A trip along the Mekong: Ben Tre and Can Tho

We took a side trip from Saigon to the Mekong delta to see the rice bowl of Southeast Asia and get a glance  at river life.

A four hour bus ride out of the city and we hopped on this boat in Ben Tre, a town composed of 3 islands floating in the river

In Ben Tre, we got to see local bee keepers, listen to some traditional  music, and watch the making of coconut candy. Our guide was an expert at cracking open these coconuts,  throwing up them onto a spear and then rotating to get off the husk. They use all parts of the coconut, the water, the flesh for candy, the shell for lacquer bowls, and the husks for woven mats.

More boat riding in the water coconut  groves and onto lunch  

Mmm, lunch, deep fried river fish and spring rolls 

We spent the overnight  of the trip in Can Tho, the 5th largest city in Vietnam. Still in the throws of Tet celebrations, the city was well lit and we had fun walking the street's fair like atmosphere

Obscene jackfruit picture for our and your amusement 

We also visited  a fishing village in Can Tho, where we got to  try some special Tet dishes. Here you can see the sticky rice cakes, some with red banana, some with pork. Not really my favorite dish, just sticky sweet mush. Maybe kind of like fruit cake,  always comes out once a year at the holidays , but why, no one really knows.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi or Happy New Year (Again)

We celebrated the Vietnamese New Year (referred to as Tet) in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as it is often still called).  We had heard that Saigon would be even more crowded and crazy than Hanoi but because of Tet it's actually been much less busy because most people go home to their families for the holidays.  We haven't taken that many photos here because we've been told pickpockets and stealing are very prevalent especially around Tet, but it's all felt pretty safe.  Still we didn't go out with anything valuable when walking around.  We've been told gambling is rampant during Tet and some people want more money to gamble away so they steal.  It's a big, dirty feeling city, but there have been a few interesting sights and the food has been better in South Vietnam.

Still it doesn't have the variety of street food like Thailand did.  You can mainly get Banh Mi, which is a sandwich made on Vietnamese French bread which is still crusty on the outside, but lighter on the inside than regular French bread.  They are good, but you can only eat so many before looking for something else.  Pho (the famous noodle soup) has varied greatly in quality from place to place and the best hasn't been too different from our favorite Vietnamese place in Boston.  You can still get good cheap eats here, it's just that Thailand spoiled us.  The French influence creates some interesting fusion if you're willing to pay more in a restaurant.  

This is the Saigon Notre Dame Basilica which is the first big Catholic church we've seen in a while.  It was built by the French colonists.

The Tet celebration in the park.  There was lots of pop music and every singer had at least 8 backup dancers.  It was pretty entertaining, but Turkish pop music still takes the cake I think.  After the performances there were fireworks at midnight.  There wasn't even a countdown, it just hit 12 and fireworks started going up from the river, partially blocked by some buildings from where we were standing.  We had a good time watching with some people from our hostel.

This is the Reunification Palace (formerly Independence Hall).  It was the headquarters of the South Vietnamese government until they were overtaken in 1975.  You can tour the inside and much is left as it was back then making the whole place feel stuck in the 1970's.  You can even go down to the basement bunker where they still have all the old radio equipment.  It's an interesting place.  Here and to a greater extent at the War Remnants museum they talk about how the North liberated the South and the Americans are cast as murderous and aggressive.  Nowadays though, I haven't felt any ill will from locals if we tell them we're American.  The angriest person we've encountered in Vietnam was actually an American expat who took issue with how we were eating our pho.  Apparently smelling basil is dirty and spreads disease, I don't know.  I think it was misplaced anger from somewhere else.  I don't understand angry people.

This would be a busy market right outside our hostel, but it's Tet so it looks like a ghost town.

A statue at the Jade Emperor Pagoda which is crammed into the city so much that I actually walked past it first without realizing.  It was built by the Chinese in 1909.

Overall, Vietnam is an interesting place and we're glad we visited, but after four weeks we're also happy to be moving on.  We'll be able to walk on a sidewalk again without having to step on the street to weave around parked motorbikes, street vendors, and other assorted junk.  Next stop is Singapore for a few days where they follow all the rules and even made up some new ones to follow so that will be a change of pace.  Then we're off to Australia.

Nha Trang and Mui Ne

After Hoi An, we headed to the shores of the South China Sea for some beach time in Nha Trang and then Mui Ne.  If you're totally over all the snow back home you might want to skip this one, before you start hating us.  

The surf was a good deal rougher than in Thailand, and a bit cooler, but we were mostly just hanging on the beach here.  In the case of most of Mui Ne the water comes right up to the rocks and there isn't much actual sand, but we had some loungers right on the water where we were staying.

We did get out one day to go snorkeling around the islands off of Nha Trang, and had some fun with the underwater camera.

This the fairy stream in Mui Ne and the first stop of a tour we took.  It's a really cool geological sight with three different colors of sand and rock on one side and palm trees on the other with a stream running through.  You can wade through some nearly waste deep water to get to a small waterfall towards the end.  We went all the way to the waterfall and were 20 minutes late getting back to our driver who didn't seem to be amused.

It's a really fun walk.

We then stopped for a few minutes to look at all the fishing boats in the harbor in Mui Ne.

Mui Ne is surrounded by sand dunes.  Next stop was the white sand dunes.

You can rent a piece of plastic and try to sled down the dunes, but it's hard to get any speed going.  It's nothing like snow.

These are the red sand dunes which were our last stop on our tour...

where we caught sunset before heading back.

More from Hoi An

A week in Hoi An gave us a chance to hang out and enjoy the scenery. 

We called these the watermelon smiley face boats  and we got to ride one out to our cooking class.

Yep, this time a Vietnamese cooking class, that like our Thai class, started with a trip to the market. Start with the vegetables 

Then noodles,

And on to the butcher for some beef tenderloin,

Our cooking class was out in some coconut groves, hence the need for the boat ride, and of course,  our conical hats.

Here you can see the ingredients being laid out for my favorite dish discovery in Vietnam so far, Ban Xeo. It's a rice flour batter pancake with pork and shrimps, stuffed with bean sprouts herbs and lettuces, dipped in garlic chilli sauce. 

More sights in Hoi An, an epic dragon founation at the Chinese Assembly House

We left Hoi An headed for Nha Trang on an overnight bus. Overnight buses here in Vietnam  are sleeper buses. Meaning you don't sit, you lay down, bunk style. This works great if you are  short, but I was about an inch too tall to fully stretch out my legs. Still probably more comfortable than sitting for 12 hours.

Side trip to Da Nang

From Hoi An we took a 20 km day trip out to the Marble Mountains  and Da Nang. 

The marble mountains  are an outcrop of marble mounds, like those of Ha Long Bay, just on  land, not too far from the beach. Like the caves we explored in Göreme, Turkey,  the caves of the marble mountains have been transformed into places of worship.  Here we pose  with a Buddha.

We also got to climb the mountain, up and through some crazy caves

To this pretty excellent view of the mountains and Da Nang

We then visited the museum of Cham sculpture. The Cham  were the peoples of southern Vietnam before occupation by the French. Here, Jim is supporting an elephant's sculpted sack.

As usual, we had fun imitating the sculptures. Here I pose as a lion, although honestly,  the lion,  and the Vietnamese Unicorn (head of a dragon, body of a lion) look pretty much the same to me.

Here's  Jim with the Unicorn

Happy Valentine's Day!

Think warm thoughts!

A Bit from Hoi An

Hoi An is a city in central Vietnam that has some cool sights and fun things to do.  15 years ago there was not much here but it gained UNESCO status and tourism has exploded.  I had a cold for a chunk of time here and spent a day resting in the hotel, but we still managed to get out and have a good time.  There are tailors everywhere offering to make you clothes in as little as 24 hours, but most of them seem to have questionable fabric.  Nevertheless, I did have a shirt made for cheap that came out pretty well.

A view of some lanterns (also everywhere in Hoi An) and the Japanese Covered Bridge, built by Japanese traders in 1590 to more easily trade with the Chinese.  One side is guard by monkey statues, the other by dog statues.  We are looking out from the balcony of the Phung Hung ancient house which is part of one of many UNESCO protected sites in the old town of Hoi An.

Along the river in old town.

We did manage to get out and ride bikes around town a bit.  This is out of the touristy part of the city.

This is cao lau which is the major Hoi An specialty.  It's grilled pork, a specific type of noodle (closer to spaghetti than most Asian noodles), herbs, sprouts and croutons.  One of the better things we've eaten in Vietnam.

Hoa Lu and Tam Coc

Our last day in Hanoi we headed out of the city for the day to Hoa Lu (ancient capital of Vietnam and site of some old temples) and Tam Coc (sort of a landlocked Ha Long Bay with a river running through caves).  It was a bit of a long drive but there were some cool sights.

Taking in some nature at Hoa Lu

One of the old temples dedicated to a former emperor of Vietnam from the 10th or 11th century when Hoa Lu was the capital.

Then we headed to Tam Coc for a sampang (that's the name of the boat) ride.

The women row the boats expertly with their feet which is impressive.

See, sort of like a river Ha Long Bay.

Before heading home we grabbed some bicycles and cycled through some rice paddies which was really fun.

Ha Long Bay

Using Hanoi as a base, we took a 2 night 3 day cruise excursion to Ha Long Bay, or bay of the descending dragon, named as such for the limestone karst mountains scattered throughout  the terrain.

Though it was only in the low 70s, we enjoyed two days of kayaking

Including  opportunities  to kayak through  caves

Here we are in the dark and light caves

Our boat was called the Lemon Cruise, and despite what it looks like on the outside and its name, it was actually quite comfortable 

Here you can see our shuttle boat, this skiff took us out to the boat and on several excursions 

The karst mountains  are being slowly eroded by the sea. It's fun to kayak under the shelf that is created by the erosion.

Also, if you forgot to pack anything on the boat, there are women rowing around on these skiffs selling Oreos, vodka, and cigarettes.

Some of the mountains  are hollow, creating several caves that you can visit. Here's the "surprising" cave's surprise.  

Another photo of us in the surprising, real name Hang Sot, cave. This is the 3rd continent on which we've  gone caving.

The view from a beach hike we did, you can  get a better sense of how expansive these bay mountains are.

Lastly, here's  our delightfully  comfortable cabin. This was the first time either Jim or I had slept on a boat. It took us a few days back on shore before we didn't feel the swell of the bay anymore.