Saturday, November 03, 2007

Ho Chi Minh City


We were off to an early 7am start but managed to take in breakfast at a pavement stall - tea with condensed milk for me, coffee for Dieter and scrambled egg in a roll for us both. Our first visit was the War Remnants Museum, a sobering place for the unprepared. There were a few tears shed by members of our group at the human cost of the Vietnam War, the American War to the Vietnam people. The display of massive tanks and other war machinery in the courtyard outside was enough for Dieter and me.

The Cu Chi tunnels was our next destination. There was a museum there with a harrowing film, and a walk round the area we took, with displays and information about the tunnels and how they penetrated so close to Saigon. There were some aweful booby traps which did terrible things to their victims.

People could go down into the tunnels and crawl along a little way. I was not going to do it, but Dieter went down in an impetuous moment and emerged hot and bothered after a few minutes. l I was supposed to take a photo of him emerging but failed to press the button hard enough and didn't want to delay his reentrance to the real world a second longer than necessary.

Off to the Mekong Delta after that - a journey of 3 or 4 hours. We hurtled along and the inevitable happened - we had a slight accident - the driver had to swerve to avoid a motor cyclist and veered to the side hitting a woman motor scooter rider with the side mirror. Luckily she was wearing a helmet, which was split by the impact but she was not injured. After reimbursing her for a new helmet we continued on our way with the driver driving more carefully I hoped. We went by boat across to an island in the delta, then upriver on a punt for a swept up Vietnamese lunch at a private home. It was several courses, starting with baked fish which we combined with pineapple, cucumber, noodles, to make our own fresh spring rolls , served with a dipping sauce. Then came the most succulent huge prawns followed by spicy fried rice with shrimps, soup and fresh fruit.

Onwards and outwards on a trailor drawn by a powerful motorbike in a couple of groups to a place where they grow fruit and served it with tiny cups of spiced coffee filtered through the tiny filters that fit over a cup. There we sampled mango and dragon fruit, that red skinned fruit with white flesh and lots of black seeds. Then it was on to the coconut sweet factory where I found the ideal present for my workmates. It was getting late by this stage and it was back to the mainland on the boat, a 20 minute trip and a several hour trip back to Saigon in the dark.

Out for dinner to a nice restaurant for our farewell dinner and it was goodbye to all our group members who went out to a night club and back to our hotel for Darby and Joan.

Our flight to Singapore was at 5pm so we had time to go to the Fine Arts Museum across the road from the hotel in the morning and to the market for some last minute shopping for a gingham top for Elisabeth and some cashew and pistachio nuts for us.

What a contrast was Singapore with its wide open spaces, wide roads and little traffic at that time of the night. It was bliss to be back in familiar territory.

Home sweet home the next day after a pleasant but packed flight on Singapore Airlines.

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