Another Night in 'Nam

We were up bright and early, though probably would have been more rested if there hadn't been some sort of strange singing being played over a loudspeaker somewhere in the middle of the night.  It legitimately sounded like someone was drowning very loud, very sick house cats and it went on for very much longer than I would have liked.

We spent some time at the front desk and with the help of such useful devices as charades, pictionary and my translator app, coordinated a ride to the nature preserve to go for a hike.  A taxi came to pick up Tara, Marissa, and me, but just as we were getting in to go up the road, a van flew past us in the opposite direction & we heard tires squealing and then this loud smacking sound.  We turned around and saw that the van had hit a woman on a motor scooter.  She had been thrown off of it and was lying in the road, not moving.  A bunch of people came running over to help and we saw someone on their phone calling for an ambulance.  We weren't sure if we should go try to do something too but our cab driver made us get in the car, so we have no idea what happened to her.  It was surreal and scary & the idea we had tossed around, of renting motorbikes if we couldn't do the hike, evaporated into the afternoon sky.

Our taxi driver took us, very slowly & while beeping like a mad man at any motorbikes within hearing distance, to the nature preserve office.  There a sweet, stylish little Vietnamese woman helped us figure out what hike we could do with our limited amount of time, provided us with a pretty useless map (all maps are pretty useless to me, but my companions confirmed that this one was in fact, truly useless) and sent us on our way.

After a considerable amount of searching, and one false alarm, we finally located the pink house that indicated the start of the trail.  You can bet that this pink house was not properly marked on said useless map.   As we headed up, it quickly became a pretty steep hike and we were sweaty (okay sweatier) and breathless in no time- my body rebelling at the first legitimate physical activity in days.

(Pictured here, upon our return, Marissa and I enjoy a birdbath facial, directly under the air conditioner while we wait to be sure we don't have heat exhaustion.)

It was nice to be in the jungle and enjoy the quiet for a bit, but we didn't get too far due to some time constraints that arose from the multiple times we had to stop and examine the map.  If we had it to do over again we probably would have tried to hike the day we got here and do the trail that led to a scenic vista & snorkeling lagoon.  Maybe next time Con Dao.

Back on the main road, we stopped at a little house that was selling cookies, chips, etc  and bought some pandan pirouettes that, while delicious, were really just a way to get in the house so we could use the phone and get our cab driver to come and pick our sweaty asses up there instead of back at the national park office.   I'm still not entirely sure how we managed to convey this to both the owner and the cab driver and it actually happened but the owner was very hospitable and invited us (still via charades) to sit and watch a Japanese movie, dubbed in Vietnamese, with him and engage in some more pantomimed conversation while we waited.

We ended up being a little late leaving for the airport and I actually thought that we wouldn't get there at all because I was pretty sure they were going to find my body by the side of the road after being ejected from the seat-belt-less van going 90 miles an hour along hairpin turns.  But we made it one piece, making up for lost time & then some, and had a quick flight back to Ho Chi Minh.

Back in the city we checked in to the Empress Hotel, which wasn't anything terribly notable; it's claim to fame was being awarded something by Trip Advisor....in 1998.  We dropped our stuff and headed back to our favorite market for some more wandering around.

This time we were prepared for the early dining hours of Ho Chi Minh and after some pre-dinner drinks at a pretty posh Thai restaurant (which we knew was posh because they brought us actual cloth napkins for us to wipe ourselves down with- aka the birdbath) we made our way over to Huong Lai- the restaurant that Nattie and I had tried to dine at on my birthday.  This place was great, it has open air loft seating and not only is the space beautiful, the concept is as well.  All the employees of the restaurant are disadvantaged youth, who are training to work in the service industry so they will have a way of supporting themselves.  We did a prix fix and all of our dishes were great- with the exception of my dessert, but that is my own fault for choosing some sort of strange red bean pudding because it sounded the most exotic.  Exotic it was, tasty it wasn't.

The dessert fail turned out just as well because that meant I had room for one of these adorable little cupcakes from a shop that we passed by on our way to the Hoa Vien Brauhouse- that's right, we went to a German beer garden in Vietnam.  And I ate a cupcake of unknown ethnic background inside of it.

Con Dao Island

Since our air conditioner was on the arctic tundra setting all night every one was up early and ready to go.  We went for a Monday brunch at one of the local roadside restaurants.  We were having a bit of trouble conveying what we wanted when Tony, the owner of Rainbow Divers- the company we planned to do our scuba diving with later in the day- rocked up and came to our rescue.  He even let Heggie jump on the back of his moto and took her to the market to grab some fruit when the restaurant didn't have any.

Afterwards we strolled around the town admiring all the beautiful little houses, walked the road above the shoreline and toured the area where the prisons used to be- up until a few years ago the island was strictly a military base and no visitors were allowed.  Things are changing very rapidly there, with plans to build a new harbor, so in a few more years it will probably be unrecognizable as the quiet little place that we visited.

 

 

Pretty soon it was time to head to the dock to meet our scuba instructors from Rainbow Divers.  I was super excited about this because there had been a bit of a debacle with my scuba certification training before I left and I had not been able to do any open water dives & when I emailed to see if I could do 2 of the 4 needed in Con Dao they initially said no.  But it all worked out and it was such an amazing experience to be swimming along the ocean floor, looking at all these fish and coral- and breathing!  It's mind blowing that something like that is even possible, let alone accessible to me.  We did one dive and took a break for fruit and sun back on the boat.  Then we did a second dive where I had to do a bunch of skills in the beginning so he could sign off on them in my logbook & then did some more exploring.

 

At the end of the dive they let us take turns jumping off the top of the boat and into the water which was pretty awesome as well.  When it was time to head back, we climbed up to the top and watched the sunset from the deck chairs as we sailed back to shore.

Back at the hotel, where we now had two rooms (one of them still with the makeshift California King) we got cleaned up for dinner.  Tara, Marissa, and I were in hot pursuit of some Pho so we walked up the street a bit and checked out a couple local restaurants.  Either what we were saying was unrecognizable in Vietnamese, or they don't get down with Pho on this island because no matter how we pronounced it or how hard we looked for it on the menu, it remained elusive and the language barrier prevented us from discovering what the deal was.  So we settled for some more pan fried noodles & vegetables and morning glory, which tho not Pho, was still pretty satisfying.

After that there wasn't much else to do but head for bed, as nightlife is pretty lacking here, which actually works out for the best since we're trying to get up early and do a hike tomorrow morning before we fly out.

Planes, Various Kinds of Boats, and Automobiles

We were up bright and early at 5:30am, though I had been up since about 4 listening to a rooster with an inability to tell time crowing and doing various yoga poses that I hoped would cause my bladder to miraculously evaporate so I didn't have to venture into the pitch dark to go to the bathroom.   About 5am my need to pee overtook my need to not be eaten alive by mosquitoes or dismembered by monkeys and I used the extra half hour to contemplate the meaning of life and whatnot.

At our sendoff home stay breakfast I consumed about 3 loaves of delicious baguette topped with the Vietnamese equivalent of laughing cow cheese, jam and/or eggs, sugar bananas and my own personal mini brewed cup of coffee with condensed milk.  Then it was time to pile back in the bus- Hai had us on a strict timeline today.

After a couple more van/boat transfers we arrived at the floating markets.  There was an incredible amount of activity and our guide wove us through the various vendors selling items from their boats.

 

We took a break and climbed aboard the roof of a boat selling pineapple where the owner gave us a demo on how to prepare it popsicle style and offered a treat to those of us that aren't allergic to it.

 

 

 

Then it was time for the long trek back to Ho Chi Minh airport for us to catch our flight to Con Dao island.  On our way we saw a ridiculous amount of motorbikes with extreme cargo:

At the airport we bid a sad farewell to  Kaitlin, as it was time for her to jet back to L.A., then went inside where we had a small discussion with the woman at the counter when she asked Nattie to show the credit card that she purchased her flight with.  Of course the only person that she asked was the only person that didn't have it and then she told her she needed to buy a new flight.  We spoke to the manager and got it sorted out, then went to meet Heggie, who had been having her own travel troubles and ended up missing a connection & getting stranded in Austria so she missed the Mekong Delta trip.

After a quick 45 minute flight we touched down over turquoise waters at a tiny airport on Con Dao island.

We arrived at our hotel- Con Dao Camping, where we made a little friend at the check in area.

So we attempted to check in, only to discover after a great deal of confusion, confounded by the language barrier, that although we had booked two rooms online about two weeks ago, they only had one of them for us.  So they ended up basically making a wall of beds and we slept party of 5, all across them.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant by the beach, and ordering was also an adventure since even the girl that they called over to speak English didn't speak any English and also didn't understand what the little pocket translator my mom bought for me spoke at her.  But when all was said and done we ended up with a pretty tasty little assortment of dishes and some beers so all was right with the world and we went to bed shortly after.

The Mekong Delta Experience

Up at the ungodly hour of 6am choking on the smell of popcorn,  we managed to pillage the breakfast buffet for a bit before our tour van arrived to collect us for our Mekong Delta experience.  One thing I love about foreign hotels is they usually have a little fusion of Eastern and Western breakfast so along with eggs and toast we also had fried rice and wonton soup.

Our fantastic guide for the trip, Tai was a sweet Vietnamese guy, about our age, whose family evacuated from the Mekong to Saigon to escape  the Khmer Rouge when he was 4.

We started off the day with an hour and a half drive out of Ho Chi Minh through the country side.  It was very scenic and Tai gave us the scoop on some of the finer historical and cultural points of Vietnam.

We arrived at the river and hopped in a private boat for a ride around the islands.

We stopped off on one of the islands to watch them make coconut candy.  They gave us some samples to entice us to buy and it worked like a charm- I'll be carting them around for the next two weeks to bring back to NYC for my co-workers, so they will be some well traveled candy.

We hiked out of the candy factory and were greeted by a sort of Vietnamese tuk tuk-  it was sort of like an open air wagon attached to the back of- what else?- a motorbike.

Fun fact from Tai today: one out of two people in Vietnam own a motor bike due to the fact that the only public transit is via bus and the import tax on cars is 150% so only very rich people can afford them.  But I digress, we went on a super awesome ride through the main roads, as well as some back road areas that involved taking some care to not get whacked in the face with passing palm fronds and such.  They dropped us off at a bee keeping farm where we got to sample fresh honey in tea with lime & a bunch of fresh native fruits.  It was the perfect mid morning snack break.

After that we scooted on over to the river where a tired old woman shuttled us up the river in our funny hats in a rowboat.  It was very cool and relaxing experience for us, probably not so much for her, as evidenced by her loud sighs.

After that we got back in our main boat and our driver took us over to our lunch spot, where we arrived just in time for the sky to open up in a torrential downpour.  Luckily by the time we were done feasting on a whole fish, spring rolls, prawns, assorted noodles, fried rice, chicken and a mushroom hot pot,  it had cleared up a bit.

From there we took a short ride in our boat back to the mainland and jumped back in the van for an hour and a half ride to the river.  While we were driving the rain started up again in full force.  I couldn't imagine being the one out of every two people in this country riding around in that nonsense.  I was watching them, thinking to myself, what could be worse than steering your motorbike through this with just a poncho to protect you from the elements, when a man in just a t-shirt scooted by and that answered my question.  It was then further confirmed it could infact be worse when a shirtless man went by a few minutes later.  The kids were loving it though- every 10 feet there was a group of cute little Vietnamese kids splashing in puddles and running around getting soaked.

We arrived at the town, put on our appropriate weather gear and trooped it up the street and over to the dock where we boarded another boat for an hour long cruise to our homestay.  The ride was really interesting; there was so much activity along the riverside.  We saw businesses and residences and all kinds of boats- from industrial looking ones to simple long boats to houseboats with laundry and whole families hanging off them.

 

 

 

We finally made it to our home stay, though I would use the word loosely.  I was envisioning an actual family with a home- instead we are chilling in mosquito infested open air dormitories in the jungle.  But they have equipped our beds with mosquito netting and I have bathed in deet & am wearing clothes that, if not particularly seasonal, offer less surface area for them to get at so I am hoping for the best.

We had about an hour and a half to rest and then it was time to stuff our faces again.  The family who runs the program was all in the little outdoor kitchen cooking our approximately 10 course meal, so that was pretty awesome.

After dinner it was time to retire to our netted abodes and get ready for another early morning.

Kicking A New Decade Off Right

Woke up this morning feeling so rested & un-jetlagged that it wasn't even funny.  After about half an hour in the waterfall shower, making up for the lack of one for the previous two days, and some delicious exotic fruit that we got from the fruit vendor in the middle of the night, we moved into our spacious new family room, complete with sound system and Vietnamese jams.  Also there was beer and red bull in the fridge so we decided we should probably have a couple of those before we headed out to start my birthday off right.

With breakfast complete, we walked a couple blocks down to the Cua Bac Cho Ben Thanh market and walked around until we settled on one of the aggressively marketed food stands- women were literally grabbing people and trying to pull them over & shove them in a chair to eat at their place.

For the record, it seems the Vietnamese are a sleepy people and will nap just about anywhere (meat counters apparently included) which I can get totally get on board with.

We ordered two iced coffees- similar to Thai iced coffee & equally delicious, and Banh Mi- baguettes and sizzling platters of pork, pate and fried egg to put together in a sandwich with a spicy soy sauce to drown it in.  It was so good, I didn't want it to end.

But end it did and we decided to go get some culture so we cabbed it over to the Emperor Jade Pagoda.  It was really beautiful inside with sunlight streaming down through the rafters and the air was filled with the smell of burning incense.  There were many local people praying to their different gods and all kinds of different little rooms to explore.  The only downside was the koi pond was a bit of a mosquito breeding ground and I felt a little like I was being sacrificed.  Totally worth it though.

 

Next we went to the War Remnants Museum in District 3 which was a pretty intense experience.  All around the outside of the building are planes, tanks & other weaponry on display.

Inside are 3 floors dedicated to preserving the history of the war, from the Vietnamese standpoint.  The first floor was mostly propaganda posters, coverage of anti-war protests and articles about Vietnam's political leaders.  The second floor was a pretty disturbing photography exhibit, explicitly detailing the war crimes against both the Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.  I realize the museum is obviously going to be skewed towards the Vietnamese viewpoint but there is no denying the events occurring in these images and they were difficult to look at.  The room is enormous and by the final section, displaying pictures of the children born with birth defects from agent orange exposure, I had to leave the room.  The third floor was mainly composed of an exhibit which I loved, called Requiem.  It it made up of photographs taken by photojournalists from several different nations who lost their lives documenting the war.  The images were unbelievable and it's just amazing that they put their lives at risk, traveling right along with the military and just the fact that they were allowed to capture everything that went on was shocking to me.

It was starting to get a bit sprinkly outside so we headed back home for some ice cream and a little 4 hour nap.  Unfortunately the Vietnamese appear to be working on an early time table so the restaurant we had planned to eat dinner at stopped serving at 9pm.  They gave us a recommendation to go around the corner to Nha Hang Ngon where we got some killer fried rice and fried vermicelli noodles.  We were hoping for some Vietnamese pancakes and some desert but because it was soooo late at 10pm we were told they were finished.

We went back to the room and waited for the girls to arrive where we had a joyful reunification & story time before resting up for our big trip to the Mekong Delta tomorrow!