SE Asia Escapade: Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta

Today is our last day in Vietnam, and it has been a riot to say the least...this place is unlike any other. The last 3 days we've been going non-stop, visiting the Cu Chi tunnels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels) and going on a 2 day, 1 night tour around the Mekong Delta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong_delta).

On Saturday morning, we were supposed to be ready at 745am for an 8am bus to the Cu Chi tunnels, located about an hour and a half outside of Saigon (Ho Chi Min). [The cu chi tunnels are the maze of underground tunnels that the Vietnamese militia built and used to fight the US during the Vietnam war. They had 3 levels of tunnels at different depths underground, many dead ends, and many gruesome booby traps to take out American soldiers that dared to go down after the Vietnamese. Click on the wiki link above for more.] Anyways, 745. I woke up, on time, at around 630am, and came downstairs for free hostel breakfast (bread and one egg), and then went back upstairs for a shower around 715. Not 10 minutes later, Emily was banging on the door "they're here, they're here, we're going...". Ah, 725 does not equal 745, what the hell..frantic rush out of the shower, brush teeth in 5seconds, arrive downstairs 2minutes later still wet, sort of dressed, chasing the group out of the hostel. We proceeded to walk across the street to where the bus was to pick us up. And we waited. And waited. And waited. We waited for about 50minutes before finally boarding the bus, and then the bus drove in a giant circle and we ended up back at the same place it picked up about 30minutes later, presumably because the tour guide forgot something at his office. So, there we were an hour and a half later at the same place that we had been picked up. Thank you, tour company, for allowing me to enjoy my morning shower. Anyways, we took an interesting 90minute ride through some shantytowns outside of Saigon and arrived at the Cu Chi tunnels. I don't have a ton to say about the tunnels. Aside from being pretty interesting since I'm American, the whole deal was extremely touristy and complete with fake robotic soldiers, fake booby traps, and overblown anti-American propaganda to boot. One of the main things that caught my attention were the insane booby traps that the Vietnamese used against the Americans. They were made out of sharp bamboo and in most cases planted in such a way that an American solider would take wrong wrong step and fall into a sharp mouse trap that would slice up his legs to the point of needing amputation. It was really, really gruesome, and certainly not fair fighting, but I suppose none of the Vietnam war was really fair fighting. Our tour guide would repeatedly say "these were used to trap the enemy...these were used to kill the enemy...when we killed an enemy soldier, we would burn him in a mass grave so his family would never find him..."...at least several times he crossed the line, and I really felt like pushing him into a booby trap. However subtle, there is definitely still an anti-American sentiment that exists here, and seems more noticeable in southern Vietnam than in the North. After checking out the booby traps, and a few other things like how they cooked underground (they would place the vent for the smoke 500meters from the actual kitchen so the smoke wouldn't give away their location, and they would cook only once a day in the morning when it was foggy so the smoke in the air wasn't so obvious. They survived off of tapioca (which we tried, and it tasted basically exactly how I would imagine a non-scented candle to taste), and some other basic things like rice), we were on to the main attraction, the tunnels. First, we checked out a tunnel that was actual size, and wow, there is no way that anything but a tiny, starving Vietnamese man could fit. There is no way in hell any GI Joe of the 70's could've squeezed through that tunnel without either starving for weeks or taking the huge risk of getting stuck. It was about 2feet by 2feet, if even, dark, and dirty. Picture a large gofer hole. After this, we were on to the tunnel that our guide joked was the "euro tunnel" because it had been enlarged as part of the museum for people of European descent to fit through. The whole point is that you can go through the tunnel and get some idea of the conditions that the soldiers survived in for what was often a month at a time. It was 100meters long, maybe 4feet tall, and probably not 2feet wide. It's safe to say that I was not going to fit through that hole...Ok, I probably could have, but when I tried my shoulders were completely squeezed in and I had to enter almost sideways on all fours. I'm really claustrophobic, and decided that seeing the hole was enough. Yes, I wussed out, and didn't go through the hole. Another guy about my size opted to give it a shot, and at the end said it was absolutely horrible and he was almost stuck the whole time. So, good decision. After the tunnel, we watched an anti-American documentary on the war, and then were on our way back to Saigon. Overall, I'm really glad that we went and got to experience some Vietnam war history even if it was sort of underwhelming. It did, however, give some perspective as to why the Vietnamese are the last people on earth you'd ever want to go to war with. Anyone who is willing to live in a 2x2 hole for a month with scorpions and snakes and god knows what else is definitely not someone I'd want on the other team, and their gruesome guerrilla tactics were icing on the cake.

When we got back to Saigon, we went out to a late lunch with two girls we had met on the tour, Hester from Hungary and what's-her-name from Canada at the same Pho place we had been at the previous day. Sidenote on the Pho place, I had never tried Pho (google it) before Friday at this place slightly off the tourist strip in Saigon, and it was awesome. It's a soupy noodle dish with meat and vegetables, and the broth was as good as any I've ever had. After lunch, we bummed around a really well-known market not far from where we were staying, which turned out to be incredibly overpriced (I got a small frozen yogurt for over 3dollars, more than I paid for dinner and two beers last night). The rest of the day was pretty standard bumming around town, eating random food, and taking in the masses of people--tourists and locals alike.

The next morning we left for our Mekong Delta tour on THE most comfortable bus I've been on the entire trip. I could put my legs square in front of me, and my ass didn't hurt after 10minutes. Pleasant surprise. It took us about 3hours to get over to the delta, and once we did, the day was jam packed with stuff to do (slightly rushed). The Delta was beautiful even if it was brown, and it was bustling with cargo boats, food boats, tourists, etc...the mekong delta is an extremely wide part of the mekong where it branches off in different directions, including one branch that flows to the sea--google it. Our first stop was a coconut candy factory on one of the small islands in the delta, where we got to see how they make coconut candy from start to finish. It was pretty interesting, and more importantly, the candy that we got to sample was delicious. Apparently, it's much better than what you can buy in the store because what you buy in the store is loaded with preservatives. After, we went to a bee keeping place where they make honey, and tried some honey tea and dried bananas--also great, aside from the giant snake they had and the platter of bees that the bee lady decided to hang two inches from my face while the honey extraction process was described. We then went to a fruit orchard on the same island, and tried some standard but really good fruit, like pineapple and mange, and watched "an authentic vietnamese music performance" in which two guys played instruments, one on the guitar and the other on who knows what, and 3 ladies stood up and sang in an extremely high pitched, passionate tone. Hmm my feelings towards this performance were very similar to my feelings towards the puppet show in Hanoi. I think we'll leave it at that. We met some great people on day 1, including an Australian couple probably in their early 30s that we got to know pretty well throughout the course of the two days.

After this crammed day of pretty cool stuff, we hopped on a bus for 2 hours to the town that we were to sleep in that night, further down the Mekong, called Cantho (I didn't know the name of the town until we were about to leave). It was a surprisingly bustling town right on the river, with big buildings and tons of motorbikes, not dissimilar from the other places we've seen in Vietnam. We arrived just in time for dinner, and I was starving. We decided on a Vietnamese outdoor restaurant right on the river that looked interesting, cheap, and was packed with Vietnamese people so we figured it must be good. [Precursor: Here's the deal, I've made it a goal to only spend what I originally took out of the ATM in Hanoi, and am going down to the wire with money so whatever I order to eat, I must eat, as I can't afford to order a second dish even if it is only two dollars.] The first thing that jumped out at me on the menu was fish in the bbq section, which was 40k dong, or two dollars. Sold. I ordered Keo fish and a side of steamed rice. Not 3minutes later, the waiter brought me my meal, and it was shocking. I have no idea what I was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't this. I was served 8 long, skinny, worm like fish, on a stick. They were raw, unskinned, complete with the head, tail, and fins. They essentially just pulled them out of the river and threw them on my place. Oh, and they were kind enough to provide me with a small, charcoal bbq so that I could cook my dead fish (pictures at end). Decisions, decisions. Eat what I had ordered, or be hungry for a night. Verdict: when in Rome...I cooked the fish until they were charcoal, and carefully ate the tiny bit of meat that was on each fish off of the backbone, and graciously allowed each fish to keep his head. It wasn't terrible, it just tasted like sort of watery, mushy, white fish. Anyways, definitely the strangest thing I've eaten on this trip so far, but hey, at least I didn't order the frog. I left hungry, uneasy, but with a small sense of accomplishment that I had conquered the fish, didn't waste food, and stuck to my budgeting goal.

After dinner, we stopped at a small stand 100meters away for a 50cent fruit smoothie. We ended up meeting Jason from England who was sitting at the table next to us, and chatted with him for an hour or so about his travels in Nepal and other cool stories. He talked about this 11day trek he went on in Nepal where at the bottom it was 100degrees, and by day 7 it was negative 5. Crazy. Interesting, fun dude to talk to. After, it was back to our humble, yet decent accommodation for the night.

The next day, we were up early, and scheduled to check out the floating market, a rice paper factory/rice mill. The former was really interesting, the latter was just what it sounds like. The floating market was essentially an area of the river where a ton of boats gather with all different types of food and they trade and sell goods on the river. Apparently, it's the most accessible and convenient way to establish such a market, and is one of the few in SE Asia that is actually used by locals and isn't merely a tourist attraction (this seemed relatively true--there were many tourists, but many locals as well). It was really incredible and really interesting. There were well over a hundred boats, ranging from big cargo boats to small canoes, selling everything from pineapples to meats to coffee at dirt cheap prices. I've never seen anything like it (google image: mekong floating market). I tried some of the most amazing pineapple I've ever had, and got some pretty cool pictures. It was definitely the highlight of our Mekong Delta tour.

A few hours later (ok, more like 5 due to traffic), we were back in Saigon. We re-checked into our hostel, cleaned up, and went out to meet a couple that we had met on the tour for dinner--Peter from France and Anna from Sweden. Really interesting people--they recently moved to Saigon because Peter got transferred here for work with his French based company. While we were waiting to meet them for dinner, we witnessed one of the most disturbing, appalling things ever. There was this little girl, probably 6 years old, that was going around trying to sell roses, cigarettes, and gum out of her basket. That's bad enough as it is--a 6year old selling cigarettes at 8pm on a busy street by herself. But it was so much worse. She comes up to me and smacks me with the rose and asks if I want anything, I look down and say "no thank you"...she steps back and looks at me and goes "f*** you, f*** you", then walks over to emily and smacks her hard on the arm. She then proceeds to walk to a couple 20feet away sitting down eating and having beers and tries to sell them stuff. When they decline, she steps back into the street and starts yelling "f*** you, f*** you, shut up"...she then takes the guy's LA dodgers hat and runs off with it, forcing him to chase her 50 feet before she threw it down in the middle of the street (I mean, maybe that's what he gets for wearing a dodgers hat, but still). She then goes to a couple on the other side of where we were waiting, and does the same drill before picking up the guy's beer and threatening to pour it on him...then she goes back to the guy with the hat and haggles him for 10 more minutes, cussing at him, etc. It was unreal. What a poor, disturbed child. I would say where are the parents at, but I have a funny feeling her mom was probably the lady trying to sell me counterfeit books 20 minutes earlier.

Anyways, we finally met up with peter and anna for dinner, and went to a really cheap vietnamese place down the street, where I had some pho with pork for under 2dollars, and it was delicious. After, we stopped at a very authentic beer stand for a Saigon. By authentic, I mean that you sit outside of this 10foot by 10foot minimart on tiny plastic chairs with tiny metal tables and [tiny] vietnamese people. Reason being, it's the cheapest beer around. I had a Saigon green for FIFTY cents--it wasn't happy hour, and it wasn't terrible. We hung out for a while, had a great time, then called it a night.

It is now our last day in Vietnam, and it's been amazing. It's completely different from Hong Kong, Thailand, or Laos, and presumably than anywhere else in the world. The presence of the communist regime is still very much felt, though it's clear that the economy has become capitalistic and certain areas and sectors are booming. It's quite poor for the most part, but there's a fair amount of nice apartment buildings and high rise buildings with new construction all over the place. Better yet, the French guy that works here, Peter, said that there is no income tax--you keep what you earn. What a concept. The people have been nice and hospitable, though nowhere near the level of the Thai's, and the food has been great, though not as great nor as cheap as Thailand. It has been interesting and I feel fortunate to have explored at least a small part of such a historical place, especially as an American, and even in the little downtime that we've had here I've been interested and engaged in everything that's going on. Our accommodations have been excellent, both in Hanoi and Saigon, and the price of beer in Saigon goes unmatched. I'm extremely glad we included Vietnam in our trip, even if a little bummed that we missed all of central Vietnam which is supposed to be a real gem. I'm not sure it's a place I'd ever vacation, and it's certainly not a place I'd ever live, but it's definitely a place I'll bring my kids and that I'd recommend to anyone to come check out at least once. It's one of those "you've got to see it to believe it" kind of places. Even if all you saw the entire time you were here was the insane motor bike traffic, that experience alone would probably be worth your airfare.

Time for some more $2 Pho. We're flying to Siep Reap tomorrow to check out Angkor Wat and the other temples there, which the nerd in me is extremely excited for-- I have a feeling it could end up being my favorite part of the trip. Praise and thanks to Mr. Obama, the CIA, and all others involved in taking down Bin Laden. Great day for America. Hope all is well in CA.

Booby trap, Cu Chi tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels

Tank that the Americans blew up, and the Vietnamese put on display

These two guys ask me to take a picture of them on my camera. They spoke no English, and smiled alot, so I did it. I figured they deserved to be in this post.