Not Busy, Just Thai'd Up

Lemme give you a lil sumfin sumfin about my next day trip, this time to the Mekong Delta.  I didn’t have enough time to go for more than one day, but there are longer trips available if you wish to book a tour.  I’d say a few days at the Mekong Delta would be worth the trip because I had an excellent day there. 

SO! I woke up and hopped on a bus.  Tom was my tour guide again!  We made a stop at some Buddhist Pagoda with very large Buddha statues done in different styles nearby.  The pagoda and the statues are very new, and magnificent.  I was marveling at how beautiful the mosaic work at the front gate was.  Oh, I feel it is necessary to mention that Mahayana Buddhism is more prevalent in Vietnam, in stark contrast to the prevalence of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand.  I’d explain the differences between them, but I am still no expert in Buddhism, and what I do know would take too long to explain. Do some research- it’ll be good for you.

 

The most intriguing thing inside of the temple was the fact that they worship the Lady Buddha, to whom barren women pray so that they may bear children.  Fertility gods are so interesting.  I also learned that when people pray in front of these statues, they always hold an odd number of incense sticks in front of them, or offer those sticks to the statues.  The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are the typical numbers.

So that was a fun break from the bus. But then, we rolled on! To the boat station!

We hopped into a motor boat to enjoy a slow cruise amongst the islands. There are four islands in the Mekong Delta- Tortoise Island, Phoenix Island, Unicorn Island, and Dragon Island.  I only got to see Tortoise Island, where we ate lunch (but those who do the longer day-trips get to see the others).  Free rice and pork and vegetable was provided, but you had the option to buy additional food.  My friends who are teaching English in Japan bought the elephant ear fish to put inside of spring rolls- it was wild!

We left the island, hopped in the boat again, and went to the coconut candy factory! It’s a family-owned business, I think, and calling it a factory seems way too grandiose a description since it’s basically a bunch of machinery underneath a hut.  BUT IT’S AWESOME! These people use every part of the coconut in their candy-making process.  First, they shred the coconut and press the powdered coconut to release the oil and cream. Then, the powder is used to feed the geese and fertilize the ground, the oils are used for beauty purposes (whitening, moisturizing, etc.), the cream is for the candy, and the shells are used to feed the fire in order to make the molten candy.

They test to see if the mixture is ready by seeing if a drop of candy does not dissolve into a bowl of water.  Then, they cut up the molten candy into strips, then into smaller pieces.  The people then hand-wrap the candies inside of edible rice paper wrappers, and then paper wrappers.  I found this absolutely fascinating and cool.  Also, the candies come in different flavors- regular coconut, chocolate, panda leaf, durian (popular fruit disliked by many people in the West), and peanut. I bought all of them and they are so yummy.

They served us some of the most delicious honey tea I’ve ever tasted, and then let us all take turns taking pictures with a python around our necks.  The python kept getting passed around every fifteen seconds- I felt so bad for the poor thing, but this did not keep me from getting my snake picture.

Next, we got into these lil rowboats where we were slowly paddled through the river, lined with lovely greenery.  It was kinda romantic. The best part though, was that we got to wear rice patty hats.

After reaching our new destination, we got to eat some fresh fruit snacks, and were entertained with some traditional folk Vietnamese music. It was absolutely awesome- and the songs have stories, as folk songs are wont to do.  The bus driver even got up and sang!  They provided CDs for us to buy- #tourist trap- but I bought one because the Music of the Silk Road class that I took last year has made me obsessed with foreign music.

That was the end of my trip to the Mekong Delta- we just hopped back on a boat and then a bus to get back.  Something cool about the boats: there are two types of boats- tourist boats and fishing boats.  They paint eyes on the front of the tourist boats to scare the fish away, and keep the fishing boats eyeless because scaring the fish away would be detrimental to the fisherman’s purpose. 

Later that night, I sat in the park to journal, as became my nightly routine in Ho Chi Minh City.  I was all alone until a possibly homeless man randomly sat beside me to ask if I speak Vietnamese and question my ethnicity.  I tried to make conversation, but the language barrier made everything awkward.  He left after a good 2 minutes of awkward silence.  I don’t know why I felt the need to share that bit of info. 

Anyway, the following day was to be a day of travel.  I was leaving Ho Chi Minh City for Hanoi.  But due to a delay in flight, I had the entire morning to explore the city a little more.  ABC Bakery, along Pham Ngu Lao street. Holy crap.  It was amazing.  So many pastries, some even have cheese.  And everything is 15,000 dong each.  I was in heaven, and I was upset that I had not thought to explore the bakery earlier in the week.

 

Then, I walked to the Fine Arts Museum, which is housed inside of an old French building.  The building itself was really beautiful, but the arts inside were simply amazing.  Much of the art was created within the past century, which I found very interesting.  There was even an entire floor dedicated to arts related to the Vietnam War and its effects, which was a bit depressing.  I’ll let some of my favorite art pieces speak for the museum.

Afterward, the owners of the hostel took me to the bus station so that I could catch the bus to the airport.  I must warn you travelers- the Saigon airport has separate terminals for international flights and domestic flights.  Just be aware about which one you are in. 

In the next episode of this blog, Jessica takes on Hanoi. *dramatic closing theme music*

And so the blabbing continues. I must say that I've been listening to the soundtrack of Good Morning Vietnam while writing this blog, so all of the titles are things that have come out of Robin Williams' mouth. Anyway, the NgocThao Guesthouse offers to set up several day trips to places outside of the city, and all of them are really cheap! Each of my day trips cost about $10, with transportation, English tour, and snackage included. 

My first day trip was to the Cao Dai Temple and the Cu ChiTunnels. It was on this trip that I was the only American in a tour group for the first time ever. I was surrounded by about 20 Filipinos, 1 Canadian, 3 Spaniards, and 2 people from somewhere else in Europe.  It was odd to be the only one from the big ol’ USA.

Anyway, the Cao Dai Temple is a very interesting bugger.  This is where the religion of Cao Daism is worshipped.  Here are some quick and dirty facts about Cao Daism, the third largest religion in Vietnam after Buddhism and Catholicism:

This is only a basic layout, and there is much, much more to know about the religion, for sure.

Inside of the temple is an impressive display of dragon pillars, decorated ceilings, and a cluster of golden objects at the far end of the temple where the altar lies.  There are several depictions and statues of their saints, as well.  I must say, I was very surprised at their choice in saints.  There was a sea of followers worshipping- all clad in white.  The women entered the temple on the left where they sat on the ground in a perfect grid, while the men did the same on the right side of the temple.  In the front, closer to the altar, were figures with a higher status- they were wearing red, yellow and blue to signify their higher status.

 

The musicians would play their music and sing in a chamber on the second floor, much like the choir does in several Catholic churches.  The temple itself shows the mixture of beliefs, taking influence from each of the religions’ temples.  It was really neat- I wish I had more time to examine it all.  Anyway, at certain points during the music, everyone in the room would bow three times at the same time- that kind of unity is rather impressive.

Outside of the temple, there was a road that I accidentally stepped on because I was unaware of the danger.  At the front of the temple, there are important religious figures buried; during worship, the ghosts walk around outside of the temple, so one is not supposed to step on the road in front of the temple during prayer time.  There was a pillar not too far away decorated with a dragon at the top, and a lotus at the bottom to symbolize the name of the town, which means “Dragon Lotus”.  Also at the bottom were four unicorns at the bottom, facing each of the cardinal directions in order to ward ghosts away. 

 

There’s a lot more information I could provide about the decorations of the temple and what they mean, but I’m sure you are bored of this rant already.  So to conclude, I’m really fascinated with Cao Daism- of course, I would be since I’m a Religious Studies major.

The next stop was the Cu Chi Tunnels.  These were the tunnels in which the Vietnamese guerilla warriors would hide out, and surprise the American soldiers.  To begin, we entered a little underground hut where we were given a brief history of the tunnels and the Vietnam War.  Afterwards, there was a question session.  Let me tell you what- even though English has become the common language of the world, accents are a great barrier.  It took forever for questions to be understood and answered correctly because the Vietnamese lecturer could not understand the accent of the Filipino people and the Canadian dude, and vice versa.  I found it quite amusing.

We then watched a movie made in the 70s, given a very biased and propagandistic account of the guerilla soldiers.  A proud woman narrated the history of the war while proudly proclaiming certain people to be national heroes.  Approximate quotation of narration: “Bruce was a young soldier whose parents were killed during the war.  He was very stealthy and became really knowledgeable about where to place bombs and how to disguise them in order to fool the Americans.  He killed 35 Americans and became a national hero, the American Killer.” Simply amazing.

The tunnels are 250 km of complex and winding structures that all interconnect.  It’s really rather impressive that these were built.  We explored how tiny the entrances to the tunnels were.  But this extended to the tunnels themselves- the soldiers had to crawl through them, and they even slept inside of them.  We got a chance to go through 20 meters of tunnel, widened for tourists to use.  But even though it was widened, I still had to bend in half in order to get through them, and I’m pretty small.  It was very stuffy in there with just a few people, so I can’t imagine how people were able to sleep inside of tinier tunnels with more people inside.

 

We were also given a tour of different traps that the Vietnamese set up, and we were given a chance to shoot old guns used during the war, but the price of the bullets is a ripoff.  After seeing so much history about the terrors of war, the thought of shooting a gun was not appealing to me anyway.

We headed back to the city shortly afterwards.  During one part of the trip, we were stopped in the most horrific traffic I’ve ever seen.  Our bus was stuck for over 30 minutes.  I wish I had sufficient internet to upload the video I took of this traffic, but the picture below should give you a decent idea.  All of those heads are motorbikes, which can swerve in and out of traffic, and congest any free space that may be available.  While we were waiting, I got to enjoy watching a man eat an entire bowl of pho before traffic police came to control the flow.

That night, I ate at a street restaurant.  Don’t order sandwiches with bacon on them in Vietnam- you will only be disappointed with flabby, fatty bacon.  But this is not why I bring up dinnertime.

After I had finished my meal, two kids at the ages of 10 and 12 sat across from me, and the British lady sitting next to me. They asked the British woman if she would speak English with them, so that they could practice- it was adorable. They were having trouble understanding her accent though, so I piped in and talked to them.  It was fun until I was made to answer what my favorite color is fifteen times, and thrice whether I like cats or not.  It was very hard to make different conversation because I was unsure about the limits of their vocabulary.  It was fun, though.  They apparently do this every Monday night, which is just awesome! I wish I had that dedication to learning languages.

Their teacher came up to me after they left, and made conversation with me.  She thanked me for talking with her students, and admitted that she told them not to talk to me because she thought I was Vietnamese (victory). Of course, my ethnic origins were brought up.  The best part of the conversation was when she asked if I looked more like my mom or dad- I said I don’t look more like either one of them- I think I’m a rather good mixture.  She said “you don’t look like your mom…and you don’t look like your dad…you look like a STRANGER! HAHAHHAHA!”  She suggested that I look like a stranger because while my mom was pregnant, she would often look at a handsome stranger.  I liked her a lot.  Day 3 ended on a good note.

I am absolutely overwhelmed by how much I think I have to say about my trip to Vietnam.  I feel like I did so much that I have to use my journal to remember each day.  Before I start typing more, I’d like to say that I added pictures to the last post, and that for a short while, the frequency of my posting will be irregular.

Now. Let us begin at the start of my trip.  On Saturday, October 13, I woke up in the morn with butterflies in my stomach.  I was about to travel in a foreign country by myself, for the first time ever.  I was excited and nervous- I made sure to try to leave messages with all my loved ones just in case I got abducted or something. BUT OBVS I’M ALIVE!

First stop was Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, in the south of Vietnam. On the plane trip from Bangkok to HCMC, I slept most of the way, but when I woke up after landing, I was adopted.  A Thai couple and their two buddies started talking to me, and they reveled in the fact that I was studying abroad in Thailand.  They herded me into their group, and after exchanging our Thai baht into Vietnamese dong, we grabbed a taxi (taxis are rip-offs- try to get to Vietnam before 6 pm so you can take the bus which costs 30 cents. THIRTY CENTS!) My first impression of the city when driving toward the Pham Ngu Lao district (the backpackers district where all the sights are) was HOLY CRAP SO MANY MOTORBIKES!

Ma plane and taxi buddies.

 

HCMC is a very bustly city.  And it’s a thing in Southeast Asia for people to ride motorbikes.  I thought there were a lot in Thailand.  I was wrong. 

I parted with my new friends at their hotel, and went in search of my hostel, NgocThao Guesthouse.  I passed it because this hostel is down a tiny, insignificant, kinda grimey alley.  It’s scary if you let it be scary.  The hostel itself is very nice, clean, friendly, and offers a lot in terms of day trips (to be explained later).  The only qualm was that breakfast was an additional 30,000 dong each morning. The breakfast was super tasty though- BAGUETTES! (the French imperialists were expelled from Vietnam in 1954 after the First Indochina War) and pancakes.  It was amazing to see decent bread again.

I met another new friend, Mindy, who was my roommate for the night.  We walked around for a bit, had dinner, talked about life and experiences and whatnot.  Then, we sat on the street along with everyone else atop tiny chairs to have a couple of Saigon Greens (cheap beer for 10,000 dong, which is equal to 50 cents).  I LOVE this part of Vietnamese culture.  Day and night, you will find people crowded on the sidewalks around tiny tables, atop the smallest chairs, drinking beer, eating food, and chatting.  This kind of community is also seen in the parks where all the couples sit on benches, friend groups sit or play sports, and the older folk even do salsa dancing under the pavilions in the evening.  I fell in love with the community of Vietnam.

So, that’s day one concluded.  We move onward to day two.

Day two was a busy, busy day. 

I set out with my handy dandy map at hand, given to me by the lovely people at the hostel.  Normally, I am incredibly directionally-challenged, even with a map.  But, I put my noggin to it, and conquered those streets!  I saw men in green uniforms everywhere, many pastry shops, the longest line of boy scouts and girl scouts known to man (they started chanted which was most excellent), and I learned how to cross the street.

This map was my savior!

 

Crossing the street is almost a death wish.  It’s not as terrifying as it is in Hanoi though, as I found out later that week.  Basically, unless you are INCREDIBLY patient or lucky, you baby-step across the road where a line a cars and motorbikes may be coming at you. You take a couple of steps at a time, stopping in between passing vehicles, until you get to the end.  Sometimes though, there will be tourist police who guide you safely across the street, and cars usually stop for them.

SO! First stop was the War Remnants Museum.  Definitely an excellent museum, and worth seeing.  It was all about the Vietnam War, the other side of the Vietnam War that we don’t hear about in Western education.  It’s three floors, and an exhibit of prison life, of depressing history. I had to sit down after viewing each floor to regain my composure.  I think pictures speak louder than words in this case, so I’ll showcase a few photos below. 

Next, I walked toward the Ngon Restaurant for lunch, which was recommended on my map.  But on the way, I was stopped by Manh, the Saigon native and motorcycle taxi tour guide.  I tried to shake him off, but he pulled out a five-inch thick notebook filled with pictures of the people he’d taken on a tour next to their own positive statements about his tour. I decided to get on his bike because the Jade Emperor Pagoda in Chinatown and another Chinese Buddhist Temple were a bit far away.  He took me to see those, but then purposefully made the tour longer by taking me past the Saigon River to show me how the government was buying the property of people who live by the river to gain land for development.  It’s rather sad- there are a lot of people living on boats or under bridges by the river now.  Manh was really informative- every so often he would tell a random fact about this old building, or that old building.  Much of it I don’t remember because I couldn’t hear him over the honking and the wind, but I appreciated the gesture, and I recommend his tour to everyone. 

With Manh on his motorcycle

Freeing a turtle at the Jade Emperor Pagoda for good luck.

At the old temple.

 

He took me back to the Reunification (Independence) Palace where I took a tour.  It’s really just a bunch of decorated rooms.  The coolest parts were the in the basement where you got to see the planning rooms with all of the old maps and radio equipment.  My blood sugar was low from no lunch so I wasn’t really interested in this experience.  I ate at Ngon Restaurant soon afterward, which was yummy and a bit fancy.  I soon found that papaya shakes are my favorite, and Pho Bo, the famous Vietnamese soup, is super yum yum.

Reunification Palace

LUNCH

 

Then, I walked to Notre Dame Cathedral.  Along the way, I noticed that a lot of the street names are still French.  One street was called Duong Pasteur, named after an important figure in the history of medicine.  Anyway, Notre Dame Basilica was really beautiful, very large, and modern.  They had several tv screens between the pews so that people could sing along to hymns, karaoke style.

Next to it was the Saigon Central Post Office, famous just because of its French architecture.  Inside were telephone books, postal service, and some souvenir shops with some pretty great stuff. 

The basilica to the left, the post office in the back.

 

I walked toward the Opera House where I got invited to go to a cultural performance held twice a month. I really wanted to go, and I would recommend that anyone who travels to HCMC go see it, but I had other plans for the following day.  In that area are a bunch of ritzy, rich people hotels and shops.  Mila Kunis was plastered over the shops, advertising for Dior.  I got out of there as quickly as possible.

Then, I stumbled across the Golden Dragon Water PuppetTheatre.  This is a really special and cultural puppet performance that I think everyone should see. All of the dialogue and singing were in Vietnamese so that I couldn’t fully understand everything, but the plots of the stories were easily summarized by the titles in the brochure.  The performance was divided into fifteen short segments in which the puppets glided across the water, acting out unicorns playing with a ball, or village people catching fish, and more!  The musicians to the side of the stage provide the musical accompaniment, and the voices of the puppets.  45 minutes well-spent.

I got dinner after that, somewhere.  Each night in HCMC was typically, dinner at some restaurant while reading Clash of Kings, journaling in the park, then beddy bye.  So there you have it, the first two days of my trip to Vietnam.  There’s plenty more to come!