32 days
16 hotels
34 motorbikes
18 buses
5 cars
12 boats
3 broken down vehicles
100 (at least) spring rolls
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
i love boats and factories
Rather than taking a bus from Saigon, Vietnam, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we decided to go on a three-day tour through Vietnam's Mekong Delta that would take us, mostly by boat, into Cambodia. It was a good choce for me, as we were on at least seven different boats and visited three factories....two of my favorite things. :)
This picture is from a rice noodle factory where the noodles are made entirely by hand. I think it would be fun to try it out for a week or so...I am sure it must get tedious eventually.
We visited a big floating market, where the "big boats" show up with their produce (the long rod with vegetables tied to it is a kind of sign . . ."this is what we've got" sort of thing) and the "little boats" pull up alongside and purchase what they want, possibly for use, or possibly to be taken down smaller canals and re-sold.
This was the cheesy Disneyland-ish part of the tour. But we were on a boat with a couple from Japan, who live in a city near ours! We were only too happy to pratcice Japanese with them. 
Our last night in Vietnam we spent the evening with a lady we met at the post office, and her family. It was really great to be in their home, talking about their lives, and even loking at their wedding pictures. The woman's father was a South Vietnamese soldier and it was really interesting to hear his perspective. Although he hasn't been able to work professionally since then, due to government restrictions, he is so happy for the peace and safety for his family.
On our way out of Vietnam we saw a wedding procession in a Muslim Cham minority village.
Riding up the Mekong River to Cambodia, we got to see lots of people living, working, and playing along the river's edge.
This picture is from a rice noodle factory where the noodles are made entirely by hand. I think it would be fun to try it out for a week or so...I am sure it must get tedious eventually.
We visited a big floating market, where the "big boats" show up with their produce (the long rod with vegetables tied to it is a kind of sign . . ."this is what we've got" sort of thing) and the "little boats" pull up alongside and purchase what they want, possibly for use, or possibly to be taken down smaller canals and re-sold.
This was the cheesy Disneyland-ish part of the tour. But we were on a boat with a couple from Japan, who live in a city near ours! We were only too happy to pratcice Japanese with them.And another boat . . .
Our last night in Vietnam we spent the evening with a lady we met at the post office, and her family. It was really great to be in their home, talking about their lives, and even loking at their wedding pictures. The woman's father was a South Vietnamese soldier and it was really interesting to hear his perspective. Although he hasn't been able to work professionally since then, due to government restrictions, he is so happy for the peace and safety for his family.
On our way out of Vietnam we saw a wedding procession in a Muslim Cham minority village.Riding up the Mekong River to Cambodia, we got to see lots of people living, working, and playing along the river's edge.
ho chi minh city (saigon)
I'm reading a travel memoir from the 1950's right now (A Dragon Apparent, by Norman Lewis) and this is what he says shortly after arriving in Saigon: "It was clear from the first moment . . . that the lives of the people of the Far East are lived in public. . . . The street is the extension of the house and there is no sharp dividing line between the two." Many things have changed in the past fifty years, but this is one thing that still seems to be true, at least in some parts of Saigon. In the neighborhood where we stayed (in the upper level of someone's home/guesthouse), the streets formed a maze of narrow alleys. During the day, the homes were wide open to the streets and you could easily look in and see the living areas, sometimes not much bigger than a closet, with tiled floors and a small red-lit alar and a stairway or even ladder leading to the upper levels. The houses were so close together that one night a neighbor was watching TV and we kept trying to turn the volume down on our TV, because it didn't seem possible that the sound was coming from another house. 
We saw a lot of interesting buildings in Saigon, many of them beautiful old colonial-era buildings. The building pictured below (built in the 60's) is the Reunification Palace, the former home of the South Vietnamese president and where the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates on the day Saigon "fell" or "was liberated," depending on perspective. We took a tour of the palace and saw the bunker and offices from which the president directed the war. In Saigon, more than in other cities in Vietnam, we noticed a strong official message regarding the war and specifically America's role in it. No one ever said anything to us personally. . . this was only the case during official scripted tours. What saddened me most about this is that many South Vietnamese suffered due to the war as well, but their message cannot be heard. Former S. Vietnamese soldiers, to this day, cannot have official residency in Saigon and therefore cannot own property or have professional jobs. We were told that many of the cyclo and motorbike drivers are former teachers, doctors, etc.
We took a day trip from Saigon and one of the stops was the head Cao Dai cathedral. Cao Daism is a religion unique to Vietnam. I believe that it is a kind of mix of Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, and maybe Islam. We were at the cathedral in time for one of the daily masses. Altough we couldn't understand anything, the building was a sight to behold. :)
Another stop was at Cu Chi Tunnels, an amazing network of tunnels built by the North Vietnamese soldiers and the community in this area and used during the war. The tunnels have supposedly been doubled in size for tourists to try them out. I can't imagine them being any smaller. This is me trying not to let claustrophobia take over. Can you see the fear in my eyes? :)
We saw a lot of interesting buildings in Saigon, many of them beautiful old colonial-era buildings. The building pictured below (built in the 60's) is the Reunification Palace, the former home of the South Vietnamese president and where the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates on the day Saigon "fell" or "was liberated," depending on perspective. We took a tour of the palace and saw the bunker and offices from which the president directed the war. In Saigon, more than in other cities in Vietnam, we noticed a strong official message regarding the war and specifically America's role in it. No one ever said anything to us personally. . . this was only the case during official scripted tours. What saddened me most about this is that many South Vietnamese suffered due to the war as well, but their message cannot be heard. Former S. Vietnamese soldiers, to this day, cannot have official residency in Saigon and therefore cannot own property or have professional jobs. We were told that many of the cyclo and motorbike drivers are former teachers, doctors, etc.
We took a day trip from Saigon and one of the stops was the head Cao Dai cathedral. Cao Daism is a religion unique to Vietnam. I believe that it is a kind of mix of Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, and maybe Islam. We were at the cathedral in time for one of the daily masses. Altough we couldn't understand anything, the building was a sight to behold. :) Another stop was at Cu Chi Tunnels, an amazing network of tunnels built by the North Vietnamese soldiers and the community in this area and used during the war. The tunnels have supposedly been doubled in size for tourists to try them out. I can't imagine them being any smaller. This is me trying not to let claustrophobia take over. Can you see the fear in my eyes? :)
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