Ho Chi Minh City is the commercial centre of the south of Vietnam and a big city with a bewildering flurry of motorbikes and shouting people on every street. It seems a more modern region with a diverse population and tourists seem much more to blend into the background. The first MacDonalds has just opened alongside several Starbucks, which would be hard to imagine in Hanoi. On our first day we explored a Hindu temple and the city museum, where we learned about the major economic significance of the region as well as the political revolutionaries of Vietnam's history.
Most interesting was the Independence Palace which was the seat of power during the war with the north right up until the famous tanks of the reunifying forces of the northern communist regime came crashing through the gates onto the lawn. Leila posed with the tanks and made friends with some school children and we enjoyed the tour of the underground bunker and war rooms. The independence palace was a striking contrast to the stark communist buildings of the north as it was a bright, open and colourful place with furnishings reminiscent of the west in the sixties designed for entertaining dignitaries of the United States and other allies. The city is still widely referred to by residents as Saigon, its name before the reunifying forces renamed the city and you suspect the politics of people in the south is actually more moderate even though they wouldn't say it.
We'd had to miss one or two coastal opportunities by flying directly to Saigon but it allowed us more time to explore further south, using the city as a base for excursions to the Mekong Delta and the Cat Tien national park. What we needed was a nice comfortable hotel that we could store luggage and look forward to returning to. Unfortunately this time ball of hotel roulette did not rest in our favour as the one we'd booked turned out to have tiny, claustrophobic rooms with no windows that was an assault on Leila's senses as much as the stale air with an aroma of cabbage. Here the eccentric small man on reception in the evenings enthusiastically claimed it was no problem at all to leave our bags but two days later it turned out he had not yet mastered the English to deal with us asking for our bags back and we almost snapped when he initially denied having them!
At least the hotel bath provided a good location for Leila to take the clippers to Ali's hair for a much needed haircut. Her skills are improving and Ali thinks he may never need to pay for a haircut again. It turns out that land prices are so high in Saigon that modest properties in the centre are worth more than $1m resulting in the cramped locations and a great deal of redevelopment. Hunting for vegetarian restaurants that Ali had seen mentioned on the internet ended in failure (and ridicule) more than once when they'd turned out to have been demolished.
We took a two-day tour of the Mekong Delta, where the great Mekong river reaches the sea after passing through five countries, and a major area of agriculture for Vietnam which the guide proudly claims make it the biggest exporter of rice. We had to swallow our pride a little to take an organised tour rather than go independently but this turned out to be great value and included visits by boat to producers of honey, coconut sweets, rice and noodles as well as a floating market where fruit and vegetables are traded from boat to boat. Leila took an active part in participating in production of noodles but her favourite part was the ride along a narrow canal by rowing boat, although this had Ali fuming as the rowers passing by colluded to hint shamelessly to each other's passengers for big tips!
Our last few days in Vietnam were spent visiting the Cat Tien national park which we managed to do entirely by local buses and self-guided walks and cycling through the jungle to the idyllic crocodile lake. Here the endangered Siamese crocodiles have been successfully bred and can be easily seen, especially surfacing near the tourist row boats - we decided to observe from a safe distance. We also visited the Primate Rehabilitation centre where monkeys and gibbons rescued from mistreatment (usually caged as pets or for tourist entertainment) are retrained to swing, hunt and breed, apparently with some success as around thirty have been released into the wild. Our riverside guesthouse, Green Hope lodge, provided a very comfortable bungalow that made this a delightful refuge from the city and were very kind and helpful, even providing a free river ride where we encountered a poor water buffalo put to work heaving big truckloads of potatoes across the river, and Ali discovered how cashews are grown.
The trip back to Ho Chi Minh City allowed just enough time before flying for a visit to the War Museum where many visitors come to learn in graphic detail about the atrocities of the Vietnam war - in particular those committed by the United States. The exhibitions use a lot of powerful photography and even allowing for the propaganda element, its a damning record of the use of chemical weapons especially and shocking to see the disfiguring effects of Agent Orange on children even in recent years. On that note we said goodbye to Vietnam and took our flight back to Thailand where we finally planned to hit the islands and ride out the last couple of weeks in Asia with some beach bumming.
No comments:
Post a Comment