Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Our last stop in Vietnam would be Ho Chi Minh City, or what was previously known as Saigon. While this city was just as busy as Hanoi, it seemed much more manageable (or we are just getting more used to crossing the street amidst chaos!)

Our first night in town we went to the night market in order to pick up some last minute gifts from Vietnam. The shop was set up inside a large warehouse, with hundreds of small vendor stands selling everything from magnets to scorpion whisky! The vendors are constantly following you around the shop trying to make a deal with you on everything you walk by, but the prices are right which makes the “harassment” worthwhile…. :-)

We went to the Reunification Palace located in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City. This was built mainly to serve as South Vietnam’s presidential palace. This location is where the communist tank crashed the gate on April 30th, 1975, the day Saigon surrendered to the North Vietnamese. One of the more eerie things about the palace was that everything was basically left as it was when the South Vietnamese had to flee the building.

The gate now, and a picture of the gate then

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We also visited the War Remnants Museum, which displayed the relics of war, as well as an array of photographs honoring the victims of war. This was really one of the finer museums we have had the luxury of visiting…some are just one-room showcases, but this museum was very well done, with 4 floors of history on display! They also had numerous tanks and choppers from the Vietnam war.

An exercise/dancing class taking place in the local park

We still get a kick out of seeing entire families on motorbikes

A slightly more Asian version of an American stand-by… we stuck with the sour cream and onion flavor.

Hoi An, Vietnam

Just a bit south of Hue is the city of Hoi An… a smaller city on the Thu Bon river.  We stopped for a few nights to explore a quaint, more traditional Vietnamese city. 

We did a walking tour of Old Town… it was nice to just wander around and not worry about hitting any “must see” tourist destinations.

 

Women in southeast Asia consider light skin to be very beautiful (unlike most westerners who want to look tan!).  It’s incredible to see women covered from head to toe in clothing… especially in 100+ degree heat!

 

 

We stopped for lunch and tried a couple traditional Hoi An dishes.

Cao Lau… sort of like a Vietnamese vermicelli

White Rose… shrimp dumplings

 

Hoi An is famous for its many tailors and clothes shops.  You can either buy clothes off the rack or pick your fabric and style, get measured, and have a tailor-made outfit ready in about 12 hours.  Scott had a suit made for $60!  I bought a couple cute sundresses for $5 each.

 

 

Japanese Covered Bridge… built in 1593.

 

 

 

 

 

We still haven’t quite gotten used to seeing a Communist flag flying alongside the flag of Vietnam

 

 

Dozens of coils of incense burning in one of the temples.

 

 

 

With our Vietnam visa expiring in about 5 days, we didn’t want to spend an entire day travelling (a 15 hour bus ride) to Ho Chi Minh city.  We found a cheap flight on one of the many low-cost airlines in this area.

Hue, Vietnam

 

Overnight train from Hanoi to Hue… Scott and the computer…

 

Our lovely bathroom on the train

 

Random street life in Hue

Vendors selling baguettes

One of the great things about travel in southeast Asia—cheap food!  We treated ourselves to a steak dinner with a side of fried squid and fries, and a bottle of wine… all for about $21! 

 

First Day in Hue: City tour

We signed up for a “city tour” of Hue, which took us--by riverboat and later by bus—to the various highlights of the city. 

A demonstration of Vietnamese martial arts—Vo Thuat--used to defend against the Chinese (three times throughout history), and other invaders before the age of modern weapons.  This style of martial arts is believed to be easier and more practical than Chinese martial arts, and therefore could be taught to all people of Vietnamese society.  We have some good video which we can’t post at the moment…

 

Thien Mu Pagoda

 

 

 

We shared a glass of sugar cane juice… shown here being freshly pressed from sugar cane stalks

 

Tu Duc Tomb, Minh Mang Tomb, and Hon Chen Temple (we need to sort through our pictures… not sure which ones are which!)

   

 

Day 2 in Hue: De-militarization Zone (DMZ) tour

 

“The Rockpile”… a notable US artillery base during the Vietnam War. 

 

 

 

One of our photo stops was right on the highway – there was a smalll village about 100ft away; as soon as the kids from the village saw our bus they came running.  They were very, very curious about us 30 westerners, and loved posing for photos!

 

Doc Mieu Base. 

 

 

Python on the side of the road

 

Vinh Moc Tunnels

Bomb crater

One entrance to the Minh Voc Tunnels

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The tunnels were quite extensive…literally an underground community (more than 25 m deep), complete with meetings rooms, bathrooms, a maternity ward, and sleeping quarters.

 

The tunnels exited right onto the Gulf of Tonkin

 

The remnants of the surveillance system put in place along the DMZ

 

The countryside on our bus ride back to Hue

 

Site of the DMZ

A bombed-out church riddled with bullet holes

 

 

We met up with a few friends from our DMZ tour… Aaron and Lucy, from England… it was Aaron’s birthday.  We also ran into Raj, who we’d met several weeks ago at our cooking class in Chiang Mai!

  

Driving a cyclo  and its owner through the streets of Hue (I think it’s supposed to be the other way around)