Visiting Vietnam - Day 5

We got up early to catch the morning coach back to Dalat. I was a little sad to be leaving this quaint little town. Still I was looking forward to returning to Ho Chi Minh City to catch up on the shopping and sightseeing we might have missed. Got to buy lots of stuff back as evidence, you know!

A last look at Dalat’s morning sky

The 7 hour coach ride was plagued yet again by the ceaseless honking by the driver. It almost seemed like the horn was meant for the passengers inside the coach instead of the other motorists.

In between, a stop over for the passengers to empty our bladders. Almost like those stopovers in Malaysia, they had stalls hawking various foodstuffs. The first one we stopped at sold mainly fruits. I had to take this photo of the local variety of avocados which were so much bigger than the ones we import into Singapore, and lots cheaper.

Vietnamese avocados, not to be mistaken as mangoes

We returned to Ho Chi Minh City at around 12.30pm and checked into Madam Cuc’s. Unfortunately, we were allocated a room up on the fourth floor…

The stairwell

Fortunately, they had a motorized pulley to hoist our luggage up to our floor through the open stairwell.

Having dumped our stuff in the room, we proceeded to lunch. We returned to Bun Bo Hue, like the way a less adventurous traveler with a weak stomach should. Plus, we were captivated by their spring rolls and combination rice cakes.

With our stomachs filled, we returned to Ben Thanh Market for another round of shopping before we linked up with Jingjing’s friends and their friends to have a tour of The Reunification Palace (or The Independence Palace).

Turns out that we were almost too late to get in. Thankfully the people at the counter allowed us to get the last tickets for the day. It was a pretty rushed affair, but we managed to take a good amount of photos for memory’s sake.

A pleasant lady in an Ao Dai stepped forward to ask if we would like a guided tour of the palace. We agreed since it was free and it should spare us the ordeal of getting lost in the premises. The most memorable part of the tour has got to be the guide’s Vietnamese accented English as she rattled off a memorized script at every specialty room we were brought to. We managed to capture about 30% of what she said on the spot and I retained about 1% at this point of time…

So after running around the palace, we ended up in the kitchen, where the guided tour ends. Adjacent to the kitchen was a photo gallery of the historic events that took place at this monumental palace. This was the photo that left the deepest impact.

It was closing time, so we made our way out of the palace and proceeded to a really nice but noisy seafood restaurant with ceaseless live music for our dinner. The place was so loud we literally gave up chatting with each other.

Still the food was pretty good and fresh. As for the atmosphere, well, I guess we weren’t in the right state of mind to enjoy it. But nevertheless a great experience. We then adjourned for ice cream.

Before we split groups, we asked for recommendations to a good massage parlour, and we ended up at Golden Lotus for the masseuse to untie those knots in our aching bodies.

With that, we returned to our hotel and knocked out. Tomorrow, we would fly back home.

Visiting Vietnam - Day 2

It's day 2 of Vietnam after so long since my post about day 1! We got up for the visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels today.

Breakfast from the hotel was a baguette, jam and butter with Vietnamese coffee. A surprisingly awesome combination despite the simplicity. The baguette was fresh and had that nice and soft chewy centre and a crispy crust. The jam and softened butter went really well with the baguette. But then again, our expectations for breakfast weren't really high...

Before we left, we complained to the manager about the horrible water pressure and the state of the room.

That "fun" sailor uniform

We decided to take the scenic route by the ferry that costs each of us US$12. Here's what we saw on the 3 hour ride...

This...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

So interesting was the boat ride that we gave in to the Z-monster and dozed off...

3 hours after we boarded the boat, we arrived at a rather nicely done up jetty with some animals made of fibre glass.

On the contrary, this is a real cow

It was another 5 to 10 minutes' walk to the visitors centre of Cu Chi Tunnels. It turns out that admission fees weren't included in the US$12. So we paid to take a look at this place.

We were systematically ushered first to view a video about Cu Chi Village. Then our tour guide for the day shared about the war between the Viet Cong and the American troops. Much to the credit of the Cu Chi Tunnels, the Vietnam War probably displayed the most intriguing and impressive example of guerrilla warfare. The villagers would behave pro-Americans in the day, but when night falls, they would be fighting against the American troops, ambushing them constantly from well camouflaged spider holes such as this.

The soldier reveals a spider hole from right under our noses.

Jumps in...

And hides and awaits to ambush unsuspecting passers-by.

It definitely got the bunch of us curious. Can we fit into that little spider hole?

To satisfy everyone's curiosity, here's a look inside.

Quite a generous amount of leg room actually.

So I got out for the next person to try. Thankfully, I didn't get stuck. Yup, the Vietnamese managed to keep the American soldiers out of the tunnels because they made the tunnels smaller and narrower so that only the smaller sized Vietnamese could pass through, forcing the enemy retreat from the narrow segments.

Jingjing needed a little extra help to get out.

The Girlfriend getting in and getting freaked out by the darkness when the lid is closed.

Besides spider holes, there were also surface traps that would inflict enough pain to cause trauma to the American soldiers. In warfare, the effective way to destroy troop morale was to inflict maiming injuries with traps so that they would live to remember and relate the pain to the rest of the troops.

Surface traps for the enemies and their attack dogs.

And they probably had traps made to accommodate the enemy in every possible shape and size. So there were the spider holes for ambush and booby traps for causing trauma. The actual Cu Chi Tunnels was part of a network that was over 200 kilometres long.

Our tour guide of the day explains to us about the Cu Chi Tunnels

Remnants of an American tank.

An obligatory shot of the barrel

The simple but ingenious double hinged door trap that would puncture those family jewels

Unused American bombs which the Vietnamese collected to salvage and convert into their booby traps.

While still on the topic of salvaging parts for other purposes, we were ushered to a hut where my good friend, the treehugger would be proud to wear...

Sandals made out of tyres

Then we were brought to the main attraction - the tunnel itself. Measuring only 50 cm wide and 1.2 m high, the entrance definitely wasn't meant to look welcoming. Our guide briefed the group on the tunnel route, assuring us that there would be exits along the way so that at any time we felt uncomfortable with the cramped and pitch black spaces, we could easily get out of the tunnels.

A trap door going deeper into the tunnel

The tunnel was illuminated with really dim lights just to let you know you are on the right track. Plus, the narrow tunnel meant there was no turning back. To get a photo of those behind me, I had to tuck my camera under my arm with the lens facing the back for the shot. Unfortunately the picture got obscured by the loose straps on my bag.

Lifen and Jingjing on their way out of the claustrophobia-inducing tunnel

By the third exit, I was all alone crawling in the tunnel, it was definitely tempting to get on from the next available exit, but I figured to try out how far I could last in the darkness and cramped spaces. Somewhere between, it almost felt like I got stuck as that portion of the tunnel was intentionally kept narrower. Thankfully, it was still possible to progress from there. I wasn't sure how far I traveled underground, neither was I sure if I would see the end of the tunnel soon enough.

Then I thought I got to a dead end as I felt a wall in front of me. I had to feel around for the path for a while until finally I found that I had to climb upwards to a slightly higher tunnel, through a trap door.

Moments later after a little bit more crawling, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and greeted by a little gecko...

My welcome party at the end of my tunnel crawl

So I was out of the tunnel, and was told that I had crawled through 100 m of the tunnel. We then went on the visitors centre where tourist merchandise would be available.

The more "exotic" wines of Vietnam

So when we were done with all the crawling, it was already well past lunch time. We were all thirsty, dirty, tired and hungry. We quickly boarded the coach that would ring us back to Ho Chi Minh City for a proper meal. We tried dozing off on the ride, but the constant sounding of the horn kept the light sleepers up.

Right after alighting from the coach, we unanimously voted for a place to eat. Our guide recommended Kim Cafe which was just across the street from the tour agency office. So we sat ourselves down and ordered.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

This one is freaking awesome! The dish came along with a yummy sauce which my guess was a concoction of bean paste, sugar, fish sauce and ground nuts.

A close up of the spring rolls

As you can see, the lovely translucent rice sheet isn't shy about showing off the ample contents of shrimp and veggies.

Here, we introduce one of our obsession - Vietnamese coffee!

The Girlfriend enjoying her Ice Milk Coffee

Lemongrass squid

Another favourite among the six of us. The gravy packs a punch and we all drizzled it on our own plate of rice. Almost like sambal sotong, but this one tastes zestier, thanks to the lemongrass.

Deep fried spring rolls

This one has got pork wrapped in them. Definitely good, but not as memorable. It felt rather heavy from the meat and the oil from deep frying.

We also tried a river fish soup which required an taste. While the fish was fresh, it had a very strong muddy taste you would get from freshwater fish. The soup was almost like tom yum soup, but it was more on the sour side which was nice. We ended up just drinking soup and leaving quite a bit of the fish behind.

Gratified with a good meal, we returned to our lodging for advice on other districts. The lady manager of our lodging pointed us to another region away from Ben Thanh Market on the map. So we made our way to that area for some window shopping and perhaps real shopping as well. Along the way we spotted a promising baguette sandwich stand which we would return to.

That promising baguette stall

The area definitely seemed more upmarket, with many individual independent and branded boutiques. I liked what I saw there as the designs of apparel looked much, much more refreshing and exciting than the carbon copy stuff seen in Singapore.

Other than that, there were plenty of familiar, but different street food that awaits the adventurous stomachs. No, I was too chicken to try them.

A hapsening looking pizza place, complete with rooftop dining area.

Grilled corn

Roadside stall selling baguette sandwiches

Barbecued meat

Then we reached junction...

Statue at a roundabout

And someone came up with an idea to do this...

The route we took eventually had us ending up at Ben Thanh Market. But in the evening, stalls are set up out side, along the streets surrounding the main building, much like Lau Pa Sat in Singapore, only less polished.

The Rooftop Cafe

Last destination of the day was this Rooftop Cafe at a hotel (name I can't remember) just beside the Opera House which was touted to have the best night view of the city.

The opera house with Ho Chi Minh's statue

So happily, we went there for a round of drinks and to experience the best night view. But it turns out that a huge neon sign was erected at the vantage point and it perfectly block any glimpse of the best night view.

Still we made it a point to enjoy ourselves.

Partially at my expense...

Once we were done with our outing to the Rooftop Cafe, we returned to the Promising Baguette Stall for our last meal of the day.

Unfortunately, due to blunders from both the customer and the business owner in payment, an argument erupted. One of the helpers had demanded for money for one of the baguettes we had already paid for. Problem was, the boss in the cashier role didn't acknowledge the payment and it led to a lot of unhappiness and some profanities exchanged. We had to get our ever helpful hotel manager to mediate in the native language. But before that could happen, we were chased away from the stall.

The hotel manager later advised us that we should make it an effort to pay only when we receive the goods in future to avoid any confusion.

We then returned to our room to wash up and prepare for our 6 hour road trip up to Dalat.