HCMC (aka Saigon), Vietnam

Oct 27: off to HCMC (aka Saigon), Vietnam
We paid our bill and hopped on a couple of motos to the bus station (pretty sure we greatly overpaid for the tickets, but whatever). We stop after about an hour and a half and everyone disembarks. It looks like we're at a bus station (even though we were told we'd be dropped off at our hostel) so we start chatting with the moto drivers who are insisting that we are at our destination and are trying to offer us rides. At this point, we decide to consult the bus driver, who was luckily still in the vicinity. He informed us we just needed to switch buses (apparently we were in HCMC, just in the outskirts). So we hop on our second bus and head into the city, grab a cab to the tourist mecca, find a hostel and head out to grab some food. We order some spring rolls (and finally get some fresh ones! Since we arrived in Vietnam we'd disappointingly been getting only fried ones), a Vietnamese crepe (amazing) and we splurged on some gnochies in butter and cheese (more on that later). While eating we were approached by a friendly guy offering cyclo tours of the city. A cyclo is pretty much a very small three wheeled carriage+ bicyle contraption. We agreed for a short 2 hour (and probably overpriced) tour of the city. We board the cyclo, which both of us are barely able to fit on (we are very tightly squished, and I am pretty much sitting right on top of Phil) and begin our extremely slow (and terrifying) tour of the city. HCMC has 7-8 million inhabitants, and approximately 4 million motos. Needless to say, we were in a sea of motos, and going about 1/4 their speed, which was terrifying. At one point we were literally headed directly towards the stream of oncoming traffic. Our first stop was the war remnants museum, an extremely sobering experience, where we saw thousands of pictures and even some agent orange-mutated fetuses in jars. We were almost in a state of shock--I guess neither of us fully comprehended the full extent of the war--when we re-boarded the cyclo. We quietly continued our tour, saw all the important buildings (Notre Dame Cathedral, old train station, where the GIs lived during the war, American Embassy, etc). And then it started to rain. So our dutiful cyclo driver pulled out his cyclo-cover, which only narrowed our field of vision to about 12 inches, made us even more squished and uncomfortable as well as hot and sweaty. Fabulous. Luckily, our tour was almost over, and we were dropped back off, having seen the sights and also almost peed our pants. We bought a knockoff Vietnam Rough Guides from one of the many vendors selling them on the streets, and headed for a beer. Five beers each later, we had made some new friends and not managed to plan any of our trip. At this point, we were desperately in need of some food, so we grabbed some, headed back to the hotel and passed out.

Oct 28: Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple
So we wake up bright and early and hop on a bus (gasp...our first organized tour!) and spend a ridiculously bumpy 2 hour ride to the Cao Dai Temple, which is very interesting, to say the least. (On the way we stopped at a workshop where war-disabled citizens make artwork out of eggshells, which was pretty cool...see pictures...) Anyway, back to the temple...its based on a religion that combines Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The temple itself was beautiful, and very light and airy (most of the walls have holes in them). There are columns with dragons carved all around them, and a globe (?) with the all seeing-eye. We even were able to see their daily ceremony, which consisted of the community (dressed in white robes), and other (probably more important) people (dressed in blue, red or yellow robes) praying while music was played, songs were sang, and the gong was rung. Next we spent another hour or two on our way to the Cu Chi tunnels, a main area that the Viet Cong hid out during the war. There are over 250km of tunnels, linking 6 villages. It can go up to 4 levels deep (the deepest one 10-12m) and they included kitchens, hospitals, living rooms, etc. They literally lived underground all day, and came out at night for missions or for fresh air. They set up lots of booby traps (we saw many), and so the tunnels pretty much were impenetrable by the US forces (also the tunnels were super small, most of the GIs couldn't fit, ha!). Tunnels could be as small as 80 cm wide and 80cm tall. We got a chance to crawl through one (which they have now widened for tourists) and it was still incredibly small, hot, humid, and our legs were burning after just a short 60m crawl/walk. The day finished, we headed back to HCMC during rush hour (which is absolutley crazy), and decided to check out some of the finer cuisine in HCMC (apparently the culinary capital of Vietnam). We chose a French restaurant quite above our budget (we figured it would be worth the splurge). Unfortunately, it was not worth the splurge; the only redeeming thing was the delicious passion fruit torte at the end. Otherwise, waste of money, sad day.



Oct 29: Last day in HCMC
Soooo we slept in till about noon (oops), then headed out to finish our tour of HCMC. We started at the Ben Thanh Market, which was simply amazing. The front is filled with the usual tourist-market kinda stuff, but in the back is a semi food-court area where mostly locals eat (also a few tourists). We started with a bun (cold rice noodles with veggies and pork and the typical vietnamese sauce) and some spring rolls and a coke ($2.50). At the next stall, we ate a plate of freshly grilled scallops on the shell ($1.50) and a plate of steamed flower snails ($1.50). We wandered a bit more (trying to work up our appetites again) and then stopped for a strawberry smoothie and some weird layered gelatin beverage (see picture). When I asked what it was, the guy told me white, red, yellow, coconut haha. Of course it was delicious. Next we had probably our favorite cups of coffee of the trip so far at a Trung Nguyen coffee shop (yum!). Then we headed to the Reunification Palace. This is where the North Vietnamese Army broke through the gate, the south surrendered, and Vietnam was reunited. We got a free tour (yay!) and then decided to go to the botanical gardens and zoo. By the time we got there, however, it was closed. So we headed for the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which our guide book said was open until 7. After some searching, we arrived at 6:30, to discover that for some reason (perhaps bc it is low season) it closes at 6. Rather upset, we decided it was time for dinner and headed for another splurge-restaurant (this time Vietnamese cuisine), hoping our splurge would be more successful this time. The place was pretty nice (white table cloths, etc) and although our guidebook said it was popular with tour groups, we certainly did not expect the 40+ white-haired tourists that entered about 15 mins after we sat down hehe. Either way, we enjoyed our meal, even though it was not quite worth the price. We had lotus salad, a Vietnamese crepe and fried soft shell crabs with passion fruit sauce. Semi-satisfied, we headed back to the hostel for a serious internet session (aka till 4 am or so). Our lack of sleep was almost certainly responsible for what happened the next day, when our bus for Da Lat left at 7:30 am...