Holidaying within a holiday

Pick of the day: Lunch spot on the Mekong

Style: Western w/ bum gun

Atmosphere: tiled

Extras: Ah the western sit. The only style that one can happily read upon. Fortunately we have been knocking about a bit now and know that just because its a western sit doesn't mean it will have paper. Always carry a roll! 

18/05/13 to 24/05/13: Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta and border hopping to Phnom Penh

Arriving in the early afternoon at Saigon’s (the centre of HCMC is still referred to as Saigon) central station, which is a misnomer as there is only the one, we found ourselves in an as yet unprecedented situation. Despite the huge number of Taxis we struggled to solicit the attention and service of a single one for a while, normally having to fight them off.

We eventually managed to make our way to our abode, the classiest place yet, the Liberty Central hotel. We knew something was different as this place had a ‘concierge’ AS WELL as a receptionist!

After settling in to our plush room we relaxed by the roof top pool with a few cocktails before heading out for a nice meal.

Sunset off the roof terrace looking south west over the market and city

The next morning brought two things, another year of age for myself and my parents to boot, the latter arriving at 7am. This was made less traumatic as it was lovely to see them after the last few months and they had even brought cards and presents. The highlight having to be the t-shirt Vi had ordered pictured below (I don’t get to wear it every day….).

Take every day as it comes

Being a proper (non-budget) hotel the breakfast buffet was brilliant, with classics from China, Europe, America, Vietnam and Japan. Needless to say I sliced myself some seeded loaf and made a bacon sandwich. Perfect. Breakfast was interrupted by a strange tune and the staff gathering round our table, before they burst into a rendition of “happy birthday to you” and produced a fantastic looking cake. It seems they had noticed from my passport it was my birthday and organised it of their own accord. That’s service!

We spent the day with a jet lagged mum and dad walking around the old town, which doesn’t look very old at all. The highlight being mum and day falling asleep at various points around the city.

Ma and Pa's first lesson. Road crossing.

New and old architecture in Saigon

The next day we headed to the War Remnants Museum which had among the obligatory Huey helicopter a large number of photo exhibits showing the horrors of the war on both sides including a really interesting exhibition on war photographers. Strangely the museum closed for lunch so we headed over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which is apparently a must see. We must have seen too many pagodas though as it was a bit crap. We arrived just in time for the skies to open and it absolutely bucketed it down so we ended up cowering in the pagoda for much longer than anticipated.

Flame-throwing tanks. Scary.

Back to finish off the Museum (via a taxi ride that was most amusing due to ben’s dad (John) having not quite got used to the currency get and offering about 10 times too little then around 100 times too much money) followed by pool time. That evening we ate at the classy “Japanese fusion” restaurant, Siri, on the roof of a 23 storey building giving great views and our first red wine in far too long!

The next day we went on a half day tour to the (relatively) nearby Cu Chi Tunnels which were tunnels used by the Vietcong during the war to transport supplies and sneak their way around the Americans. The tour guide was excellent and showed us all the ways in which the Vietcong managed to avoid detection including making the air/smoke holes to and from the tunnels which look like termite mounds and the tiny paths through the trees. We were also showed the various booby traps which mostly involved trap doors on revolving hinges which revealed nasty looking bamboo spikes that were sometimes tipped in snake venom. We were also shown the various different underground rooms that were used as headquarters, meeting rooms, kitchens, first aid posts and just about everything else you need to fight a war from underground. Then went into the actual tunnels which are tiny! Apparently they have been enlarged to fit our big western bums but nevertheless it was still a crouching/bent double affair and some sections weren’t lit so there was a bit of a fear of actually getting lost in there. We emerged very sweaty and glad to get back into our swish air conditioned bus and head home for more material comforts (ie the pool).

Good thing I was at holiday weight.

Chilling by the pool with a couple of cocktails

The following day was an early start to go for a boat ride on the Mekong delta. We got on our own little boat and were taken to a little river side village where we were shown how the local sweets were made and fed a lot of tea. The coconut sweets (made by essentially cooking shredded coconut until it makes a sort of toffee) were delicious, as were the coconut and brown sugar crackers, rice paper pancakes and puffed rice and caramel cakes. All in all we were pretty well fed! We then carried on to a fruit farm where we had a lovely wander through the orchards and saw how various fruits were grown. We also got to taste a fair few such as jackfruit (like a chewy banana), rambutan (like lychee), green guava with chilli salt, watermelon and other tasty treats. While we ate we were entertained by a troupe of musicians and dancers who played traditionally music throughout except for the last song which bizarrely was Auld Lang Syne (although not with the usual words) which everyone stood up and clapped to.  After a lunch involving a scary looking elephant fish we  had a fair few hours in the boat coasting through the various waterways of the delta, watching people go about their business from their stilt houses and on their dugout canoes. The sun was warm and all of us fell asleep at some point and we were given a coconut each to sip on. We were also offered durian fruit for the first time. For those that don’t know it’s a fruit that smells like rotting flesh (so badly that it’s banned from public places) and considered a delicacy in this part of the world. Ben and I both tried it. It tastes like it smells and the taste doesn’t go away for a long, long time.

Cock fighting. Not illegal. Nether is dog fighting and bear baiting, but i guess they rarely get the bears now

Fried Elephant fish, DIY spring rolls. Bloody awesome

The mekong is quiet in the day with dawn and dusk when all the activity occurs

As the sun set we arrived in the town of Can Tho where we went out for a decent dinner and got a short sleep before being up at sunrise the next day for the floating markets. In this part of the delta people come from a long way upriver to sell their farm produce wholesale so there are big barges everywhere, each with one of their fruits or vegetables, a watermelon or sweet potato say, displayed on the end of a long pole to show their wares. In between the big boats are smaller dugouts that sell food to the people living on the larger boats. All in all it looks like organised chaos. On our return we went to the morning town market which had just about every fruit, vegetable, meat or fish you could think of as well as some that we hadn’t- pig’s penis anyone?

Floating markets, bleary eyed for this one

The pineapple express

Eggs. Many ways.

We then started on the long journey back to home sweet home (got a little too used to posh hotels).

We spent the rest of that day sorting out onward transport and posting 8kg of warm weather clothes home by sea mail. The box should arrive home sometime after we do.

Thanks to mum and dad for a great birthday and providing a holiday within a holiday!

Enjoying a farewell drink, colonial club style.

Then the next day was time for the tearful goodbyes and the bus to Cambodia. This time we had left a whole 12 hours on our visas! We did have a slight issue at the border crossing where the immigration officer asked us for $2 more than the sign above his office said it was supposed to be in order to ‘fast track’ it. Being a bit slow it took me a little while to realise that we were being asked for a bribe and although I had actually expected to be asked for a bribe at a border crossing at some point I nevertheless got a little irrationally angry. We had a little bit of a standoff where the guy told us we would have to wait an hour for our visas (and so miss our bus) and I told him we weren’t going anywhere and repeatedly demanded his name and set the timer on my watch to show I meant it. In the end we paid nothing extra and got our visas after 4 minutes of waiting which was the approximate time it took him to process the things anyway. Nil points for corruption today. However we were soon to discover that Cambodia is the most corrupt country either of us has ever been to.