cheap, but it’s a great experience. The menu consists of a lot of meats (I chose deer) with a variety of sauces and marinades. In the middle of each table is a small barbequeue plate and a gas cylinder sits at your feet. The staff light this and you put your own meat and veg onto the plate to cook to taste. Other pallettes are catered for – Leah had pre-cooked shrimp, for example – but the novelty does cost. It was the dearest meal we’d had since splashing out in Siem Reap, but the experience and quality of the food made it worthwhile. And it still came to around ten quid with drinks. Oh, and there’s a decent platter of fresh fruit for dessert that seems to be included with all meals – it didn’t appear on the bill.
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