Sunday, Dec. 6 to Wednesday, Dec. 9 - We flew from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for a 3 day visit to Vietnam. Saigon is a growing modern metropolitan city that has the look and feel of any big US city such as New York. There are huge stylish and impressive sky scrapers and motorcycles everywhere. There are over 9 million living in the area and on most days there are 11 million motorbikes (only seemed that way). Since I got behind 3 days in posting while in Cambodia I am going to summarize the Vietnam visit here in 1 post.
Sunday - Dec. 6
Upon arriving in Saigon, we went to the downtown area and saw the Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame. Surprisingly, 7% of the people are registered Catholic while only 9% are registered as Buddhist. Our guide shared that 76% declare no religion due to fear the communist party will treat them differently because when they came into power it was a mandate that religious worship was not approved.
Next to the cathedral was the old post office built between 1886 and 1891 in the French Provincial style. It still serves as the central post office.
Next we visited the Ben Thanh Market, a large market in central Saigon with a large selection of handicrafts, textiles and souvenirs. There is a mixture of government run stalls and private ones. It was a busy place.
Monday - Dec. 7
This morning we head north of Saigon to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. On the way we stopped by this rice paper making shop. This rice paper is the eatable type that is dried and served as chips or is used to make spring roll wrappers.
They grind the rice in this mill stone to remove the outer hull.
The batter is spread really thin onto to a hot griddle and cooked for 10 seconds before being removed and placed on a drying rack.
I got to try my hand at making them.
We arrived at the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels are part of a large network of an underground maze covering over 125 miles. They were used by the Vietnam Cong during the war as hiding spots during combat and for moving between areas secretly in order to ambush American troops. There are extensive food shelters, command headquarters, living quarters, hospital rooms, and weapon storage units in the maze. It was quite by accident that they were discovered by the Americans and then extensive bombing raids were used to try and destroy them. Today there are still many sections in tact. I had some really mixed feelings crawling down into the tunnels but thought it was important to have a better understanding of what our men where up against while over here.
A side note - our guide's father served as a captain for the South Vietnamese army and he had to be very careful as to his comments while we were being showed the tunnels by a current military guide.
A gun turret mound.
The entrances were small and hidden very well.
A sample of how they would dig and fix bobbie traps.
One of the larger command centers down in the tunnel maze.
I was glad to leave this place.
For lunch we went to get some of the famous Vietnamese Pho noodles.
They were delicious!
We went to the Mua Roi Nuoc water puppet show. Water puppet shows are unique to Vietnam. There is a pool of water and the puppeteers stand behind a screen and maneuver the puppets through the water. It was quite interesting to watch. They had musicians playing live to accompany the show.
After the show we were invited back stage to have a closer look at the puppets and how it all worked.
Next we climbed onto our individual cycle-rickshaw for a thrilling ride through the busy night streets of Saigon. It was a wild experience as our drivers maneuvered in between motorbikes and cars.
At our destination we walked down an alley to go for dinner. At first I had some reservations about the location and what we would find waiting for us but it turned out to be a Saigon Culinary Center. We were given some food preparation and cooking techniques as we helped prepare part of our dinner.
I had a hand in pressing garlic.
Putting our chicken dish together for cooking.
Tuesday - Dec. 8
We drove south today to go to the Mekong Delta. There were huge rice fields in the picturesque countryside.
The little buildings scattered throughout are burial sites for family members. I asked how they decided where to place the tombs as they were everywhere and our guide said the family would visit a fortune teller/horoscope reader to find the perfect resting place.
We stopped at a roadside coffe house to take a break and learn about local coffees. Travelers will stop for a cup of coffee and rest in the hammocks before continuing their journeys.
As we went through our guide's hometown we stopped for a few minutes to meet his dad. He is the one who served as a Captain in the South Vietnamese army. It was a real treat to get to meet him.
We then proceeded to Ben Tre village where we climbed aboard a sampan for a ride though the canals.
Sporting the traditional cone hat.
I pitched in and helped row for a while.
We got out at a local coconut candy workshop where we learned how they used all the parts of the coconut for making sugar, candy, and burning the hulls for energy.
Collecting the coconut milk.
Shredding the coconut
Cooking it down to make candy
Rolling out the candy and wrapping it in rice papers.
We then climbed aboard a boat to cruise across the delta. A visit to Phoenix Island allowed us to meet a follower of what is known as the "Coconut Monk" religion started by Ong Dao Dua during the late 1950's. You'll have to research to learn more as it is too complicated to explain here.
Life on the delta
Next stop was for lunch. Can you guess what was on the menu?
How about elephant ear fish. At fist I thought "no way!" but it was really delicious.
They rubbed the scales into the flesh then flaked it off to eat.
We did a pretty good job eating it.
Also had large prawns.
That night we had a farewell dinner as 6 of the group were leaving the next day to head home. The rest of us flew back to Bangkok, Thailand for one more week of adventures.
Whew!!! My brain is beginning to hit the overload point.
