8.10.2010 - First day of 3-day Mekong Delta Tour

Food in HCMC was about noodle soup. I hoped to find the best noodle soup in HCMC during our short stay there. After eating at the franchise shop the previous day, we wanted to try out some real stuff on the streets.

By the way, beef noodle soup was called pho bo in Vietnamese. How do you pronounce it? Foe-boe? Poe-boe? Nooo... the lady in TNK Travel elegantly called it four-ber, with a twist in the intonation. Cool!

And then we found this delightful little stall in an alley at the other end of De Tham Street where we were staying. The stall was flashy... the aluminium stall, tables and chairs flashed under sunlight. Made it looked cleaner than the other stalls. It became our favorite noodle soup stall for breakfast. At 20k dongs per bowl of noodle soup, it was half the price of same thing in Pho24 shop.

Ryan was still in sleepy mode. Here he had to get up at 7 am to get ready for the 8 am tour. At home, he wakes up at 11 am for the 12 pm lunch.

You get to mix and match your pho. The trick was... point to one meat (beef, chicken, pork slice, pork leg, shrimp or meat balls), point to one noodle (mee-hoon, kueh-tiao, mee, or macaroni), and the hawker would get the point. I suppose you could point-point at everything and hope he'll mix everything for you in one bowl. Notice the plate of vegetables accompaniment... we partook 10% of it only. Not herbivore enough to become Vietnamese.

Gosh that little stall served the best Vietnamese coffee I had in HCMC and Mekong Delta. Really kaw-kaw concentrated coffee with a strong fragrance, served with crushed ice. The tour guide warned yesterday that you need a strong heart for Vietnamese coffee, now I understood what he meant. This RM 1.70 ice coffee from the streets beats anything from Starbucks I tell you.

Packed some sandwich for the trip. Oh, sandwich was another popular breakfast in HCMC. They stuff a variety of fillings into a little French loaf... ham, egg, tuna, vegetables, onions, tomatoes, butter, cheese etc. You could buy the 10k dong ones from the roadside (wonder how the ham remained good all day under the sun), or 15k dong ones from a nice bakery like this.

After breakfast we hopped onto the tour bus to begin our 3-day Mekong Delta tour.

Soon after leaving HCMC, we made a stop at a lacquerwork factory. Seen one the day before, not interested anymore. Hmmm so lacquerwork shops in HCMC were the tourist stop equivalent of tea shops and jade shops in China tours. We left the crowd to have a nice cuppa ice fruit shake across the road. Notice the small chairs and tables they used. Almost like kindergarten furniture. Tells you that Vietnamese are generally very fit and thin, difficult to find obese people around.

Two hours later the bus stopped at a house in My Tho province. Or was it Ben Tre province. The tour guide sat us at a cafetaria and served some fruits. Same stuffs that we got in Malaysia... banana, pineapple, rambutan, and pomelo.

And the show began.

They found a pair of Vietnamese auntie and uncle to sing a couple of songs for us. That was Alex the tour guide on the left, accompanying the musicians with his guitar. So this was what the advertised "be entertained with local songs and music in a traditional orchard while sampling local fruits" was about. Hahahaha... the orang putehs might find that interesting.

A walk in the kampung.

Vietnamese buried their dead near their houses, or right in the middle of the paddy field. The reason was to prevent future generations from selling off their ancestral land. Clever. Would you dare sell a piece of land with your grandma's grave on it? You could be sure your relatives would curse you for many generations to come.

After the walk thru the kampung, we came to a jetty and hopped onto a little boat for a cruise along some narrow canals.

"Look, I got my own cap."

The ride ended at another jetty 20 minutes later. It was located "strategically" just beside a coconut candy factory.

Step by step on how to make coconut candy (in case you want to try at home):

First, grate the coconut and squeeze into coconut juice.

Mix it up with some flour and sugar over a slow fire. Get a machine to do the stirring (we could use the same trick to make dodol).

When the dough is formed, press them into strips on a wooden mould with grooves.

Line the strips nicely on the chopping board...

And then chop chop chop, a few strips at a time. You get coconut candies.

Get some friends to help you pack the candies. Emm... make sure they washed their hands.

The more the merrier.

After that they serve us "honey tea". Basically, pour some honey into a cup of tea, dilute with a bit of plain water, squeeze in some lime juice if you like.

"Look ma, real honey wor, got bees on the bottle!"

Tourist stuff: took photo with a snake.

Then we took a bigger boat for a ride along the Mekong River.

Quite nice really, if only the weather wasn't so hot.

Ryan seemed to enjoy the boat ride. He had been asking for more "sit ship" "sit ship" since then.

The ride ended at a Tortoise Island. Didn't see any tortoise. Just an orchard with a cafeteria inside. The free lunch was very basic. They were pushing hard for tourists to buy the must-try "very delicious fried elephant ear fish" at RM 25 per fish... just ikan tilapia la haiyo.

Hammocks to nap after lunch.

Feeling energetic after the meal. Back to naughty mode.

A boat trip back to the bus.

Stopped at a playground with a big fatty statue for tourists to take photos. Ryan was more interested to climb the gates.

And then on the bus again. Some snipe shots from the bus (putting good use of my 300mm lens).

Vietnamese students cycling home in the evening. Their girls' uniform was the traditional ao dai, Vietnam's national costume. Although they looked very elegant with the gown flowing in the wind, the white cloth must had been every Vietnamese mothers' nightmare. I think "whiter than white" washing powders would sell very well in Vietnam. And need to make sure the dress don't get caught in the bicycle wheel... ouch.

Those farmers' hats were very popular for everyday use.

It was dark by the time we reach Can Tho city. And to our surprise, the city was flooded?!

Not it's not the rain. That's what you get living in the Mekong Delta. The rivers would swell and overflow onto the streets at certain times of the day. Those folks biasa already.

Had a quick bath and walked to the riverside for dinner.

Had some fried rice with sugarcane drinks and Saigon beer. Nice rest after a long day's journey.

Night market beside the river.

Wondered what they sell in the shop. My dung? Hahaha....

Ryan did some trampoline exercise before dozing off.

7.10.2010 - One day HCMC tour

We used the service of TNK Travel, whose beautiful office was just opposite our hotel room. Our one-day HCMC tour was to start at 8am. So we had some time to look for our first Vietnamese breakfast. The cost of the day tour was $7 per person, with a simple lunch thrown in. Very reasonable price I would say. Saved us lots of walking and sunburn.

We had our first bowl beef noodle soup at a Pho24 franchise shop. The beginning of many more noodle soups to come.

You would notice by now, they always serve the noodle soup with a big plate of vegetables. I only ate the beansprouts. Didn't like the strong-flavored vegetables.

Packed some buns from the bakery for eating on the bus.

That was our tour guide for the day. There was about 11 international tourists in the minibus for the tour.

Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum.

Lots of nice aircrafts and army tanks parked around the grounds for kids to play.

Inside the museum were photographs and stories about the Vietnam War. The theme of the museum was "arrogant and brutal American soldiers committed many war atrocities against harmless Vietnamese during the Vietnam War".

M16, AK47... you name it, they've got it.

Bombs, bullets, and hand grenades. Looked like lots of toys for Ryan.

Missile toys.
A huge guillotine for potong kepala of Vietnamese Communists (Vietcongs).

After that, the tour bus headed to District Five, also known as Chinatown, about 6km away from city centre.

First they brought us to visit a Chinese temple. The orang putihs were fascinated, but for us the temple was a big yawn.

"Burn one of these and it will bring you good luck." So the orang putih bought one.

Then we went to visit the Cholon market of Chinatown. It was a busy wholesale market, supplying stuffs to the other markets around HCMC. Prices of things there were very reasonable, unlike the cut-throat prices in the Ben Thanh tourist market.

Many kinds of hats and caps to choose from.

And the helmet industry to support the motorbiking population. In HCMC they don't use the full helmets endorsed by SIRIM that we use in Malaysia. Any helmet would do, with whatever creative designs you like.

"I got my daddy to buy me a Pooh helmet."

Then we went back to District One to visit the Reunification Palace. It was a gigantic five-storey building complex that used to be the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Got a spacious compound with a water fountain in the middle.

Vietnam War was quite complicated. First the Vietnamese were conquered by the Chinese, then the French. They beat the French at a battle at Dien Bien Phu, but entered Vietnam War with the Americans after that. North Vietnam were communism-supporters, known as Vietminh, backed by the communist party in China. South Vietnam was against communist ideology. The Americans wanted to block the flow of communism down South (domino theory), so they supported the South Vietnam government in the fight against communists in South Vietnam, known as Vietcongs. And they fought for 20 years, until in 1975 a North Vietnam tank bulldozed into the Palace compound and ended the Vietnam War.

The tour guide gave us a briefing at the conference hall.

Then we walked all over the huge building to explore the many rooms and halls inside.

Map room where the President and his generals planned their military moves.

Reception halls to welcome foreign dignitaries, or maybe to hold cabinet meetings.

At the rooftop, there was a bar, a mini theatre, a gambling room... also a small library. War time also must have entertainment ma. That was the President's escape helicopter.

There were things to see underground as well. We walked through the underground bunkers to look at more map rooms and communications rooms (with antique telephones and typewriters).

And we visited a Buddhist temple after that. They temple itself wasn't very interesting, so I took photos of the nice flowers outside.

Then the tour guide brought us to visit a lacquerwork factory. Lacquerwork was a very popular form of handicraft sold around HCMC.

Making these works of art was a painstaking affair. Broken eggshells were glued piece by piece correctly aligned, onto a block of wood.

A worker toiling with full concentration. I think I'll go crazy doing this kind of art.

A handicraft shop beside the factory.

The next stop was the Post Office. Yes you read it correctly, the Post Office. Pejabat Pos la. Nice architecture isn't it.

They sell handicrafts and first-day-covers in the post 0ffice. Got some nice phone booths too, the kind of place Superman would change into his red-underwear-outside costume.

Next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, just beside the Post Office.

A very nice cathedral built for religious services for the French colonialists. There were Vietnamese couples taking wedding photos outside.

Colourful stained-glass on the windows.

At the inside of the cathedral.

Playing around at the gates. We were so glad the tour has reached the end. It was very tiring, even with travelling in an aircon bus.

The bus dropped us back at the hotel after the tour. Had a bath, dinner, then walked to see a Water Puppet Show at a 'Golden Dragon' place. (Vietnamese could be so Chinese at times).

Along the way, we saw locals playing a shuttlecock-kicking game in the park. Looked like lots of fun.

The motorbike army of HCMC going home.

The Water Puppet Show place was about 20 minutes walk from our hotel. Tickets were $5 per person. And the show that night was a full-house. Very interesting show indeed.

The 'stage' was a pool of murky water (to hide the equipments maybe). On both sides were musicians and singers and narrators, which made the show seemed like a Chinese opera in Vietnamese language.

The guy on the right sang and played the drums.

A story about buffaloes and paddy planting.

Dragon boat race?

Water fairies dancing on the water.

The performers came forward at the end of the puppet show to receive applause. Hmmm... so those guys actually sat inside the water throughout the 45-minute show.

Late supper at the night market (pasar malam) beside Ben Thanh market: macaroni soup with sugarcane juice.