4/2/2012 - Good Morning Vietnam

For starters, I'm going to tell you how amazing Singapore Changi Airport is. Sounds very strange to be praising an airport so much, but the place really is amazing. Like all other airports it has a Starbucks, duty free shopping and free wifi, but it has so much more. A koi pond, three indoor gardens and one outdoor, a movie room, beds, showers, free foot massages - and that's just terminal 2, there are 3 terminals in total! So my 2 hours there were spend sipping coffee, browsing the shops and chilling out. I'm saving the free foot massage for the next transfer.

My two hour flight to Vietnam was pretty good really, I was seated right at the back of the plane, had the most space and got my food first - bonus! Besides that, I could finally watch My Bigger Fattier Gypsy Wedding. Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (I'm going to call it Saigon from now on though), cleared immigration and hung around at baggage claim. I managed to spot Dom before he saw me, so I snuck up behind him and apparently gave him a bit of a shock! We waited for his bag for a lifetime, before being told it had been taken off the conveyor at the other end - bore! We finally got out of the airport and into our taxi. First impressions of Saigon? Well, quite subdued compared to Denpasar. Sure there are a million scooters and the traffic is crazy, but it's by far more civilised than the traffic in Bali. Our hotel is pretty nice, it's the Seventy  Hotel and it seems like we've got the best room in the place, we're the only ones with a proper balcony anyhow. We didn't do much the first night, we were both so tired, so we went for a little wander and got some food before crashing out since we were up early the next day for a tour. 

On Thursday morning, our bus was picking us up at 7.20am to go for a day tour of the Mekong Delta. Being up early was a bit painful, but after the breakfast at the hotel it wasn't all that bad. Besides, there was a lot to see. We started off by driving around 2 and a half hours, I was pretty sleepy and kept up my reputation of being able to sleep anywhere at any time, had a nap on the bus. When we arrived, we got onto a boat which was going to take us over to Unicorn Island, one of four islands named after animals. 

Less than impressed at 8am

We got off at Unicorn Island and were taken to try some of the various honey products that come from the bees of the island. The honey tea that was provided was delicious, although it kind of reminded me of something I might drink when I'm sick. Then there was the royal jelly, which was to die for, and then we went onto the wines. The banana wine was lethal, as was the rice wine. I already knew all about rice wine though, having been pretty drunk after a few glasses of Arak in Bali. One thing I'd never tried though, was snake wine, which is made by infusing whole snakes in rice wine. In Eastern medicine, the qualities of the snake (preferably venomous ones) are meant to be invigorating. I didn't feel invigorated. 

A million bees

The Hive

The making of honey tea

The snake from which our snake wine came.

We took a short walk through the island before getting to the little boats that would take us back to our main boat. It was half an hour in these boats, and we got some traditional Vietnamese hats. The journey was absolutely stunning, I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to describe it except from saying it was serene. 

We then hopped over to another island to go to where they make coconut candy. The size of coconuts here is amazing, and there were just sacks of shredded coconut laying around all over the place. The women who were making the candy had crazy skills, and were incredibly quick at what they were doing. We tasted some of the candy and it was delicious so we both bought some (yes, you can all try some) to bring home with us. After the coconut candy, we jumped back on the boat and went for lunch. Dom and I had decided to try the Elephant Ear fish, which is apparently native to the Mekong Delta. We got to the restaurant, passing a buffalo basking in the water, and saw that we literally had a fish on our table, a whole fish. The guy at the restaurant showed us how to roll our own spring rolls and then we had a go ourselves. Dom's attempt was much better than mine, I suppose the GYC Catering course must be alright then! After lunch, we headed over to an orchid to try some local tropical fruits and be entertained by Vietnamese musicians. The fruits were delicious but I can't say I'm decided on Vietnamese music yet, it's got a tune to it but it's also a little screechy. We decided to get the speedboat back to Saigon, but even that took 2 hours, imagine if we'd took the bus.

For extracting the coconut milk.

Like Docwra's Rock, right?

Just a buffalo...

Mad skills!

GYC obviously not a waste of time then?

Not so successful...

Elephant ear fish

Tropical fruits with chili salt.

Sleeps on the boat

Both being pretty sleepy (obviously from above!) we both napped on the boat and again when we got back to the hotel. We went out for dinner at a little Italian place around the corner, where the pizza was good but the service was lacking. 

Yesterday we were awoken at 6am by what I first thought was some kind of big band marching past, turns out it was a funeral procession. The whole thing was a bit surreal, with lots of people carrying what must have been the coffin but it looked more like a marble tomb of some kind. After an hours more sleep, it was time to get up for our second tour, this time to the Cu Chi tunnels, but before we got there we stopped off at  a workshop where the workers made these beautiful, I would say enamelled, products. Actually I'm not sure enamelled is the right process but it was amazing and the inlay was all in mother of pearl. 

This pot took four years to make.

We arrived in time for midday prayers; they pray four times a day at 6am, midday, 6pm and midnight. Cao Dai is a religion that was founded in Tay Ninh in 1926 and they believe that before God, there was Tao. Then a big bang occurred from which God was created but the universe was yet unable to form, therefore God created yin and yang. He himself controlled yang but shed a part of himself to create the Goddess, yin. Therefore, with yin and yang in place, the universe materialised. Therefore, Caodaiists not only worship God the Father but also the Holy Mother or Mother Buddha. God is continually represented by the Divine Eye (Illuminati, anyone?) and furthermore, they believe that there are 36 levels of heaven and 72 planets harbouring intelligent life. Planet 1 is closest to heaven, planet 72 is closest to hell; Earth is planet 68. There are three main teaching of Caodaiism; Buddha, Sage and Saint and they represent hierarchical levels of spiritual attainment with Buddha being the highest and the only one free from the cycle of life and death (which is the ultimate goal fro Caodaiists). 

Cao Dai is surprisingly modern with it's views to saints and the such. The Tay Ninh recognises only a few saints compared to how many various sects claim to be holy, but the Three Saints painting in the Holy See depicts Sun Yan-sen (a Chinese revolutionary and President), Victor Hugo (a French poet) and Nguyen Binh Khiem (a Vietnamese administrator) signing a covenant between God and humanity. Some other saints recognised by Cao Dai are Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Shakespeare, Jeanne d'Arc and Napolean. There are also over 70 holy spirits which include Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Lenin, Trotsky, Louis Pasteur and Li Bo. Despite having a possibly strange set of saints, the religion itself has a structure similar to Catholicism with Priests and Bishops, and the whole thing seems very peaceful. 

Cao Dai Holy See

The Divine Eye

The band and choir.

The Three Saints

After lunch of shrimp noodles we headed over to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cu Chi is a village on the outskirts of Saigon, which was such a crucial point during the war because it was on a direct path from the Cambodian border to Saigon. The tunnels were built under Cu Chi to serve as communication, supply and battle routes, as well as to provide hiding spots and living quarters. In fact there were kitchens, hospitals and living bunkers under the ground. The film we watched to begin with was so obviously propaganda that it was almost laughable, not because of what they said but how they said it, American soldiers repeatedly described as 'Red Devils' and stories of Cu Chi schoolgirls taking up arms to fight defiantly. The tunnels have been praised as one of the most effective strategies ever seen, since even if the American soldiers did find an entrance (which in itself was very rare), they would not be able to enter them because of sheer size and also booby traps. The tunnels were generally around 10cm by 20cm in size, much too small for Westerners, the ones we went to had been widened for tourists to 80cm by 60cm. Effectively, the tunnels were a crucial part in the overall victory of the Viet Cong. Much of the planning for the Tet offensive took place in the tunnels, as well as being surrounded by crude traps designed to maim and kill. It can't be denied that the Viet Cong were ingenious whilst fighting an army that, on paper, should be so superior. 

We began by looking around at the traps and the way the Viet Cong would have lived at this time, Dom shot an M60 which he is overly proud of, but I don't see why... it's just a big gun, surely? Anyhow, every shot made me jump. Then we moved onto us going into the actual tunnels. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous, especially after seeing the Vietnamese man go into the hiding hole and thinking there was no way my bum was going to fit - ha! The ones we went in had been widened, but that's not to say they were big at all, I meant we had to crawl through them and they only got smaller the lower we went. We went down three levels so to about 9 - 12m down. There were exits along the way for people who got scared/claustrophobic/too hot but I'm very proud to say I made it the whole distance. It was so hot down there though, but whilst everyone else has huffing and puffing away, Dom and I pretty much spent the whole thing taking the piss out of each other. The poor guy in front of Dom got so out of breath we all had to stop for a minute before he could get out. Truthfully, I don't think I've ever been as sweaty as I was coming out of there, crazy right? The thing that really amazes me about the whole system is the ventilation and how the Vietnamese would know where they were going. Unbelievable. 

Definitely would not fit my bum in there.

A seemingly inconspicuous piece of grass. Then...

DANGER!

Going down into the tunnels.

In the tunnels.

Down another level.

Accurate depiction of how I felt after the tunnels.

Ho Chi Minh

A bit of a nap on the bus and we were back to chill out for a bit, before going out to the bar for a few drinks and an apple shisha, successful night I'd say. This morning I had a lay in that stretched into the afternoon, which was gorgeous. Dom bought me some food and I sat out on the balcony reading Wuthering Heights and drinking my Balinese coffee, it was all very civilised really. That was until we discovered an Asian show called the Kitchen Musical, which is kind of a drama where they spontaneously burst into song, set in a restaurant. A bit like Hell's Kitchen crossed with Desperate Housewives crossed with Glee. Basically, it was weird as. Skyped with Mum, Skyped with Granddad and Chris, packed and showered. Ready to go to Hoi An tomorrow! 13 days until I'm home guys, less than two weeks!