The travel agent who had arranged my tour was a couple of streets away. The start of the tour was around 2 hours out of the city. That said the traffic was horrendous and I suspect it will take much longer as the Vietnamese are building new highway. The recent rains had made the roads a roller coaster of pot holes and mud.
The travel guide had an excellent command of English and enlightened us as to the city and some history. It was great to get some local context and learn stuff that wasn't in the guide books.
Most of my fellow trippers were westerners this time which was a change in itself. Although I was on a day tour, the company company also did 2 and 3 day tours and many of the people on the bus were staying overnight.
The area that we are travelling to is a high risk Malaria area. Together with the fact thar it was in the rainy season meant avoiding getting bitten. I had brought my Mosquito milk which was probably as tame as the name suggests. To be on the safe side I would buy something that at least sounded a little more threatening to the pesky insects. A proper 'poncho' was also needed to protected from the weather. This far south there was pretty much a guarantee that the rain would come every afternoon.
As we moved put of the city, the high rise were replaced by the traditional tall skinny houses. This is a throwback from the French colonial days when, such was the demand for land in the cities that it was sold and allocated in strips. Consequently the houses are three or four stories high but only around about 12ft wide.
Further out of town the development made way for the traditional agricultural area of paddy fields, interspersed with small towns and villages. There are still loads of mopeds (not seen many proper motorcycles)
In the city of Saigon there are some 4.5 million people. 2.3 million own a motor cycle and each motor cycle uses on average half a litre of fuel. That's over million gallons of fuel per day. I guess that is why so many wear face masks in the city. That is some potential pollution!
That said I think some take it too far. I saw one Vietnamese lady at the beach in Nha Trang swimming with one on!
Vietnam is a communist republic. Even so, very very few of the population are card carrying members of the communist party. There are strict rules to membership of this exclusive club. If a Vietnamese national wanted to apply they are investigated three generations back to see if there have been undesirable memberships in the past. If for instance your grandfather was a US or French sympathiser, you would be excluded. Simple as that!
The first stop was in the capital city of the Mekong Delta. There is a fabulous example of a buddhist pagoda at Noi Qui. We stopped off here for 30 minutes before heading to the river and the boat trip into the Mekong Delta.
The Mekong Delta is known as the 'rice bowl of Vietnam and, because of the fertile land, the plethora of fish and the abundance of water it is rich with food resources. The river trip was interesting, passing fishing boats, the dredgers that take the silt from the river bed and use it for buildings in Saigon. The river is some 4,200 km long, starting in Tibet it winds itself through several of the old Indo China countries to emerge in the south china sea in Vietnam.
One guy on the trip was actually from Sheffield and worked in the Union Hotel in Netheredge. It's a small world!
After the trip on the river, again with excellent commentary from the guide JJ we headed onto an island for lunch. It was basic but good food once again. The Mekong has hundreds of tributaries, we now got into a much smaller boat and visited an area that manufactured coconut candy by hand. They used all parts of the coconut for something, very resourceful. I invested in a packet of candy and a bar of coconut soap.
Back into the boat and the last stop was an island that made honey. We had fresh fruit and some local beverage and listened a little concert of local songs and music. I gave the CD a miss. The beverage was sweet and while the performance was on we were joined by one, then a few, then thousands of bees. It got to the stage where the tables were actually covered in the bloody things. Rather distracting. Maybe I didn't give the singers my full attention and they were better than I thought. Thinking again though, maybe not!
The trips I have been on so far have been really good value for money. Before mow I have paid £30 quid to visit ' Stig of the dump ' masquerading as a Beduin family on the outskirts of Luxor or been ferried around Lanzarote visiting ramshackle cafe after cafe claiming to be an island tour. Here, for a mere $12 we have seen a temple, been on the river cruise, has lunch, seen coconut candy being made and been treated to a Vietnamese musical afternoon at the honey farm . Great value for money.
We had a 15 minute walk to the bus passing a number of homes. It appears that the Vietnamese in this area bury their relatives in the garden!!
At the bus the group split. Those that were on a overnighter got on another bus and us day trippers went back to Saigon. The weather had held off and it just started to rain as we pulled onto the road. It's a shame really, I was looking forward to wearing my navy blue poncho !
The trip back was an event. The rain had been really quite heavy. A lorry overturned with a cargo of pigs. They had been stacked two high and I suspect they had a plan, shifted their weight to one side of the vehicle and toppled it over. It was amusing watching their dash to freedom across the paddy fields with dozens of locals in pursuit. I don't think their liberation will last long and most of them are probably on the spit in one village or other by now.
The traffic jam that had caused our delay on the way to the Mekong was still there, even worse due the bad pain. Quite a few of the vehicles had broken down. It was amusing to witness a small van being gently 'nudged' on it's way by a JCB digger after getting bogged down in the mud.
All in all, a very entertaining and interesting day.
My day starts early tomorrow. The 7.30 bus to Phnom Penh across the land border and into Cambodia for the final country of this 6 week first trip.
The bus journey takes around six hours but that remains to be seen.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Bui Vien,Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
Hi Steve - some interesting trips and experiences!
ReplyDeleteRead in an earlier blog you had a beer belly - sounds as though last 24 hours you had a deli belly!!!!!!
The journeys sound horrendous - have you tried the bikes?
Don't forget to sketch your experiences for your next exhibition!