March 17-21
The waters off Nha Trang were beautiful
After our long train ride and then a good night's sleep, everyone was ready to get outside and explore Nha Trang. Luckily, Bon had a big day planned for us! Nha Trang is a booming beach city on the coast of Vietnam, with white sand beaches, palm trees and coral reefs just offshore. Our day was a fabulous mix of sun, sand and water! We started out by taking a short bus ride out to the ferries. The ferries here look more like oversized, converted fishing boats, but they do the trick. We met our local guide, a guy named Anh who does tours of this area every day, and we boarded the ferry.
Anh was a wonderful local guide!
Like our Intrepid guide, Anh was really fun. The first stop was a little fishing village off the coast of Nha Trang. He told us a lot about how they live on the island and let us know that everyone was really friendly and that they don't mind having their picture taken. The kids in particular love it, as long as you show them their picture after you take the photo. That ended up being quite hilarious. Everywhere you turned these little ones would come running out yelling "hello!!" over and over again with huge grins on their faces. One little boy and girl just kept waving and smiling and jumping up and down saying hello until Carl finally took their picture and showed them. Then they just held hands and walked away, smiling like it was Christmas! I guess when you can't afford mirrors or cameras, it is quite a thrill to see a picture of yourself!
These were the two little ones who wouldn't stop saying hello until someone showed them a picture of themselves!
This elderly woman was cutting bark for tea. I can't crouch like that now and I'm only 42!!
After our tour of the village, we headed over to the other end of the island where our little ferry was waiting just offshore. To get to the ferry, we had to take a traditional basket boat! The basket boats are crazy. They are literally oversized, round, shallow baskets that have had their bottoms sealed up with tree resin or tar until they are waterproof. They fit about three people and they are "captained" by these Vietnamese women who somehow manage to row them without spinning them. Shaun kept asking the woman who was rowing ours if he could take a turn but it was tough sell. She finally relented but not for long!
Row, Row, Row your boat!
Nikita and Lorenzo in their boat. They use these boats for squid fishing
Back on the boat, we headed for a snorkeling spot. When we jumped in, we were pleasantly surprised. The water was warm and pretty clear and there were some coral reefs nearby. I snorkeled a bit, but my mask kept filling up so I ended up getting rid of the mask and snorkel and just lazing around in the water with Nikita and Meredith instead. It was quite nice until I noticed what felt like a little sting on my hand. After the second time, I got out. When I asked Anh about it later he said it was probably a little teeny jellyfish. It wasn't a bad sting so luckily I didn't need to take any drastic measures to make the pain stop. (I know all of you Friends fans are thinking about that episode!)
After snorkeling we had a big feast on the boat. It was all the traditional Vietnamese food we had been having throughout the trip and it was delicious, as usual. After lunch we headed off to an island nearby where they had reserved a shady spot for us along the water. We have been running around like crazy every day sightseeing, so it was wonderful to just lay back in a beach chair and read. As part of our tour that day, they had brought along a masseuse and a manicurist, so some folks got their nails done or a massage but I was happy just being still and quiet for an afternoon.
Pam getting a manicure on the boat. Gotta support the local economy!!
Shaun relaxing on the beach
We got back to Nha Trang late in the afternoon and had a bit of time to clean up and rest before heading out for dinner. The place we went to that night was a fabulous, huge barbecue place called Lac Cahn where you grill your own food over little charcoal grills. There was fish and chicken and pork and shrimp and beef and giant beers to go along with everything. We were the only non-Vietnamese people in the place and that is saying something because the place was huge! I could have gone to bed right after dinner, but it was Saint Patricks Day so the group was keen to go out partying instead. I felt it was my duty to my heritage to participate in the festivities!
Bon cooking up some prawns for our dinner. He's a full service host!
Nikita and Meredith were enjoying the food. With Kerri and Katrina in the background
I felt like I was back in Germany with the giant beers
Mr Bon! Group leader extraordinaire!
We headed down to the beach to a place called the Sail Club where they were putting on a little show. There was fire and dancers and more beers and then some of the group started ordering "buckets" which are big cans of who-knows-what. At that point I was done so Pam, Katrina and I decided to walk back to the hotel. The next morning I was so happy I had gone home early. The carnage was pretty extreme. This is the internet, which is written in permanent ink, so all I will say is that you often hear stories of bad things happening when people have too much to drink in Southeast Asia and we can now vouch for that. Luckily, everyone was safe, but one person was a lot sicker and much poorer the next day.
These nights always start off innocently. Look how civilized we all are!
Me and my better half
The buckets started flowing. Luckily I chose to skip them!
The group was feeing good!
So as you can imagine, the group didn't do much sightseeing that day. We were taking our last overnight train that night so for the most part the day was spent packing and then relaxing until it was time to leave. Shaun and I were pretty beat, so we paid $25 to keep our room for the whole day so we could just chill out before the train. As usual, I spent my down time working on the blog.
In the aftermath of our big night we took comfort in pizza! Believe it or not it was quite good!
The train experience that night was just plain painful. We headed to the station around 9PM because the train was supposed to leave at 10PM. When we got there we found out it was going to be 45 minutes late, so we ended up hanging around in the stifling heat for 90 minutes with all our stuff before we could board the train. When we finally got on the train, everyone was exhausted so we just made up the yucky beds, crawled into our sleep sacks and went to sleep. At 5:30 the next morning we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), exhausted and feeling pretty gross from the train.
We headed straight to the hotel where luckily we had a few day rooms for showering. One of the big attractions outside Ho Chi Minh City is the Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong during the war. Since half the group was leaving for Cambodia soon, that was the only day we could do the tour so at 7:30AM we were on a bus for Cu Chi.
In retrospect, it was the one activity I would have skipped. While the tunnels were interesting, our local guide had somewhat poor English and it was all just a little rushed and strange. For example, they had a shooting range on site. There was just something creepy about looking at the barbaric things that we do to each other in war while people are paying for the chance to shoot guns in the background. After looking at the display on the horrible traps the Viet Kong set for the American soldiers, I was happy to get on the bus and head back to HCMC.
Lorenzo getting into one of the tunnels.
Carl coming out of one of the long tunnels that has been expanded to be able to fit "westerners".
We went to a working rice farm on the way
That afternoon was a little tough as well. We went to the War Remnants museum, which back in the 70's was called the American War Crimes Museum, so you can imagine how that went. The museum wasn't as one sided as it had been in the past (one major display was donated by an American Museum) but some of the photos were pretty awful. I didn't take many photos of the terrible things we saw at either Cu Chi or the War Remnants museum because it just felt wrong. War, as they say, is hell.
The rest of the day was a lot more upbeat. We took a cyclo tour of Ho Chi Minh City, which is a much prettier city than Hanoi. You could really feel the French influence in the wide boulevards, the parks and the architecture. We stopped at Notre Dame cathedral, a beautiful old Catholic church and the Saigon Central Post Office. Both were built by the French. In the case of the Post Office, it was actually designed by Gustave Eiffel. Yep, the guy who designed the Eiffel tower!
Notre Dame Cathedral, with all the stone imported from France
The old Post Office designed by Monsieur Eiffel
After our crazy day of touring, we all had a nice dinner together at a place called Ngon Restaurant before heading back to the hotel. We were all exhausted from the last few days and honestly, I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Ho Chi Minh City at night was very pretty
We awoke the next day feeling refreshed and ready to go. It was our last full day with Bon and this wonderful group of people. Most of the group had only signed up for the Vietnam portion of the trip, so after that evening only Shaun, Pam, Aidan, Nikita and I would be continuing on for the Cambodia and Thailand part of the trip. I must admit, I was very sad that this was our last day together. It's pretty incredible that you spend every waking minute for two weeks with 12 other people, and you all still get along great at the end. So we boarded the bus for our last day together. As with everything else we did, the whole group participated in the days activities, which thank God, were way more fun and light hearted than the previous day's activities.
The activity for the day was a full day visit to the Mekong Delta. First up was a boat trip out to Coconut Island, one of many island's on the river. Once again we had a local guide, a woman named Phun (sp?) who grew up on Coconut Island. She was really fun and knowledgeable and high energy. To get to the island we had to take another ferry/boat, and while we cruised down the river Phun gave us lots of information about how people live and work on the delta.
Our guide showing us how they used to open the coconuts
Shaun got to try on a Python that day!
Katrina, David and Shaun
When we got over to Coconut Island, we were greeted by a local villager who handed us a piece of delicious coconut candy that was still warm. Phun talked to us about how the islanders use every part of the coconut, from the milk to the flesh to the skin and the leaves. We saw a candy making demonstration and had lots of free samples before heading off to explore the island. Our mode of transport that day was some crazy wagon attached to a three wheeled motorcycle. We tooled around the island for a while before getting dropped off along the river. From there we walked a little ways down to a restaurant in a neighborhood where they made us a fabulous lunch. There was elephant ear fish, steamed shrimp, fried banana flowers, soup with vegetables and egg, and all the usual suspects like fried rice, spring rolls and fruit for dessert. We were all stuffed after lunch so luckily they had boats to take us back up the river!
Our crazy drive through the country
A view of the other half of the group in their trailer
The conical hats were the idea of the woman rowing the boat. Don't you think Shaun looks sweet?
The fish was presented like it was still swimming!
When we arrived back in HCMC, Shaun and I had just enough time to shower up before going to meet up with our new tour group. It was a bit strange to be honest. We had such a good dynamic with our first group and we were really sad to be leaving most of them behind! Oh well!
Our new group consisted of Shaun, me, Pam, Aidan and Nikita as well as Sarah and Callum from Australia, Karen from Australia, Tessa from New Zealand, Alex from Germany, Vivienne from Luxembourg and Rita from Germany. Our new group leader was a guy named Sareth from Cambodia. He seemed quite serious that first night but he would end up being pretty funny. So we finished up our orientation meeting, got our instructions for the departure to Cambodia in the morning and hurried back to catch up with our old group for our "Last Supper".
That night was a lot of fun. Instead of going to the low key restaurants we favored on the trip, we all decided to go to a fancy place instead. The restaurant Bon chose was high up in a hotel in Ho Chi Minh city where we had our own little room. We had lots of laughs and lots of beers and thanked Bon for being such an incredible guide. Finally it was time for us all to take our leave and I must admit I was a little choked up saying goodbye. Considering how difficult group travel can be, we really felt like we lucked out with these people. And now we have new friends all over the world!
The Last Supper!
So we said goodbye to Vietnam. I'll always remember the places we saw and the food we ate and the amazing things we did, but mostly I'll remember the people. From the little kids who just wanted to see their own photograph, to the great local guides, to the villagers we saw going about their everyday lives; it was an amazing experience. Vietnam was everything and nothing I expected. The infrastructure is terrible and the country is communist and yet a lot of the the people we met seemed to have been able to make something of themselves. Our guide Bon was a perfect example. From a childhood of abject poverty, he studied hard, learned English and made a career for himself. Now he's helping to put his nieces and nephews through school because he knows that education can make all the difference. It will be amazing to see where this country is in 25 years. Hopefully it will have made progress politically, economically and environmentally, without totally losing it's unique character. Either way, I'm glad we got to experience it now.
Farewell to our new friends! Thanks for making it such a fun trip!
And Farewell to Bon who made it so memorable!
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