2024vietnamcambodia

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The sampan took us to our lunch location which was a lush location. A table for six surrounded by coconut trees, vines, and other tropical plants. We were served rice, two whole fish, schrimp, soup and fruit. All of it was delicious.

Then the long trip back to our hotel (nearly two hours) in the minivan.

Some monsoon rain just as we were nearly home just before 6pm. Dinner tonight we decided to try the Street Food Markets which are less than a kilometre from our hotel. They were pretty flash! Lots of food and drink stalls, music, open air roof that automatically closed when rain started.

A big day again today. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam and hello to Cambodia.

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The rickshaw ride finished and there were two sampans waiting for us.

Hard to believe we were floating down the great Mekong on a sampan. It was a wonderful experience.

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Day 11 (cont’d) The Mekong

These women do this all day which must be very tedious not to mention hard on the back with all that bending and squatting.

After here we got into a motorised rickshaw for a few kilometres.

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Day 11 Tour to the Mekong Delta

Our tour group had an optional tour of going to the Mekong Delta but it had to be paid in US dollars and none of us had enough US dollars. So we did a search and found a private tour for the six of us that we could pay online plus it was cheaper. ☑️

Pickup time was 8am from our hotel and they were on time with Winn as our tour guide. He was a very funny, nice, and talkative young guy who stated his views fairly early that he didn’t like communism. He also had a habit we found amusing which was to preface many sentences with “now you need to know”. There still seems to be a divide between north and south Vietnam which he confirmed.

At the halfway point we stopped for a bathroom break. It was the Mekong’s version of our big M1 petrol stations. But instead of concrete it had Lilly ponds. 😁

Then it was time to catch a motorised boat to a place that makes coconut candy and other coconut products.

We watched how they split open the coconut, scrape out the coconut, filter it, and then boil it into candy. Tasty but a good filling-puller I think! After some fresh fruits and tea we got back in the boat for a short ride and then walk to a mat weaving place. Two women manually started making a reed mat while we were there. They can make about 4-5 each day. Most reed mats these days are made by machines.

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Day 10 (cont’d)

Photos from the Cu Chi Tunnels.

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Day 10 (cont’d)

After the President’s Palace we had a quick stop to look at the lovely architecture of the Post Office which still operates as a PO.

Next stop but quite a drive through endless traffic are the Cu Chi Tunnels. My phone ran out of battery so I need to get some photos from the others to add in here.

The tunnels were an underground set of tunnels spanning 200kms to hide from attacks from the US. Dug by hand by the Cu Chi people it was an incredible show of resilience and ingenuity.

They also planted traps to kill American soldiers which were more than brutal. Traps to fall down landing on spikes etc.

We didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 8pm so it was a 12-hr day! Sharon and Paul celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary today so it was a romantic dinner for them on their own while the four of us found a nice cafe not far from the hotel.

The Mekong Delta tomorrow!

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Day 10 (cont’d)

The President’s Palace.

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Day 10 (cont’d)

The President’s Palace.

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Day 10 Ho Chi Minh City

We were picked up by the coach today at 8am. The hotel breakfast unfortunately matches the hotel which is underwhelming. 🤷‍♀️

A big day today seeing lots of “must see” sites starting with war museum. It was pretty amazing, very informative, and also incredibly sad and emotional. Tanks, guns, poetry, video, photos, journalism … all there telling the horror of the Vietnam war. Learning more about Agent Orange for example was frightening.

After there we went to the presidential palace (government house). Wow! Could’ve spent hours here too! Such beautiful architecture. Steel window frames, lovely gardens, a bunker … an enormous building. This is the building where a North Vietnamese tank drove through the front gates to signal the end of the Vietnam war.

Photos next post.

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Day 9 Hue to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Not many photos today because not much happened apart from travelling from Hue (pronounced Hway) to Ho Chi Minh by coach and plane. First the bus/coach to take us back to Da Nang airport but not via the pass. This time via the tunnel which is a lot quicker and given there is a lot of cloud cover and big rain clouds bursting occasionally, I’m glad we’re not travelling over the pass.

A quick bathroom break at the same place we stopped for lunch a couple of days earlier.

Then arriving at the airport nearly 3 hours before our flight was due to depart so we had lots of sitting around. It’s not a big airport so there weren’t lots of shops to help with passing the time. As you can see Ian was bored very quickly.

On the flight after a delayed departure, we touched down in Ho Chi Minh City not long after taking off (an hour and a bit). We piled onto the coach again to find our hotel in district 1 which means it’s pretty central. Unfortunately it doesn’t mean it’s very nice.

There are close to 15 million people living here and about 7 million motorcycles. 😳 It’s nuts. I really can’t believe we’ve not seen a collision. Phil described the motorcyclists like a school of fish. Darting in and out of every available space.

After checking in and being thoroughly disappointed with our room given they’ve been pretty good up until now, we went out to find a pre-dinner drink and then somewhere for dinner. We found another craft beer place just around the corner from the hotel so ☑️.

I meant to make another comment about the room. Phil was fiddling with the safe in our room to put our passports in but soon discovered that maybe it wasn’t all that safe. 😳😂

Needless to say we didn’t bother using it.

Dinner was also very close to our hotel and was traditional Vietnamese food. Well it was one of the best so far! Fresh, cheap and delicious. Katherine had coconut water envy after seeing Sharon with hers so she ordered one too.

Back to our small and noisy room to try and get some zzzz before tomorrow’s early start which is a tour with the group to the Chi Chi tunnels and somewhere else I can’t remember now. 😴

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Day 8 (cont’d) Hue

Before reaching the hotel we stopped for a beer at a craft beer house. It was in a small alley close by our hotel so we texted the Hobbits and they joined us. While it had potential, the loud music meant we only stayed for a short time. On the way to finding this place we saw one of the ladies on our tour trip and fall in front of us. Apparently a lot of them have had trips/falls which isn’t all that surprising given the state of the footpaths. She was fine but it looked worse. We decided to eat at the restaurant in our hotel for dinner and saw her again. I called out and asked her how she was and she walked over to answer me and tripped again, fell against Phil who stopped her from going face first on the floor again! Poor thing, she was so embarrassed.

Dinner was excellent but another early night as we have an 8am bus pickup in the morning.

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Day 8 (cont’d) Hue

Back on our wooden boat for the 30 min ride back, the clouds looked threatening again. When we got back on, the woman had set up a little table with lots of souvenirs for us to buy. It’s hard to escape the vendors! But again … what a tough way to earn a living.

Here are some more pics from the Pagoda.

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Day 8 (cont’d) Hue

After emerging from the walled fortress, we were in search for lunch as it was nearing 2:30pm and found a typical street food place that served only one dish which was a traditional soup of Hue. While the broth was tasty and some fresh bean shoots, lettuce and herbs accompanied it, the meat and blood sausage thing didn’t float my boat. 🥴

After lunch the Hobbits decided to head back towards the hotel and the rest of us haggled with a lady with a boat to take us to the Thien Mu Pagoda. With the slightly cooler weather today, it was a pleasant 30 min cruise along the Perfume River to the Pagoda. When we got out the first thing we noticed were all the dragonflies everywhere. Nice! With only half an hour or so to spend here, the time went quickly as there was a lot to see.

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Final photos of the Citadel …

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And just a few more photos of the Citadel …

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And more photos of the Citadel …

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More photos of the Citadel …