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November 01, 2003 : Southern Vietnam
I visit Nha Trang, which is the beach paradise of Vietnam, go to Saigon and feel cultural, and then off to the Mekong delta...
Nha Trang
After another lovely busride, we (the two swedish girls from Hoi An was on the bus as well) arrive in Nha Trang in the morning. We walk around for a while looking for a hotel, since the ones the tour company took us to was crap. There was an annoying guy following us for a long time and tried to make us go to his place, and we might have done that if he just left us alone for a while, but oh no, they don't know that concept in Vietnam. To get rid of him, we simply walked into the first hotel we could find and looked at the rooms there. Probarbly not the nicest place in town, but it was cheap and the owner was very friendly, so we decided to stay.
After a free breakfast at the hotel and couple of hours of sleep, I felt better, so I walk around the city for a while. A pretty boring place - if you are not interested in staying on the beach during the day and spending every night in a bar that is. I sit down and eat lunch in a restaurant and spend a couple of hours getting up to date in my diary, while getting a bit homesick. The reason for that was that there was a guy in the restaurant practising his skills on a keyboard - playing Silent Night over and over again, with different instruments all the time. With all the christmas lights that they have everywhere I started longing for christmas at home, but that's not going to happen, is it? Oh well...
I spend only three days in Nha Trang, since I didn't really feel like doing the beach thing. I did have a good time though, met quite a few people I've met earlier on this journey at the Sailors club (the bar that everyone goes to in the evenings), and there was a really adorable man running around in Nha trang selling books... he looked really funny, worked at a library and he spoke quite a bit of swedish actually... "Lange leve konungen!" ... he was very amusing :)
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
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| Sunset outside Nha Trang |
Another journey, another busride during night, first real problem though. We got a flat tire just outside HCMC and had to wait for an hour for them to fix it. No big deal, but when you are tired and just want to go to a hotel and sleep, standing still waiting is boring.
When we finally arrive, I check out a few hotels before finding a good one for a decent price. 6 dollars for a clean room with AC, bathtub and hot water in the bathroom, good cable TV... So much better than in Thailand.
I sleep for a couple of hours before going out for breakfast and a small sightseeing. Run into a couple of canadian guys that I met in Hanoi and spend some time with them. Most of the evening I watch movies on my TV though. Damn relaxing...
Cu Chi tunnels
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| Me in one of the big tunnels |
The next day I have to get out of bed early - way to early in my opinion. The day before I had booked a tour to the Viet Cong tunnels around Cu Chi - a very interesting place. On the minibus over there, we were: the driver and the guide. The irish couple that was on the bus with me and the locals from Nha Trang to HCMC. Two swedish girls I met in Hanoi and Nha Trang. Two other swedish girls. One girl from England. One more girl from Sweden. And Me. Out of ten foreigners, six were from Sweden. Bah.
Our guide tells us a little about the war on the way over there, he had been fighting with the americans, so he knew pretty much. After we had walked around a little in the area, and seen a short movie about the noble Viet Cong army (*sigh*), we came to the first tunnel. This was a short one that had been given a big entry and also the tunnel was bigger, just to make it more comfortable for foreigners.
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| Original entrance to tunnel |
After a few of these short ones, including one in "original" size, we got to the exersize event of the day - one tunnel that was 110 metres long. It doesn't sound like much, but trust me, when you are down there it's more than enough!
It was almost completely dark, it was very hot and with bad air, and in general utterly f*cking horrible! As soon as the people in front of you were quiet (I was last, because the girls were afraid they would be left behind) it felt as though you were completly alone and you had no idea where to go, because the only light in the tunnel was blocked out by the people in front of you. It took forever to get through the tunnel, and it didn't help when the women in front "got attacked" by some bats, they started screaming and refused to move. When we finally got out of there, I was dirty as hell, pouring sweat and in general very tired. Good thing they don't have those squat toilets in Vietnam as they have in Thailand, my thighs hurt badly for two days after this, I could hardly walk up the stairs in my hotel... =)
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| I'm shooting with the AK-47 |
After this, we relaxed for a while and tried some stuff the VC used to eat, and then walked around the area a bit more and were shown some traps that the VC used during the war. Then we went to the shooting range, were we could try some real weapons, but it was very expensive - one dollar to shoot one bullet. I tried the AK-47, and it was fun, I wish I could have spent a lot more money there :)
More culture
| | HCMC operahouse by night |
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| | Can you repeat that please? |
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When we return to HCMC, I go to a cafe with the swedish girls I had met in Hanoi, and they asked me if I wanted to join them on the theatre later that night. Sure, why not. Why would have been a better question :)
In the evening, we eat dinner together, and then walk to the opera house. For some reason we are the only foreigners outside the house - and we are even more alone inside it. It feels as though all of the vietnamese people are looking at us wondering what we were doing there. After about five minutes, so do we... We had hoped for some nice songs or at least a simple classic story with cool costumes. It was a play about every day life at a factory, with some jokes and a love story in it. That much we understood, before we left the place :)
Not the best invested 70 000 of my life...
We had a laugh about it afterwards though, while we had a beer instead. Very nice and funny girls to hang out with by the way! Too bad they left the next day...
... the next day
Yeah, like I wrote, the swedish girls left and I was once again alone. Being very tired and having legs that didn't allow me to do any walking made me stay in a lot and watch TV. I managed to get some breakfast around noon or so, but after that I pretty much just stayed in bed. In the evening I did some Interneting though, and when I was going to get some dinner I ran into Mikey, an english guy I'd met before, Johan from Sweden, and a couple of english girls that I had met a few times as well. They invite me to join them in a bar for a few beers, and who can say no to that? Unfortunatly for me, they had stopped serving food just when we got there, so beer would have to do instead of lunch/dinner. Oh well...
Had a nice evening, watching Mikey kick everyones ass by the pool table - he was extremly good. Too bad these guys were leaving the next day as well...
And more culture
After another day of extensive pain in my legs, I felt I could actually do something again. I got on a cyclo and went to the War Remnants museum (it used to be called the Museum of American War Crimes...), apparently they wanted more american tourists, so they changed the name and the signs in the museum to be less... frank. That did make it quite interesting though, with a lot of pictures and leftovers from the american war. Not that I was surprised over it, hard to be that when you have been to the museums in the north, but the VC obviously did no bad things at all during the war... bah.
| | Plane used during war |
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| | Khablam! |
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| | A statue called 'Mother' |
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| The palace |
After a couple of hours in the museum, I go to the next one - The palace, where I actually get a english speaking guide to tell me about it. Not the most interesting place in Vietnam, but worth the money I guess. The museums here are cheap to visit :)
In the evening I surprisingly enough end up in a bar, drinking beer with a couple of maniacs from England. Very nice maniacs though, and quite funny. They were heading for Angkor Wat. Again. The first time they had been there for a week, but been to drunk to see the temples... :)
The next day I go on a shopping spree for a while, before meeting up with the dutch girl Petra again, that had arrived in HCMC as well. We eat dinner together and then drink beer at the same bar as I had been on almost every other evening so far in HCMC... Nice place though, called Allez Boo or something like that. I recommend it.
Mekong delta
A late night in HCMC, an early morning the next day... At 8.00 I get on a minibus that heads south, towards the Mekong delta. After a few hours on the bus, we get on a boat out on the river and visit a place with different fruit plantations. They also make candy out of coconuts that was quite good actually. After that, we sit down and try their fruits while listening to the locals playing and singing for us... beautiful... :)
When the singing is over, we go to a smaller stream and sit down in small boats to be paddled down back to the Mekong and the big boat again.
Our next visit is in a place where they make honey, and we get to taste it straight from the source - just dip the finger by the bees! Tasted good though. We also got to drink tea and alcohol with honey taste, before playing with their pet snake.
They take us back to the pier and we get into the minibus again. In our bus there is a couple from England, a girl from Canada - and five swedes (A swedish couple, two swedish girls and me). *sigh*
After a long ride on bad roads we finally arrive at our hotel for the night. I get to share hotel room with the canadian and swedish girls... it's not as interesting as it sounds though :)
| | Mmm, tasty! |
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| | Just put your finger down here... |
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| | Is that a python around your neck? |
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The next day we have to get out of bed early, because the boat leaves at 7.00. After breakfast and a short walk down to the pier, we go out on the river and visit a fishfarm. Some hungry fishes there I can tell you, I started wondering if it was pirahna fishes or something...
Then we visit a small muslim village, testing some of the clothes they make and look at their synagoga. After a short visit there, we are joined by another four swedish guys, and then head for the cambodian border. It takes us about three hours to get there, a pretty boring ride after a while - not the most comfortable boat I've been on. After crossing the border on the Vietnam side, we have to wait for another boat for an hour - go the cambodian side of the border and get a stamp in the passport - and then the boat heads north for a few hours in pouring rain. My next ride is two hours on crap roads, in a really bad bus - and the worst seat in it. Hard, almost no back on it, everyones backpacks behind my head and one in my knee... and I ended up between two swedish people. They (ok, we...) are everywhere! :)
When we finally arrive in Phnom Penh, I'm just grateful to be alive. Who cares about the time being 19.00 instead of 15.00 as they told us in HCMC? Phnom Penh seems more interesting than I expected it to be, but this night I was to tired to check that out...
| | That looks heavy... poor bastard |
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| | Hungry fishes! |
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| | Reason enough for me to stay swedish... |
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Posted in: Travel
, Vietnam
by mdk @ 7:01, November 1, 2003
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