Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City

Day 7 ~ 11th April 2007

Boarded our bus to Ho Chi Minh at 8am. The most bumpy bus ride ever as the road conditions were very poorly and narrow.

One of the more common sights when traveling by landed vehicles (notice the adboard behind the van, its probably too small for you, but it is for a "GOLDEN MUSCLE" Liquor, had me laughing my guts out when I saw it....absolutely hilarious!!)

The border between Cambodia & Vietnam, kinda like S'pore & M'sia where we had to get off to present our passports to customs.

We reached Ho Chi Minh around 5pm. Found ourselves a cheap hotel and started walking around town. I have never seen soooo many motorbikes in my life, and crossing the roads were nearly impossible!!! The picture below is nothing, just imagine the road completely filled with motorbikes...

For dinner, we headed to the local central market called the Ben Thanh market. As usual, my favourite time of day, dinner!! Above is bunh rieu, rice vermicelli in tomato/tamarind based crab meat & shrimp paste....yummmm....washed down with the local 333 beer (didn't like the beer very much, less refined and a little too carbonated for me).

Banh Canh Cua, thick rice noodles in a crab meat broth....so good....two thumbs up!

Day 8 ~ 12th April 2007

By this time, we kinda got lazy and signed up for 2 local tours with Happy Tour company.

Cu Chi Tunnels @ Iron Triangle

These tunnels were dug by the northern vietnamese, communist troops called the Viet Congs, or the National Liberation Front, using simple farming tools. Back then, the only way to win the war against the south colonial powers, which were backed by the Americans, was by guerilla warfare. These tunnels were complete with secret entrances, kitchens (with cleverly concealed smoke holes, guard rooms, surgery rooms, artillery rooms, booby traps, and escape tunnels, which extended down to three levels.

I was totally amazed by the perseverance and versatility of the Viet Congs.

Secret entrances to the tunnels were tiny!!

One of the many booby traps used to trick enemies

After the tour, back in Ho Chi Minh, we had banh chanh, kinda like hong kong chee cheong fun but with mince pork and prawns served with fish sauce, and bun bo hue, spicy beef chilli noodle soup. Satisfying!!! Then it was off to the Ben Thanh market in search of a hammock stand. Spent all afternoon searching in vain as it wasn't sold in the market, but still enjoyed the cultural and local stuffs on sale, seriously like Central Market in KL except with alot more narrow stalls and pathways.

Day 9 ~ 13th April 2007

Tour of the Mekong Delta

Starting with a short bus trip to My Tho city, then we traveled by boat all day along the upper Mekong river, cruising down through 4 islands named after Buddhist mystical creatures - Dragon, Unicorn , Pheonix & Turtle. We stopped at each island for a short tour, one for lunch, another for local fruits and traditional music performance by local villagers, another for nectar and honey at a bee farm, and lastly one for a display of coconut candy making.

I have to say were quite bored on this tour, as it was all 'yum yum sek sek'. But also kinda suited us as laziness had set in by then, and taking a leisurely tour like that wasn't too bad.

In the evening, we had Pho, traditional beef noodle soup for dinner (which we get here in Melbourne and I actually prefer the ones in Melbourne, I think maybe the quality of fresh foods here is far better). Then we just sat down at local stalls for a couple of beers to cool ourselves down in this hot and humid weather.