Howdy all!

MC, HNY and all that, hope you had a cracker. I spent 3 weeks in Aus catching up with fams and peeps which was fantastic, but completely unblogworthy so no treats there. I must apologize for my retrospective behavior but even the most seasoned traveller needs some downtime so I ask you to step back in time to December 14…..

So with a heavy heart (and liver) I headed out of Sunny Snooky, back to Phnom Pehn for a night then mosied over to Ho Chi Mihn City (aka Saigon) in Vietnam. The 6 hour journey by bus cost me a massive $10, so obviously I was disappointed by the lack of an in-trip movie and catering. I had wisely pre-purchased a Vietnam visa ($35 from most hostels and travel agents) and as I had already booked my flight out of Saigon, so I specified on my visa that I would be in Vietnam for 5 days only. This caused massive consternation amongst the bus driver, Vietnam border guards, immigration control, some guy on the street and numerous others.

Vietnam Immigration Officers (VIO): “5 days! 5 days only”

Dan: “yeah, and?”

VIO: “only 5 days!”

Dan: “yeah, cool, I know, thanks for that!”

VIO: “5 days you leave!”

Anyway… as you might gather, the land border controls Cambodia - Vietnam are something else. You need to disembark from the bus and walk across the border with all your luggage, through immigration then back onto the bus, which by itself is not such a problem but the question in my head was this: If Communism is the workers’ paradise, why are all the government employees so freaking miserable?

Once again, I hadn’t booked any accommodation but the bus dropped us into the backpackers area of Pham Ngu Loa St and Bui Vien Street, so I walked the streets ignoring the various spruikers (i.e. touts) trying to determine the lay of the land. Eventually I decided that all the places were much of a muchness so I grabbed the first decent thing I saw in Minihotel Alley - Mi Mi Guesthouse which was a touch expensive at $10/night but provided a really nice loft style apartment, which could have easily accommodated 3 others as well! Address: 40/5 Bui Vein Street, District 1- ph: (8) 836-9536.

The camera that I had, through extensive misuse and abuse, died completely at this stage so I headed out to find a replacement. After much searching I ended up at the Saigon Tax Trade Centre which is not actually tax free but does seem to offer the city’s widest range of high-end electronic goods and replaced my beloved and battered Casio with a Panasonic FX-55, a fantastic little box. Whilst contemplating which camera to buy I ducked into the Paradise Coffee Shop in the Rex Hotel (address: 141 Nguyen Hue Blvd. Dist. 1) and sampled a Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Due to the historic French influence in Vietnam the coffee is locally grown, is very strong and has a magnificent taste. The Iced Coffees are perfect for those stinking hot days where you need refreshment and some stimulants as well - highly recommended!

After experiencing a strange but curiously relaxing face and head massage for just $6, I headed up to the War Remnants Museum, a collection of US military hardware seized after the war by the Vietnamese and labeled with amusing anti-US propaganda saying, “This is an American Bell UH-1 Helicopter seized by the victorious brave free people of Vietnam as the cowardly invading Imperialist US troops admitted defeat and retreated.” Not so funny were the displays of photographs of the victims of the US chemical warfare and their children, deformed babies, children with napalm burns and villages being burned to the ground.

Ah the Pho Soup…. how I loved thee! Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup (I preferred the chicken over the beef) that comes garnished with a huge plate of shallots, chilies, limes, basil leaves, bean sprouts and onions, which you add to your taste. There are Pho stores everywhere and vendors on the street but the most famous one is called Pho 2000, mainly because Bill Clinton visited it once, but the Pho is pretty damn good. Pho 24 stores are also common.

Also worth trying are the Vietnamese rice pancakes (called bánh bèo) which are more like savory crepes and usually come served with a mixture of pork mince and shrimp inside. These were hard to find in the area of Saigon I was staying in but are well worth the hunt!

Inspired by the above experiences I found time to visit The Vietnam Cookery Center, great value at $33 for a half day course, which includes 5 dishes and a take home cookbook and very friendly staff.

I also went out to the Cu Chi Tunnels, best seen by booking a tour at any of the numerous small travel agencies around Saigon. This underground network was built and utilized by the Viet Cong during the war to hide from the US troops and move from place to place. The tunnels were too small for the physically larger US men to climb into, moreover, elaborate, vicious traps were put in place to make things even harder. One of the tunnels has been enlarged for a 500 meter section to allow visitors to experience what life in the tunnels was like - even at the larger size and short distance crawling through the tunnel was very physically demanding and gave me a touch of claustrophobia! At the end of the tunnel tour there was a firing range and although it is a massive cliché which I had been avoiding for my entire trip through Asia I finally succumbed and bought 5 bullets which I fired from an AK-47 rifle. I have to confess that I fail to see the appeal which firearms have for some people. I found the experience the same as operating and other piece of machinery - noisy and unpleasant. But hey, it´s an experience, I´m glad I did it but I am not in any hurry to do it again. Oh, and I am an appalling shot!

In retrospect I would have spent just 3 days in Saigon and headed out of the city for a couple of days, there are some fantastic beaches and smaller towns in southern Vietnam, but it´s easy to have 20-20 vision in hindsight.

Next tourist destination: California!

Ciao,

Dan

Note: We would prefer to map everything as we do with the majority of our other posts but many countries -including a lot in Asia- are not geocode friendly. However, when this becomes possible we will surly map away.

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