Vietnam
Day 1
Because our ship had to wait for high tide to sail upriver to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) we did not dock until around 1 pm. Henry, JR, Rob and I went into the city in search of a tailor because we wanted to get suits made. We stopped at a few places but did not find anything that looked promising, so first we decided to get a late lunch. At the restaurant where we were eating Henry saw the couple that he went skydiving with in Cape Town, South Africa! They are from Scotland and are traveling the world for 8 months, and Henry met them on his skydiving trip.
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| Sailing up the Mekong River toward Ho Chi Minh City |
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| It was easy to tell that Vietnam's economy was up and coming |
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| A view from the docks |
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| Henry with his skydiving buddies |
After they talked for a few minutes we took a taxi to another part of the city with tailors and a market. We found a small shop that would make them for about $100 each, so I ordered one and Henry and JR got two (Rob ended up going to a different place). After taking our measurements the tailor told us to come back the next day at 9 pm to try on the jacket so they could make any necessary changes. Then we walked through the market and bought a few T-shirts and souvenirs. Most of the clothes were really cheap – T-shirts were as low as 30,000 Dong (1 USD is close to 17,000 Dong).
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| Getting my measurements |
We ate at a Mexican style restaurant which was still nice but only cost us about $6 for a drink and meal. When we were finished we headed back to the jazz club to get JR and Rob, and all four of us went to a club called Apocalypse. There were a lot of SAS kids at the club (as well as locals), and we stayed for close to two hours before going back to the ship.
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| A Vietnamese mariachi band? |
Day 2
JR was supposed to go on an FDP at 8 am but he called me at 8:15 to say he just missed it, so we went to breakfast on the ship and then back to bed. By the time Henry, JR and I all got up and ate lunch it was past noon. We searched online for places to visit in the city and found the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum.
The Reunification Palace was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and where the Vietnam War was officially ended. We took a guided tour of the building and explored on our own. When we were on the roof we saw several cars (some Mercedes) and busses enter the Palace grounds and stop at the entrance. We quickly made our way downstairs to see what the commotion was, and found out that a top ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party was visiting the Palace. He was followed by over a dozen media, including reporters, cameramen, and photographers. After he walked upstairs we went down to the bomb shelter, which looked a lot like it came straight out of a scene in a war movie.
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| War Reunification Palace |
From the Reunification Palace we went to the War Remnants Museum, which chronicled the death and destruction during the Vietnam War. It had originally been built by the Communist regime as propaganda against the US, and strangely not much had changed - well maybe not so strangely - Vietnam's government still calls itself Communist. It was not a blatant anti-US message, but the museum was filled with details of US atrocities (which of course existed, such as the use of Agent Orange just to name one example), while ignoring the impact of the North Vietnamese troops. It was important that we went and saw the museum, but I was also glad to leave and go get dinner.
The restaurant was at the top of a nice hotel in the middle of the city, and the total bill was only $23 for the three of us. After the meal we stopped by the tailor shop to see if we could get fitted a little early. While one of us tried on our jacket the other two walked around the night market, which were a series of street stands right outside of the shop. When we were all finished getting fitted and shopping we rode back to the ship to drop some stuff off and change. I bought two polo shirts by the ship for $5 each – they are supposedly Lacoste shirts, but for that price they have to be fake. We went back out at around 9:30 pm, this time to a place called Volcano. I stayed there for awhile but came back by midnight because I had to get up early for an SAS trip the next morning.
Day 3
I was scheduled for a trip to Cat Tien National Park that met at 6:30 am, so I got up at 6, finished packing, ate a small breakfast, and headed to the Union. The drive to the park lasted over four hours, and I slept a majority of the time. There were only 13 of us, but we had a bus with enough room for everyone to have two seats to themselves. We drove north of Ho Chi Minh City into rural Vietnam, past several small towns and villages.
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| A typical river house |
When the bus reached a clearing by the Dong Nai River we all got out and waited by the banks for the ferry. There are no bridges large enough for cars to cross leading into the park (for both conservation purposes and also because the river is quite large), so the ferry was the only way to get to our lodgings. We were divided into groups of two, and each group had their own room. The compound was a series of guest houses, and each house had several separate rooms. After checking in we ate boxed lunches that the ship had provided for the trip. Lunch was followed by a boat ride along the river along with a tour of one of the local villages near the park. Eventually we returned to camp for dinner, which consisted of various types of noodles and meats (including squid) plus rice. We had some free time in the evening, and a few of us played cards before going to bed early.
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| An interesting pet from one of the locals |
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| Scene from our river tour |
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| Our guest houses - not bad! |
Day 4
We ate breakfast at 7 am (I had bread and fried egg) and then got ready for our hike through the jungle. We had to wear special socks that went over our pants and came up to our knees to protect us against leeches. The trip started with a truck ride on the park’s only road (one lane and dirt for most of the way), followed by a 5 km hike to a small outpost on Crocodile Lake. The lake was very shallow and varied in size during the wet and dry seasons – we were there (early November) during the transition from wet to the dry. I went on a small row boat with three other people from our group for a short trip around the lake.
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| Can't find leaves this big back home! |
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| Like the leaves, the trees are huge too |
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| We took those row boats out on the lake - watch out for crocodiles |
After resting by the lake we started walking back, and it was close to 1 by the time we reached the road. Two trucks came to pick us up and drove us back to camp where we had lunch. We had more free time in the afternoon, so I walked along the road in the opposite direction and also tried to ride one of the bikes they had, but the chain broke soon after I started. Dinner was at 6, and afterwards we watched an informational video about the park. At 8 we loaded up onto a large truck for a night drive along the road in search of wild animals. We saw a few deer and a wild boar, but it was pouring the whole time and we didn’t stay out too long. When we got back I played cards again before going to sleep.
Day 5
I had fried eggs and bread again for breakfast, and then we went on a short hike on another path near the camp. We also saw a bear sanctuary in the park that was organized by a group called Save the Bears. When we finished the hike there was about an hour before lunch to pack and check out. We had lunch at 11:30, and when we finished the bus was waiting on the other side of the river to take us back to Saigon.
I tried to do some reading on the way back but ended up dozing off, so I didn’t get much work done. We reached the ship by 4:30, and just as I got back to my room Henry and JR gave me a call. They gave me my suit (they had picked it up the day before) and then we decided to go out to find an internet café. The on ship time was later than usual (9 pm) since the ship was not leaving until the following morning, so after the internet café we walked around the city center looking for a good place to eat. We ended up going to the Mexican place from the second night, but the portions were small so we ate at another restaurant before taking a taxi back to the ship by about 8 pm.
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