Interesting Sights of Vietnam

I found this post that I was going to post up when I came home from Vietnam, but never did. Here it is, from the vault.


Korean restaruant in Ho Chi Min City!

Snowflakes on a willow tree... it was also about 75 degrees.
Street vendors.
.... These are the telephone wires that run down the streets.... good lord, how does anything get fixed when it's broken? You'd never know which is which....

Propaganda.... can anyone translate for me? Most of them seemed to be about wearing your seat belt, but they were all drawn in the traditional propaganda-style.

everyone seems to have a little temple in thier house. This is a view from our hotel window in Ho Chi Minh City. This was almost close enough to touch... houses were pretty close together here...
Yummy yummy noodles... mmmmmm....
Making rice paper and drying it in the sun.
Mopeds, mopeds everywhere...
Rice paddy!
The making of all those laquered wood and mother of pearl artwork that you see everywhere... can't belive it's all done by hand......

Random Buddhist shrine that you see everywhere....

A day exploring Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is not exactly a huge tourist city. Most of the people that come there are just passing through, like us, for a day or two. The Cu Chi tunnels seem to be the most popular thing (though they aren't actually in the city), and the Mekong Delta is also very popular (also not in the city). There are a few things to see in the city, besides just to experience the overwhelmingness of it all.


After coming home from the Cu Chi tunnels, the bus dropped us off within walking distance of the War Remnants museum. We headed over there and walked around there for about an hour. This museum is very interesting. They had some American military vehicles scattered about out front. Inside there were many incredible photographs from the war. Some were quite graphic, one of my friends decide to skip out on the experience. They had guns from the period and there was one gallery dedicated to Vietnamese children's paintings depicting war and peace. I was impressed to see Korea make a good representation on many of the children's paintings (as noted by the hanboks worn by the people in the paintings).


The next day we left our hotel around 11, and started walking until we hit Ben Thanh Market. This was a great place to shop. Some of the things were much cheaper than we had seen in Nha Trang. Other things were about the same price, so it's all hit or miss. Here, like everywhere in Vietnam, you must bargain for everything. I found that whatever price they name for you is probably almost double what it is worth. Maybe more. It seems as though the trick to bargaining is pretending that you don't really care whether or not you buy it. If it is something that they know you love, they aren't going to budge much on the price, because they know you'll buy it regardless.

We left here and continued walking. We found a shop that sold old propaganda posters. Many depict crushing the American enemy, but others just suggest that working hard will improve the country and praise Ho Chi Minh. They had some very large posters that were probably originals, but there were no prices listed and I assume that they are quite expensive. Two of my friends picked up replicas for $10 USD each. I wanted one, but I wasn't quite sure what I would have done with it once I had it. It's sort of an awkward thing to own really.

We then continued to wander, stopping in many of the shops along the way until we got to the Opera House. We didn't go it, but it is a pretty building. Close to there was the gigantic City Hall. This was a much more magnificent building than any other building that we had seen and would see. Too bad we couldn't go inside.

From there we headed over to the Reunification Palace (Independence Palace). This was the home of the South Vietnamese president before the country was unified. You can tell by the architecture that it was obviously built in the 1960's (1962 to be exact). I think that architecture from this period is absolutely hideous, but that's just my humble opinion. Many people might know this building, because this is where people were evacuated from the rooftop once the official handover of power of South Vietnam was handed over to North Vietnam in the Fall of Saigon. There is a famous photograph of a North Vietnamese tank crashing through the front gate of this palace.

At the Reunification Palace you are able to walk through and view all the rooms. I highly suggest a tour, because we walked through on our own and didn't really learn a thing. The only signs posted tell you the names of the rooms. From the rooftop, you can see a nice view of the city, and there is an interesting photo gallery in the basement.

From there we walked through Tam Dan Park to Notre Dame Basilica down the road. On the way there, we saw quite a few propaganda posters around. I'll post the photos here, if anyone can translate for me, I would be much obliged. We arrived at Notre Dame, but we didn't go in, though I wish we had. No one else seemed too interested, so I didn't push it. If you read my blog often, you'll know that I have a slight obsession with ecclesiastical arts. Oh well, it was nice to see from the outside at least.


From there we headed towards the river. We tried to find the Hard Rock Cafe, because my friend wanted to buy something there, but it seems as though it disappeared into thin air. We ate dinner at Pho 24. This is a restaurant chain that serves mostly only pho. What is pho? Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup. It is commonly eaten for breakfast, but it can be eaten at other times of the day as well. It's delicious, and I highly recommend you go to your local Vietnamese restaurant right now and eat it. Pho ga is chicken soup and Pho bo is beef soup. Don't ask me the pronunciations, I'll be sure to botch them.

We arrived at the river (after a perilous experience crossing the road) and walked along for a little while. It was nice to see, and there were lots of river cruise boats along the river, but otherwise, not much to see. We then headed back towards our hotel because we were flying out that night.

When we got back to the area where our hotel was, two of my friends went to pick up some clothes they had custom made for them. Custom tailoring is quite common in Vietnam, and you can see any number of shops that will offer to custom make clothes for you for quite cheap. Each of my friends ordered a few things, and some turned out better than others. None of the clothes they had made were on display in the store. They chose clothes from "catalogues" and the tailor did her best to recreate the design. One dress turned out to be something completely different from what she had asked, but the others turned out pretty well. I would suggest though, to order something that they have an example of in the store instead of from catalogues, because that way you know exactly what style you're getting. I would also leave yourself ample time, because sometimes they need to make adjustments after you try them on. We were so rushed to catch our flight that we were rushing them, and I don't think they quite did as good a job on them as they would have if we hadn't rushed them.

After the tailor, we headed back to our hotel, got our things and caught a cab to the airport. I highly recommend catching a metered taxi rather than calling a van through your hotel. While this is more convenient, its much much more expensive.

All in all, I loved Ho Chi Minh City. It is vibrant, exciting and fast paced. I contemplate to myself if I would want to live here someday. I feel as though I would be afraid to ride a bike or motorbike in the streets, but it might be less stressful than being a pedestrian here though. Well, who knows where life will take me, I wouln't worry about it now.

Ho Chi Minh City: Motorbikes

I'll admit, I've been to a lot of places in the world, and I've seen a lot of crazy things. But, I have to admit, Ho Chi Minh City may well be the most insane places I've ever been. Don't get me wrong, that's no insult, I absolutely loved Ho Chi Minh City.

So, why does it get a 10 in my book of culture shock? The motorbikes... and traffic in general in the city. I've never seen anything even remotely close to it.

According to Wikipedia, in this city of approximately 6,600,000 people, there are 4 million motorbikes and (only) 500,000 cars. I get the feeling that buying a car would never even occur to the residents of the city. I suppose even if you could afford a car, you'd never be able to get around.

Whole families of a mother, father and three children will all be piled onto one regular sized motorbike to get around the city. If that's not bad enough, traffic rules are quite lax here and many parts of the city rely on rotaries rather than traffic lights.... making pedestrian traffic nearly impossible. Those who choose to walk, risk their lives every time they need to cross the street, because even if there is a crosswalk, the motorists have little mercy for them.

Of course, I suppose they treat the pedestrians just as they treat each other on the road. motorbikes will ride within inches of one another, and cars merging lanes will force themselves in leaving less than an inch between themselves and the other cars... or motorbikes.

I read somewhere that the traffic rules of Vietnam are as such: Small yields to big. Pedestrians yield to bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks and buses. Bikes yield to motorbikes, cars and trucks... and so on in that order. They signal to each other to yield by beeping the horn... and continuing to beep until they get what they want. The city is filled with a cacophony of horns that can be deafening sometimes when you're on busy, traffic filled roads.

I hope to write more about Ho Chi Minh City soon, because I don't want to leave my readers with a bad impression of the city. It is a vibrant and exciting city, though, admittedly not huge for tourism.

Cu Chi Tunnels

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on Thursday night and as soon as we got to the hotel, one of the staff booked us a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is actually this biggest reason why we came to Saigon, since it's not a huge tourist town. But anyway, I'll save Ho Chi Minh City for another post. For $6 USD he signed us up on a guided tour of the tunnels which included transportation to the tunnels which are about 40 miles northwest of Saigon and a real, English speaking tour guide (unlike many other "tours" that we saw in Nha Trang).

As we rode in the bus, our guide explained to us a little bit about Saigon and what Saigon was like during the war. Our guide explained to us that he had fought with the South Vietnamese Army during the war, the side of the Americans.

Once we arrived, we had to pay entrance into the area, which was 80,000 Dong, which is about $5 USD. Once we entered, we went into a room and were shown a propaganda/documentary film that was actually filmed in Cu Chi during the Vietnam war by the Viet Cong to demonstrate the loyalty and hard work of the citizens of this area. It was strange to hear them praising how great the men and women who killed Americans were, but it was amazing to see actual footage from that time.

They then walked us into the forest. The first stop was to view an actual entrance into a tunnel. it was tiny and was basically a hole that went straight into the ground and was covered by a small wooden cover which the VC soldier could pull over his head. Covered in leaves it would be practically undetectable by American soldiers looking for it. As we approached, a tour guide was putting himself into the hole in the ground and he magically disappeared underground.


They then offered any of us to try to get in. One fairly tall western man jumped in first and he got in alright though he had some trouble getting his arms in and pulling the cover back over himself because he was so tall. I jumped in next (yea, i have to try everything). I had no trouble what so ever getting in, since I'm pretty short and more or less small around. Here, though, was just a demonstration of the size of the tunnels, not for actually going through the tunnels, so then we finished jumping in holes in the ground and continued along our way through the woods. By the way, this picture is of me under the ground.... believe it or not, I don't care.

Next to see on our journey through the woods were all the booby traps. Other bloggers described the booby traps as almost something you had to watch out for as you walked along, but they were pointed out by the guides. I wouldn't quite describe it like that. The first booby trap we saw was this railed off tiger trap. It was used before the war to catch tigers and such, but they turned it into a weapon to catch enemy soldiers. If you step on one corner, it flips up and drops you into a pit full of spikes.

Our guide then took us to a whole room full of various improvised booby traps that were used by the VC. None of which looked very pleasant. One particular booby trap was a double hinged bar that would swing down from a door entrance. He said enemy soldiers particularly disliked this one because it had the tendency to turn them in to "lady boys" as he put it.


As we walked long the trail, he pointed out many things that looked like termite hills. In fact they were actually air holes in disguise for the tunnels. These air holes were also vital in protecting them from all the attempted sabotages from the American soldiers. They would try to gas them out, but with these air holes it proved in effective. There were also so many exists that even if they cinched off one exit, they could still easily go to another exit to escape. He also explained that wherever they did their cooking, they were able to divert the smoke from the cooking to another area, and there diffuse the smoke so that even if it was detected and bombed, it would be far away from the actual tunnels and eating area. Their ways of protecting their tunnels were really ingenious.

Here's our guide in front of a tank that was captured by VC soldiers during the war.


We were brought to an eating area where we were able to try tapioca which was the main sustenance of the VC soldiers sometimes. I never realized what tapioca actually was in its real form. It's actually some sort of root and sort of has a consistency like a potato, or more like a yuka if you've ever tried that. Then you can dip in into a dry mixture of peanut and sugar. I expected it to be really disgusting, but it actually wasn't bad. Even still, I can't imagine living off of that. Of course, that's how they can fit so easily in the tunnels I suppose.


We also got to see a quick demonstration of how rice paper is made. Here is a photo of the rice paper drying in the sun. Rice paper like this is used to make spring rolls.


Then there was the actual tunnels. I feel like this was the most hyped up part of the adventure, and unfortunately for that reason it was a slight disappointment. Every review I had read described the tunnels as these incredibly claustrophobic, pitch black and impossibly small tunnels that no one can believe were actually widened so that western tourists could fit. Everything I read said that you pretty much had to crawl. What it actually was, was a fairly well lit tunnel large enough that I could walk through (albeit hunched double over). I wished they had preserved a small portion of the tunnel for tourists to go through that was the actual original size. I wouldn't want to go far, but I just want a real idea of what it was like. Evidently the VC essentially walked (or should I say waddled) in a squat position when they traveled through the tunnels.

The VC had many many kilometers of tunnels, though I don't think anyone knows the exact number of how far they went at their height. For more information, check out the wikipedia article.

Vietnam: Last day in Nha Trang

Well, today is January first and we've been in Nha Trang for a week. Today we're heading out and flying back to Ho Chi Minh City. All in all, we've had a good time here in Nha Trang, but we're still dissapointed that it rained every day since we've been here.

Yesterday we headed back to the mud baths we found before. We spent about 4 1/2 hours there this time instead of 1 1/2 hours. They let us sit longer in the mud this time too. Then we swam around in the mineral water swimming pools for hours, switching pools to vary the temperature. They had 5 different pools. They also had this waterfall that you could sit under and let the water pound your back. That was fun.

Tuesday we went and got an 80 minute foot, head and back massage. This was great, and the back massage was with hot stones which was sooo nice. I got this all for $10 USD. Not bad at all. Then we wondered back and went shopping. I hadn't done much shopping since I've been here, so I got that all out of the way. I picked up some beautiful paintings on rice paper and silk for so cheap. Only $4 USD each for a nice size. I also found some beautiful paintings on laquered wood. I bought three and they were each 120,000 dong each. That is a little expencive to me, but actually rediculusly cheap. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this art, but I like the idea of having a cool house someday with things from every country I've been to. Ha, doubt that will ever happen.

New Years in Nha Trang was probably the best night out we've had so far. We bar hopped around, and while we weren't incredibly impressed with any of the places we went to, this one bar called Guava seemed to have the most excitement we've seen so far. They also had a boy performing various feats such as swallowing knives, eating hot coals, eating fire and the most rediculus of all was taking a snake (just a little harmless garter snake or something) and sticking it up his nose and pushing it down and through his mouth. Hardly anyone clapped for him, and I felt bad. I think we were all just staring in shock at the things he was doing.

Anyway, I still need to pack and get ready to head for Ho Chi Minh now. I also want to get out and take some photos before I leave too. I hope I have enough time!

Vietnam Day 5

We're on day 5 here in Nha Trang and today it just poured all day. We left our hotel only once to cross the street and buy lots of junk food at the supermarket. We rented a dvd player from the hotel and some movies and tried to watch movies all afternoon. Unfortunately the only movies the hotel has to watch are bootleg DVDs. First we watched Van Hellsing and enjoyed it, but we decided to have a Harry Potter marathon because one of the bootleg DVDs (somehow) had all 5 movies on it. We discovered when we put it into the DVD player that it was dubbed into Vietnamese. But... really, I hate to call it dubbing, because they didn't take off the original voices, just loudly talked over them. There were no voice actors, but just a woman reading the script over the actors speaking. Oh, and the icing on the cake was that there were also subtitles in Vietnamese. So why did they bother "dubbing" anyway? The hotel didn't have any other movies that we could all agree on so we just channel surfed for a while. We watched the Simpsons, Mythbusters and bits and pieces of plenty of other shows and movies. While today kind of sucked, it was relaxing and we ate lots of food we can't find in Korea. Like Cheeseits, Orangina and Dortitos.

The past few days haven't been all bad though. Yesterday, since it was raining again, we decided to go on a "city tour". What this actually was was a taxi ride to all the things worth seeing in this city. First stop was Long Son Pagoda. This temple had some gigantic statues of Buddha. Very cool. Next stop was the Po Nagar towers which were constructed by the Champa durring thier reign in Vietnam about a thousand years ago. I don't know much about the Champa, but they were Hindu and worshiped Shiva and Vishnu. It is sort of amazing to think that those towers have been there for 1000 years. While we were there it appeared that they were undergoing some sort of restoration project. Also amazing is the fact that it is also an active shrine. We saw many worshipers (but probably more tourists) making offerings in front of the statues inside the towers.

We made a few more stops on our city tour, though nothing really noteworthy, especially in the rain. Our last stop was Thap Ba Hot Spring. Here you could soak in a mud bath, then in hot mineral water outdoor tubs, then float around in hot and cold swimming pools full of mineral water. We didn't really realize how intense this place was going to be and our tour only left us an hour and a half here. This gave us plenty of time to mud bathe and sit in our mineral water hot tub, but we were wishing for a lot more time to swim in the giant swimming pools and take advanatage of all the other amenities available there. We were going to go back again today, but since the pools are all outside and it was pouring, we just couldn't bring ourselves to go.

Anyway, we came back to the tourist area where our hotel is and found some "lunch" (not sure if you can call it lunch when you eat it at 4 o'clock). After we went to the beach because the weather had finally cleared (eg it stoped raining) and had a drink on the beach. Yea, it was overpriced for Vietnam, but when else are you going to get a coctail for 4.50.... on the beach? We headed back to our rooms, read our books for a while then met up at 9 or so, ate again and went to a bar for a little while. We still had and early night, we were back at our hotel by 12:30. The nightlife here just can't compete with Seoul. We're too spoiled.

Vietnam

So, I'm now on Christmas vacation and three of my friends and have gone south to Vietnam. I want to write as much as I can about Vietnam as I can here before I forget everything. I was sort of lazy about my trip to Taipei over Chusok break.

We flew out of Incheon airport and we landed in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) a little over 5 hours later. We flew on Vietnam Airlines and had no troubles. The meal was decent, the movies were decent and everyone had thier own screen on the back of the chair in front of them. This is how I rate airlines. Food and movies. They also had free newspapers, but they were all Korean and Vietnamese. We arrived at Ho Chi Mihn City and promplty made our way over to the domestic terminal and hopped another flight to Nha Trang. 45 minutes later we were looking at the beach.

We came to Vietnam mainly because my friends wanted beach. I've always wanted to see Vietnam, although the beach wasn't my top priority, I wasn't going to complain. We compromised and at the end of the trip we're going to spend 2 1/2 days in Ho Chi Minh City before we head back to Seoul.

We were picked up at the airport by our hotel and they drove us along the highway that goes along the beautiful coastline to our hotel. We checked in (everything was already paid for through a bank transfer we made in Korea) and went to our rooms. We had to forfeit our passports, but they will keep them for us in thier safe. I feel a little safer that way... I think... But that is standard procedure at all Vietnamese hotels.

We settled ourselves in our rooms and then headed out in search of food. We found a small restarurant that served both western and Vietnamese food (as most restaruants seem to in this tourist/beach town) and while prices are slightly higher than I had expected, they are still much cheaper than Korea and much much cheaper than in the US. The exchange rate is a little complicated to think about for me though. It's 17,000 Dong= $1.00. Or should I be thinking of 1,000 Won= 13,000 Dong? Either way it's rather cumbersome math.

The single most depressing part of this vacation so far has been the weather. We came here to soak up the sun, but we really haven't seen the sun yet, and we've been here for 2 1/2 days. The forcast for the rest of the week doesn't look very promising either. But.. we've been trying to make the best of it. We went to the beach yesterday and today. Today we stayed almost the entire day, and I already have the sunburn to prove it. I think I need to start following the Korean's lead and cover myself up from head to toe at the beach. I don't really need a tan. Especially not in Korea where the whiter your skin the more attractive you are.

Today we saw a huge group of Koreans here at the beach. They are unmistakable, even if I hadn't heard them talking. Something about the noises they make when the waves hit them, the way they travel in packs, and how the boys wear long shorts in the water and the girls wear long sleeves (if they even go in the water).

There are many nationalities here in Nha Trang. We've encountered very few Americans, but plenty of Australians and folks from the UK. I've heard some other European languages too, such as French and German. There were some other languages that I wasn't quite able to pin down. Behind us on the plane was a Japanese family too. It's kind of cool to see so many nationalities. I know there are plenty of other nationalities in Seoul, but since my school only hires Americans and Canadians I have very few friends from elsewhere.

As for Vietnam itself I am absolutly astounded by how traditional many of the people still are. Whenever you see photos of Vietnam, they are always wearing those pointy straw hats. I thought that was just something farmers in the rice paddies wore, and that today in modern times they would have shed thier straw hats for baseball caps or something. But not at all. Everywhere I look people are wearing those hats. I think maybe they keep off the rain, a sort of umbrella that you don't have to hold in your hand. Also, in my hotel, along with many stores and restaruant, you see small buddhist shrines with burning incense. So interesting.

I will post soon about Vietnamese vendors, because I think that they deserve their own post. I haven't taken many photos yet, but I hope to get some good ones soon!!