12.10.2010 - Free and easy HCMC

We had a free day in HCMC. It was always good to have a free day at the end of a journey, whether to buffer any unexpected change in schedule during the countryside tours, or simply to rest.

There was a saying... if you can't beat them, join 'em. So we rented a Honda motorbike for USD$6 a day (quite cheap lo) to move around. The guy in the shop was a bit hesitant... 'take good care of my bike ya, it's a new bike you know...'. Went to a nearby petrol station to top up the tank, then explored HCMC.

First we stopped at Ben Thanh market for breakfast. You thought eating at a market was cheap? My piece of advice: DON'T EAT THERE. Gosh their noodle soup and drinks cost almost double of what we paid eating at the roadside, even slightly more than restaurant prices. Big tourist trap!

I must say the BBQ pork was very delicious. Ryan would have finished a whole plate if we hadn't stopped him.

Then we checked out the shops around Ben Thanh market for some surveying of prices. Stuffs at the fixed price shops owned by the Ben Thanh market group was sold quite reasonably. But those shops inside the market area (not a fresh market la... something like Central Market in KL, tourist market)... their starting price was four times higher than at the fixed-price shop. And if you walked away with that you-think-I-am-an-idiot-meh look, they would try to persuade you to bargain... 'how many do you want?' (I want none, to maintain my sanity, TQ) ... 'how much do you want ?' (I want it free can ah?). If you have lots of time, you could spend a whole day sparring with the sellers while sharpening your bargaining skills. We had other plans. Bye bye.

Giant sized durians sold outside the market.

Ryan enjoyed the vrroomm vrroomm around HCMC. Traffic was crazy. You thought red light = stop and green light = safe to go? Not here. They had no regards for traffic lights. The rule of the road was... 'just go only, other people would be clever enough to avoid you'. With that principle we conquered the streets of HCMC.

After a few wrong turns, we found what we wanted, the HCMC zoo. Ryan had never been to any zoo in Malaysia, and yet visited his first zoo in HCMC. Typical tourist.

Nice trains, but was not in service.

Some interesting stuffs around the zoo...

Porcupines.

Sun bears. I heard that bear paws were very delicious if braised over slow fire.

Sunflowers.

White tiger.

Nice kitty.

Skinny lion. I am sure Ryan could roar louder than that fella.

Mousedeer maybe.

Hippo.

Mountain goats. Ah would make nice lamb kebabs.

Elephants.

Toys.

After the zoo, we wanted to check out Dong Khoi area, the more affluent part of HCMC, where luxurious hotels, classy shopping centres and designer shops were located (there was a Louis Vuitton).

It began to rain, so we had to seek temporary refuge in Parkson supermarket, which happened to be a 'higher class' place in Dong Khoi. I remembered our guide telling us 'these shops are for you guys to shop, not us'.

In Malaysia, you get car parks in the basement. In HCMC, you get a huge motorcycle park, and they charged entrance fees.

The entrance fee was for valet parking services. You see how crammed the parking place was? I just had to cincai park the bike somewhere, without locking it. Then when somebody wanted to leave, the parking attendant would push my bike and slot it into the parking space. Nobody locked their bikes in motorcycle parks around HCMC. When I returned to the motorbike parking outside Ben Thanh market, I just had to show my parking ticket... the attendant would then go and search for my bike and bring it to me. Nice? The danger was... what if the attendant could not remember where he parked your bike... real nightmare. Solution: install motorbike alarms.

Parkson in HCMC looked quite similar to the ones in Malaysia.

Eating ice cream while waiting for the rain to stop. That was the Pho24 noodle soup franchise shop at the back.

Back to our favorite restaurant for dinner. Nice atmosphere, polite staffs, and a looong menu which offered Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Western, even Italian food.

Our rented motorbike.

The rain stopped after dinner. So we went to visit the waterfront which faced Saigon river.

Saigon River Cruise... dinner on a ship.

Nice hotel.

Besides that you could find many Vietnamese couples hugging and smooching along the waterfront. Fortunately or unfortunately they didn't have JAIS to police over their 'public display of affection'.

Then it started to rain again, so we had to go back to the hotel and returned the bike. The city dwellers did not seem to mind the drizzle, here they were still kicking shuttlecocks in the park, with minimal lighting.

A favorite HCMC nightlife... watching people pass by while having a drink with your pal, with little table and chairs.

11.10.2010 - Caodai and Cu Chi Tunnel Tour

We woke up on a gloomy morning in HCMC. Came back to stay at the same hotel before we left for the Mekong delta tour. As the Chinese saying, cheap and nice.

Opposite our hotel was this odd-looking An An Hotel jutting out into the sky. The reason being, land in HCMC was very limited and expensive. So, if you have no land to extend your premise sideways, you go upwards, of course. And so the 9-storey hotel rose up among a row of double-storey shop houses.

View from our hotel balcony. That Crazy Buffalo pub was a landmark in De Tham street. And those electrical wires would drive TNB electricians crazy.

Typical Vietnamese breakfast: pho with a large basket of vegetables (didn't touch any of the content), small table and chairs.

We took a 1-day tour today to visit the Caodai temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. Those places were out of town, and travelling independantly would be time-consuming, so taking a local tour was the logical choice. Only USD$8 per person, and free-of-charge for Ryan.

What on earth was Caodaism? (I always misread it as Keldaism). It was a religion made in Vietnam for Vietnam, combining teachings of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. They believed that the many religions in the world came from a same god, but has caused much disunity. So the god of the universe chose the Caodai religion to reunite mankind. That's why macam-macam ada.

The HQ of Caodaism was this temple in Tay Ninh city, about 90km northwest of HCMC. 'Cao dai' meant 'high platform' in Mandarin.

Our guide Thomas explained about Caodai religion in front of the main temple.

Ryan riding the cute and colorful lion statues.

There were a few smaller temples surrounding the main one.

Ryan telling the story of the big fish that got away.

A worshiper getting ready for the noon mass. The Caodais have four masses each day, at six hour intervals.

Playing around in the compound while waiting.

Male worshipers waiting for the noon mass to begin. The guy in the middle looked a bit like Tok Guru Nik Aziz don't you think so.

Caodaism believed that god of the universe was symbolized by the divine eye on the globe.

Elaborately decorated chairs in the temple hall.

This uncle looked like a Taoist monk. Apparently the dress code signified which way of teaching the believers followed... yellow for Taoism, red for Christianity, white for Confusionism... something like that.

The worshipers entered the hall with full reverence.

The noon mass in progress. We saw only old folks mainly. Maybe the younger believers were away working.

Colorful wasn't it. Same color scheme as our Malaysian flag.

A bit of Islamic flavor too.

Tourists were allowed to view the mass, but from upstairs only.

The worship leaders.

The backup singers and the musicians.

The music and chanting sounded very repetitive... a bit like the music played during a Chinese funeral.

There was this painting at the entrance of the temple, depicting three saints signing a covenant with God. Guess who they were... Sun Yat Tsen from China, Victor Hugo from France, and Nguyen Binh Khiem from Vietnam.

From Tay Ninh we turned back towards HCMC, stopping at the famous Cu Chi Tunnels. It began to rain, but thank God the rain stopped when we reached the tunnels.

The tour in Cu Chi Tunnels started with a black-and-white video presentation, with the theme of cruel-Americans-and-brave-Vietnamese. In those days, the Americans based in South Vietnam wanted to stop of flow of communist support and supplies coming downwards from North Vietnam. So they bombed the forests and sprayed a herbicide called Agent Orange to wipe out the forests so that the communists had no place to hide. But they didn't expect the Viet Congs to outsmart them by building a 120km-long network of underground tunnels to launch guerrilla attack against the Americans. Clever!

Maybe the Viet Congs got the concept from the ants. Imagine surviving in such conditions for 20 years, gosh!

The original size of entrance to the tunnels on the ground.

Some entrances have been made bigger to accommodate orang puteh waistlines.

So big that even an elephant could go in.

Fake tunnels for little boys to play inside.

You wouldn't want to mess around with these booby traps.

There was a shooting range where tourists could play firing bullets from antique guns used during the Vietnam War.

Choose your gun.

Then buy the bullets.

Having very limited resources, the Viet Congs had to survive with many modifications. One of which was this Uncle Ho Sandals, made from tyres of US Army trucks that were destroyed. Simple, yet very durable.

Many sizes available, from baby-size ones for tourists, to Goliath-size ones to scare the American soldiers off. Looking footprint of those sandals, the American soldiers could not make out which direction the Viet Cong was going.

Then they were selling these beautiful war vehicles made from aluminium cans. Ryan was dying to get me to buy one.

Making friends with the Viet Congs.

Our nice tour bus.

These modern tunnels were much more fun.

Nice dinner to end the day. Italian food this time.