Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on New Year's Eve, just in time to ring in 2012......asleep in our room.  But more on that excitement later.

We got to our hotel safely, only to find that the room we booked was barely larger than our queen sized bed.  Not to best room we stayed in, but at least it was clean.  After getting unpacked, we headed out to check out the city.

First of all, before I start showing you the sights of HCMC, I'd like to show you what the streets themselves are like.  The traffic in Vietnam overall is ridiculously crazy with a lack of traffic lights and pedestrian crosswalks.  Everyone just goes all at one time.....including pedestrians.  But, in HCMC, the traffic was on a whole other level.  There seemed to be more people, more bikes, more buses, more cars.  The technique for crossing the road is basically to start walking slowly and steadily, keeping your eye on the oncoming traffic.  The motorists will simply go around you, but still, being sandwiched between a car and a big bus is never very comfortable...

Sure....just step out into this

A sea of motorists

We had to brave across a few scary streets to reach Ben Tanh market, a great place to buy everything and anything:

Ben Tanh Market - full of cheap and wonderful things to buy

Snake and scorpion wine for sale at the market...apparently only
older men should drink it as it boosts...ahem..."vitality"

This woman was making waffles and little pancakes on her little bucket-turned-grill and selling them.

Hotel De Ville - HCMC City Hall

HCMC Opera House

New Year Displays

After walking around and grabbing a light dinner (remember sensitive stomachs), we headed back to our hotel, climbed into bed, and rang the New Year in in our dreams....I know, exciting huh?   I'm almost embarrassed to admit it.  I think this brought us to new levels of lame-o-ness, who goes to bed at 10 pm on New Year's Eve????  I guess we do.  But, in our defense, we were still recovering physically and we had booked a boat tour for the next day that left at 7:30 am.  

So, after a good night's sleep, we got up and headed out to the dock to enjoy a tour of the Mekong Delta.  Some of the other tourists on the tour had stayed out to celebrate New Year's the traditional way and said it was a huge mess of people and it took them an hour just to travel a few kilometers to get home.....kinda glad we didn't get stuck in that mess.

The banks of the Saigon River around HCMC

First stop....another temple!  This one was Buddhist and they had a bucket outside full of fish that were just caught in the morning.  You can buy a fish and release it back into the river as a "good deed".  The poor fish were so crowded in the bucket and they kept jumping out.

Man, I mean Fish overboard!

Cruising further down...

River ferry - there are a lack of bridges for motorists to cross,
so they just ride their bikes onto the river ferry

Woman waiting for the ferry

Wedding party on the ferry

Next stop, a local wet market:

Baby chicks and ducklings for sale.
People raise them and then eat them or sell them for a profit

Produce

This is the street kitchen sink...which is why I was reluctant to eat street food

Small bridge - got honked at for standing in the middle of the bridge to take this pic

Happy kids waving at us from the river bank

We also visited a village farm:

Farmer picking some snacks from the lotus pond

Rice Fields

Old men cruising by.  Take note that the old man is rowing the
boat WHILE asian squatting....now that takes some skill

Here it is again - masters of the asian squat

We stopped for lunch at a Buddhist orphanage.  The tour company hired their own chef to cook food for us since it is hard to get good and clean food out in the countryside.

Chef at work in the outdoor kitchen

Spring Rolls

Fried fish

The final stop on the tour was at a Cao Dai temple.  The tour guide explained that Cao Dai was a "cocktail" religion.  They believe in the teachings of Buddha, Guanyin, Confucius, Jesus, and other prophets and gods.  It's hard for me to understand it because as a Christian, we believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, which basically makes it impossible to align Jesus's teachings align with the teachings of Buddha and other gods all at the same time.  Seems a bit confusing and schizophrenic....

All the gods - the second one from the bottom is the Jesus

Cao Dai temple

On our way back to HCMC, we had some fruits and refreshing coconuts to drink:

Me and my fresh coconut


Andy getting ready to eat a mini banana

After a day of touring, we were pretty tired and got some massages for only $12 US each!  The massages included cucumber facials (yes, Andy had a facial too!) and a little bit of hot stone massage in the end.  Heavenly!  After our massages, we stopped for dinner and had our favorite shrimp hash dish again.

Shrimp hash fried on sugar cane skewers

We thought about ordering some Cigarettes, but thought it might ruin our appetite.  

Cigarettes section on the Menu....seriously??

On our final day in HCMC, we checked out the War Remnants museum in the morning since our flight left in the afternoon.  Actually...only one of us actually got to see the exhibits....the other (being me) ended up with a migraine and was desperately trying to sleep it off on some benches in the museum lobby.  

This is about all I saw of the War Remnants Museum

I was a little bummed about the migraine, but luckily I found a way to sleep everywhere we went - the museum lobby, then the hotel lobby while waiting for a taxi to the airport, on the taxi to the airport, at the airport, and finally on the plane.  By the time I got back to Singapore, I was in good shape so thank God that I got through it without anything ugly happening!

That just about wraps up our trip to Vietnam.  For the last section of photos from HCMC, you can view them in this album.  Whew! Took me long enough to get these posts up....and I finished just in time because we're off to Chiang Mai, Thailand for the Chinese New Year long weekend!

Hue

After spending 5 days in Hanoi, we flew south to Hue, which is in Central Vietnam.  Hue is the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, so it has alot of historical sites.  We originally planned to stay for 3 days, but had to extend a day due to an attack of gastrointestinal issues.

Since the sights in Hue are spread apart, we decided to do a motorbike tour.  

Basically, you hire a tour guide with a motorbike and he takes you around the country side to visit a few sights around Hue.  Here we are with our guides:

       

Mr Ty (think Mr. T of the A-Team)                             Mr. Hai (as in hi, hello)

It was the first time Andy and I rode on motorcycles, and I have to say, it was definitely the way to go.  With a motorbike, you can go on the little dirt country roads and see parts of the country that would be difficult to reach in a car.  

Rice farmer floating through the rice paddies

Covered bridge

Covered bridge from afar

After visiting the bridge and a little agricultural museum in the village, we drove to a Buddhist temple/monastery that was hidden in the woods.

Entrance to the temple


Monks praying.  Note the awesome hair style on the junior monk in the back.
Apparently hair (or the lack of hair) indicates seniority.


Peaceful pond and bridge in the monastery

Next we drove to the incense and conical hat making "village".  Really, it was a bunch of stores on the side of the road. They were making incense and let me have a try.

Here I am, getting a lesson in making incense



Andy joining in the tea party

Continuing along, we rode to the Tu Duc Mausoleum.  Around Hue, there are about 13 mausoleums of the former emperors of Vietnam.  The largest and most famous is that of Tu Duc.   He had 103 wives who are all buried on the grounds along with him.

      

After finishing up there, we grabbed a quick bowl of pho and rode to the Forbidden Purple City.  It's where the emperor ruled from.  Unfortunately, many of the buildings were demolished by warfare.  It's only about 200 years old, but seemed much older because most of it was destroyed and the remaining structures are not very well kept.  It reminded me of the Forbidden City in Beijing, but on a much smaller scale.

Entrance to the Forbidden City

In the courtyard


Halls of the Manadarins

Our final stop was at the Heavenly lady pagoda.  By this time, we were a bit pagoda'd and temple'd out, so I didn't take many pictures.

After a fun day of touring, our guides dropped us off at our hotel, but not before taking a posed picture of us on their bikes.

(cue: baaaaaad to the bone)

As for the rest of our stay in Hue, we ended up spending an extra day holed up in the hotel due to upset stomachs.  Andy had it worse than me so while he rested, I went out and got my hair cut, did a little shopping, and ate some good food.  You can check out the rest of my Hue photos here.  After a day of rest, we were back in action and flew out Ho Chi Minh City to wrap up our tour of Vietnam.  More about that in the next post!