As a youngster, my parents always said “Look left, right, then left again” when preparing to walk across the road. However this is vastly different for children in Vietnam. It may go more like this: “Now son, when you see a sliver of daylight on the other side of the road, run like you have never run before.” At least that’s how I felt when trying to cross a road in Saigon. With more than 8 million people owning scooters in the city, there is no wonder why wiki travel devotes over three paragraphs on instructions to crossing the street. It was intense to say the least, however I found myself at the end of the five days walking around like any other local would.
Friday Night/Early Saturday Morning: As our plane set off for Vietnam, I had my first chance at seeing Hong Kong from the air. And what a miraculous site it was! Honestly, it is actually indescribable, so I highly recommend anyone coming to or leaving HK by plane at night, to take off the sleeping mask, pop open the window and witness a breath taking sight.
But now to Vietnam..
As we arrived in the Ho Chi Minh International Airport, we were already greeted with our first opportunity to haggle. Already warned of the taxi drivers charging 300% surcharges to unaware tourists, our bargaining boots were on ready to haggle. The conversation went like this…
Future Taxi Driver: My friends, do you need a taxi (in broken English)
Kelsi: Yes, how much?
Driver: 500,000 Dong (currency used in Vietnam)
Kelsi: No way, that’s too much!
Driver: Alright, for you my friends I will make a special deal, 350,000.
Ben: No thank you, the maximum it should be is 120,000. We can find another driver.
Driver: Alright, how about 150,000?
*Knowing now that we are just arguing about $1.30 American divided by six people, we hastily agreed.
Ben: Ok, deal.
*The driver follows us over the ATM, while we take out money for the trip.
Driver: Ok, so I will take you for 250,000 (knowing very well, that he just 100,000 less.)
Our group in unison: You just said 150,000
Driver: No! That is too cheap! 250,000.
Me: We will just go find another cab.
*As we walk away, he regretfully says ok to 150,000.
So, with our first steps on the soil of Vietnam, we received a glimpse of what the future would hold for any negotiations with umm lets say “entrepreneurs”.
After exchanging HK dollars for Dong dollars, my first thought was “Yes, I am a millionaire!” For the first time in my life, my wallet contained over a million dollars. Unfortunately, this converted into $55.55 USD. With an 18,000 to 1 exchange rate from the Vietnamese Dong to the American Dollar, a tourist could have the brief opportunity of feeling a lot wealthier that ever imagined. Surprisingly, most if not all places in Vietnam accept US currency, so when converting money from HK to Dong, I got some USD as well. The feel of the nice, small (in comparison to HK) US Dollar brought back that nice sense of home.
As we left the airport in our highly negotiated cab ride, we received a small idea of what riding on the streets of Ho Chi Minh would entail for the next five days. Most streets in Saigon have 4 lanes, two going each direction, like most streets in the United States. They drive on the correct side of the road, with a double yellow line signaling not to change lanes in oncoming traffic. However, someone forgot to tell anyone in Vietnam to obey basic traffic laws from the United States. Imagine driving down the road next to the double yellow line, with a free lane next to you on your right to pass the slower moving car and oncoming traffic on left. Obviously the smart move is to pass the car on your right and avoid any oncoming traffic. These drivers are not so logical in an American sense. So we go ahead passing on the left, honking the entire way, why the virgin riding tourists hold on for our lives.
In Vietnam, the bigger car always wins. There are no true intersections. A green light = a red light. When approaching an intersection in Ho Chi Minh, whether you have a green or red light, you honk your horn repeatedly making sure traffic hears you and slowly proceed through the intersection.
In Vietnam, honking of the horn is a must. However, don’t be offended if someone is honking at you. The sound is more like “you better move because I am coming through” rather than the driver actually doing something wrong. On average, I would estimate a honk for every 3 seconds in rural areas and multiple honks per second in the heart of the city. I found the overall environment of driving in Vietnam to be the most fascinating part of the trip, it is almost hard to put into words. To better understand, please look at a couple of my videos.
Now, you may have noticed how I have switched between Saigon and Ho Chi Minh interchangeably throughout my blog. They are the same city. In the 1970’s, when the communist government took over Saigon, the name was officially changed to Ho Chi Minh.
However, you will never hear non-government locals call the city by Ho Chi Minh. Some of the elders will actually take offense if you don’t call it Saigon.
So now that we have some interesting thoughts and facts out of the way…. Let me tell you a little bit about our trip.
We arrived late Friday night and took a taxi to the hotel located in Saigon. It was too late to really experience the city, so we instead experienced a quick five hours of sleep to prepare for the rest of the trip.
Saturday: To begin our tour of Vietnam, we traveled to the historic Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations.
Since we had a fairly large group, we were offered our on own personal tour guide. He introduced himself as Charlie. I laughed to myself when he said that but did not want to offend him by asking if that was his real name. Later in the trip, when I felt more comfortable to ask, he told me his real name. However, we continued to call him Charlie because he said jokingly that is what all the Americans called him.
Charlie was an elderly man around the age of 60, so it was very interesting to hear his recollection of the American War from his point of view. While there were many highlights from what he shared, one point stood out. He stated that once the war was over, South Vietnam did not show any ill will towards the North, both just wanted to focus on the future. I thought this was very admirable of the Vietnamese people.
The tour of the tunnels was very interesting. There were several exhibits that displayed how the Viet Cong used home field advantage over the American soldiers. The most interesting one was a demonstration of eight traps the Viet Cong used during the war. If you click on the top pictures of my blog, I have a great video that shows these demonstrations. Based on these traps, it’s hard to imagine what it was like walking through the jungles of Vietnam during the War for an American soldier. It was very hard to absorb that these brutal acts were done to Americans. When each of the guides would speak about the displays, they would phrase their speech in ways that made it hard to take in for the American ear. For example, they would say “they would kill Americans this way”. While I expected this, you usually don’t hear people talk about Americans dying in such a blunt way.
During the trip to the tunnels, I added to my list of “1st’s” with my Hong Kong adventures. The newest addition is my first time to shoot an AK-47 and M-16. Even with ear protection on, I lost 80% of my hearing for the 15 minutes following the shooting. But the experience is one I will never forget.
Finally, after all the small things were out of the way, we were able to encounter the tunnels of Cu Chi! Just big enough to fit my frame, we squeezed our way through the endless tunnel. The tunnel itself was about 3 feet high and 2 feet wide, just enough for me to be on all fours for about 200 meters. The funny thing is that they have actually widened the tunnels for American tourists. Lets just say that, if was in those tunnels in the 60’s and 70’s, the Viet Cong would have caught me in seconds. I can only imagine the condition of the tunnels during the war.
After the tunnels, Charlie suggested a local place to get some traditional Vietnamese food. While, I did not try any exotic food as I have in the past, there was an item on the menu titled “false dog meat”. I’m not sure exactly how it translated from Vietnamese to English, but in any case, I would never try anything that was titled dog. Most of the dishes seemed to be beef, chicken, or seafood with different sauces. Overall, Vietnamese food is good, but the best food I have experienced so far is the one and only Thai food.
Before calling it a night, we went to the Ben Thanh Market. This market would rival any market in HK and most in Southeast Asia. With hundreds, if not thousands, of stands of knock off designer goods, little knick-knacks, and food stalls, the market went as far as the eye could tell. I purchased a couple souvenirs, not so much for the actual item, but for the camaraderie of bargaining with the locals.
Sunday: Before the sun could rise over Vietnam, our adventurous group was ready for another jam-packed day. Our sleeper bus was there and ready to depart at 7:30 in the morning for Mu Nei, Vietnam. Mu Nei is located about 5 hours away from Vietnam by bus. This little beach town was recommended by CityU students who had already toured Vietnam. It was a nice little get away for about a day and a half. I am still amazed at how cheap the country is. For example, we stayed at this really nice resort, with a private beach, swim up bar, and free breakfast, all for $15.
The day consisted of lying by the beach, swimming in the pool, and ordering drinks at the swim up bar. The night consisted of eating dinner by the ocean, getting a massage, and hanging out on the beach. What can I say, it’s a hard life studying abroad. Unfortunately, I knew paradise would be coming to a screeching halt, but I had to indulge why I had the time.
Monday: The next day in Mui Ne consisted of something that I had never experienced before. Yes, I know what you are thinking, but I have to add another one to the list of new experiences. For the first time in my life, I experienced sand dunes and boy were they amazing. As far as the eye could see, the sand dunes of Mu Nei provided a ‘deserty’ feel without traveling to Africa.
For only 10,000 Dong, we had the opportunity to sled down the dunes. Actually, its very similar to the feel of sledding on snow. Just instead of that shivering feeling of getting snow in between your gloves and jacket (you know what I’m talking about), you get a mouthful of sand at the bottom of the hill.
The few days in Mui Ne provided a good, relaxing break from the hardships of schoolwork and the ciaos of Hong Kong. From Mui Ne, we took an uncomfortable night bus ride back into Ho Chi Minh city just in time for the 7:30 tour of the Mekong Delta.
Tuesday: The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southeastern Vietnam (about 15,000 sq miles). The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.
The tour was very interesting. First we took a boat to witness people of the delta go about their daily lives of trading on the floating market. Each boat traded a different food staple and would display their particular food by lifting the item up on a stick, similarly to a flag on a boat.
After the floating market, we had a local Vietnamese meal in a little village. The meal was decent but something else was much more memorable. For the first time and most likely last time in my life, I held a python snake that was about 8 feet long.
Other than sleeping in the Ho Chi Minh International Airport, our Vietnam adventure had come to a close. The trip was very memorable. I fulfilled a lot of first that included shooting an AK 47 and M 16, holding a python, and witnessing sand dunes.
