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Chasps, (I tried to make it brief, but failed once again.) Nicola and I decided to take a holiday and check
out Vietnam. We would love to have
spent a lot longer than the week we had, but it was better than not at all.
We flew into Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, Saigon) and found
a quite reasonable hotel for US$15 per night.
Vietnam uses two currencies, the Vietnam Dong (VDN) and US dollar
interchangeably. 15,000 VDN to the
$. After getting our feet we
went to the local bar for a well deserved beverage in the 33 degree heat.
To the sounds of Nick Cave we negotiated a tour of the countryside by
motorbikes for the following day. It absolutely
beats the pants off sitting on a bus. Mind
you, it scares the pants off you sometimes,
with the way they drive, but we are still alive.
Amongst other places, we visited the Cu Chi tunnels where 16,000
Vietnamese lived in an underground fortress/tunnel system during the Vietnam
war. Amazingly complex, cramped,
ingenious, dangerous, hot…… On the way back, we stopped at a little street-side
stall for a quick pineapple snack. Here
you can see the man cutting up afternoon tea with some rice paddies in the
background.
The following day we took a trip to the Mekong (3rd
longest river in Asia) River Delta about
70km southwest of HCMC. There are 9
branches of the delta, also called the 9 dragons.
It was a bit of a tourist rort, but we did get to see coconut farms,
fruit plantations etc etc AND all the industrial development along the river
(not mentioned in the brochures) including a new Fosters [beer] plant that is
being built. Arrghhh. Here is a little snap of the owner family of a coconut farm who
played/sung for us. The man had one
of those narly faces, which unfortunately my photo does not do justice to.
He is playing the ‘moon’ guitar which has only 2 strings.
There happened to be a snake farm just down the road,
so we popped in. They specialized
in pythons and cobras and had
a few other miscellaneous animals lying around, including goannas, otters,
porcupines, monkeys and a turtle. Here
is me with a 20kg python. I look a
little sweaty – it was a hot day and hard work maneuvering 20kg of living
flesh. That is my story and I am
sticking to it!
Being 6 inches from a king cobra rearing up like this is bloody
scary. I felt pretty safe
considering he was be behind glass, dead and in a bottle.
I did manage to buy a bottle of wine with a cobra coiled inside.
They say it ‘makes you strong’ and ‘is good for the back….’
They didn’t give a rat’s when I brought it into China.
We’ll see what happens when I mention it to Quarantine in Aus.
We wanted some time just chilling, so we toddled up to Mui Ne on a
bus. 4hrs east of HCMC.
The beaches were not quite white, but there were plenty of coconut palm
trees. Every now and again,
the ocean tries to claim a few. Cruise
Chick happy to be at the beach:
The Friday started well with banana & pineapple
pancakes. We decided to hire a
motorbike & have a look around. 110cc
of pure testostoronic raw ‘econo-power’. Note the v masculine basket on front for carrying
baguettes, puppies etc.
We took the bike 9 clicks up the road to the fishing
village. Very picturesque.
There was one bitumen road in the town, which limited where I could take
the bike. (Limited by my skills,
not hire restrictions.) As you head away from the coast, it seems to become
very dry very quickly. Here is a
photo looking across the bay from the village.
The little semi-spherical device on the beach is a woven boat the locals
use fro small trips. They appear to
be painted with a resin to make them water tight.
Looking into the bay from Mui Ne:
We took the bike back the other way and were about 10
minutes out of town when we got a flat. After
agonizing over who should stay with the bike and who should go for help, two
nice locals turned up with a ‘bike-ute’ that could take our bike, me and CC.
(So their bike, probably 110cc, maybe 150cc had a load of 4 people and 1
motorbike. Needless to say it was pretty safe as we couldn‘t achieve
more than 40kmh.) The rental people were a little disconcerted when the bike
didn’t come back under its own power, but smiled when they understood the
situation. Here some markets at Pham Ngu
Lao we visited on the last day. This
is the poultry butcher, squatting at table height hacking into a carcass in the
warm morning air.
Must dash, Cheers, Mike |
