Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Good Morning, Vietnam!
Out of Cambodia and on to more well-known jungles… Vietnam! On the 7th of April Henk and I got to the bus station and boarded our bus to HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon) where we were almost immediately told by the bus attendant that since our visas didn’t start until the 10th of April we would have to buy 3 extra days to enter the country. What?! We knew it was risky getting our visa back in Laos, but we were told that we would only need to estimate our day of arrival and, should we estimate wrong, our visa would be adjusted to one-month accordingly. Well, either that information was wrong or we got ripped off, because we were charged $30 extra to enter 3 days earlier. Anyone know the truth?
On the bus ride, we snacked on the food we brought and read more short stories from our Australian Tragic book (which is awesome if you haven’t read it yet!) for pretty much the entire way to HCMC. Only at the border did we have to file off the bus like cattle so the patrol could search the vehicle and stamp all of our passports. A process that was painstakingly slow, but at least somewhat organized. Exhausted from the trip, we arrived at our guesthouse we pre-booked, the Me Them Guesthouse, which we were pleased to find had an excellent (although, a bit loud from the traffic) location on the colorful backpacker strip in town. Plus a fabulous internet connection! Since the connection had been so horrible in Cambodia, we had run through quite a few of our movies – but here we were able to download like crazy with awesome speed!
That evening we went to check out a “dinner and a movie” place I had read about in the Lonely Planet called Bobby Brewers. I have to say, after getting our meals we were very impressed. The food was not expensive at all. Plus they have so many great deals going on that we later found out (from their colorful brochures) change slightly every week. We arrived in the “buy a pasta entrée, get a free soft drink or beer” and “buy an entrée and drink, get free ice-cream) week and decided to take full advantage of the offers… we even checked out the movie room upstairs which played random movies along with music video interludes between showings. Incredible! (I’m such a sucker for “dinner and a movie” themes, but still I think anyone would be impressed.)
Henk and I chowed down on our tuna pasta (for him) and chicken sandwich (mine) before returning to our guesthouse for some well-needed rest. Plus we wanted to get up early the next day!
On the 8th of April we left between 9:30 am and 10:00 am in search of a healthy breakfast... BUT we ended up caving and tried out the Indian food we found down a side street after walking around in the heat and getting really hungry. Our stomachs full, we continued walking through HCMC, sweating like crazy! It was disgustingly hot outside and we were soaked in sweat almost immediately. Occasionally throughout the day we’d duck into various businesses or shops just to bathe our bodies in the AC for a moment, before venturing back out into the heat.
We made our way down Pham Ngu Lao Street, quickly realizing that this city was decently sized. The immediate source of fear for me however was the terrifying traffic around every corner! The combination of cars and motorbikes flying all over the place at top speeds, stopping – no, not EVEN slowing down – for no one.
Everywhere I looked I swore I witnessed a near-miss accident. Crossing the street was an extremely tense game of chicken and pedestrians surely never had the ‘right-of-way’ here. Pictures can’t really do the crazy traffic justice, so you’ll have to come experience it for yourself! (If you dare…)
Shortly before noon Henk and I walked pass the opera house and the people’s committee council, which both had shining white buildings that were architecturally worthy of closer looks. We crossed the street at each to investigate, but our real date was at the various museums in the heart of the city. While not on our list, we decided to check out the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as the Revolutionary Museum) mostly because we needed desperately to get out of the heat and the sun. Sadly, the museum wasn’t blessed with AC so we were still sweltering inside but at least the sun wasn’t blazing down on us.
On another down note through, the most interesting thing about the museum were the wedding pictures being taking in the lobby. The rest of the museum was completely outdated with boring exhibits and descriptions that weren’t even worth reading. Even the fact that part of the museum used to be a bomb shelter (which you could still walk down into) did not prove interesting. But hey, it was less than a dollar entrance so it wasn’t a tragedy. But for sure a waste of time… so don’t go there!
Anyways, on to the Reunification (aka Independence) Palace. Which proved (at least for us) a bit difficult to find! It was probably just because the heat was so overwhelmingly dazing, but we ended up at some random building poking around, thinking it could be the palace. Thankfully we were completely mistaken and after the guards there pointed us out we ended up walking a bit further and finding the real Reunification Palace. As soon as we walked in and proclaimed we spoke English we were ushered towards a tour-guide speaking to a group in the next room about the palace. Our tour had just started!
First we learned that the palace, which was commissioned in 1966 by President Diem and built in just three years, is still in use by the current government for receiving foreign guests. However, the palace was once (according to virtualtourist.com) the, “home of then President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu until the fall of Saigon in 1975… on April 30th when the tanks from the North Vietnamese Army crashed through the gate and ended the war.” Walking through the palace was interesting, and the rooms were mostly left in their 70’s state. The cabinet meeting room, the banquet room, and the map room were all a flashback to the era. The latter even included original telephones that were in the palace at the time. We walked into the Office of the President where we were shown a door and told we’d find out where it led later in the tour.
Next we saw the President and Vice President’s reception rooms plus one of the most beautiful rooms in the palace – the “credentials presenting room.” This room had a mural painted on the back wall which was highlighted in gold and depicted a “battle of old.” Our large group rumbled up the steps and we made it to one of the upper stories which, due to the garden in the center area, felt surprisingly like we were back on the ground floor again. This area was originally the home of the South’s President before Saigon fell and housed a few of their personal “treasures” such as animal skulls and skins.
The following rooms were The First Lady’s Reception Room decorated in pink with flowers, the Movie Room which had an original projector still set-up, and finally the Four-Direction Tower which was another level up. We climbed the stairs and saw the helicopter and heli-pad before making our way all the way down to the commanding room where original equipment of war was set-up. There were maps of various war zones, and the place looked like it could be a movie set waiting for the actors to return. Towards the end of the tour, we watched a video on the palace and the war, a history which we’ll relate to you all in later posts.
After the palace, we headed towards the Notre Dame Cathedral to take a quick look inside. I thought the license plate décor was really interesting, and as we were walking around the cathedral I noticed that a light bulb must have fallen from the super high ceiling above us just a while before we entered. There was glass all over the floor and the light bulb was missing… glad we weren’t under it! We spotted a doctor’s office (and spoke to them real quick, as I needed to make an appointment) before heading to the War Museum just before 4:00 PM. At first we weren’t sure how much time we’d need in the War Museum or how interesting the visit would be. Quickly after we arrived we realized for sure we’d need to come back another day and spend more time!
The War Museum was an incredible collection of absolutely horrific Agent Orange pictures, which show in graphic detail what victims suffer through, as well as images of the massacre and brutality American soldiers inflicted on the Vietnamese. For example the toxin dioxin found in Agent Orange was sprayed all over the dense jungles of Vietnam in order to kill off the thick forest and find the Viet Cong more easily. Not only did the substance contaminate the water and food supplies of local villagers, but it completely decimated their land’s entire ecosystem, thus bankrupting their ability to have a livelihood. On top of all this the spraying of Agent Orange left both the villagers and their unborn children with deformities on a scale that is difficult to imagine if you don’t understand dioxin’s intense toxicity. To give you a bit of background we learned from the displays at the museum, here is the main information we learned about the use of Agent Orange:
“According to the US Defense Department data, from 1961-1971, the US Air Force sprayed 72 million liters of toxic chemicals of various types on Vietnam, including 44 million liters of Agent Orange containing 170 kilograms of Dioxin. In a study by scientists at Columbia University (New York) published in Nature Magazine, the total volume of toxic chemicals that the US sprayed over Vietnam amounted to approximately 100 million liters, and the content of Dioxin reported was double that of previously announced figures. According to the study, 3,851 communes suffered direct chemical spraying and the chemical directly affected between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese people… [Furthermore] scientists agree that dioxin is the most harmful and toxic chemical discovered by mankind to date [and] only as little as 85g of dioxin (a tablespoon full) could kill a whole city with a population of 8 million.”
Knowing that mind-blowing paragraph of information should help you comprehend the following photographs (warning VERY graphic) below:
We resolved to return to the museum the following day since it was closing and headed back to the hostel in a cab. After relaxing for a short while, we headed out again to get dinner. First we thought about eating at a place on the corner called Allez Boo but once we glanced at the menu it looked a bit more expensive than we originally thought. So instead we headed back to our new favorite place! Bobby Brewers it was again and ordered up some sandwiches we shared while watching The Rock as a hockey player/tooth fairy (I wonder if that guy knew his acting career was going to turn out that way!) in a family comedy.
On our way back from dinner we noticed the shimmering blue lights across the street from our hotel in the park and could no longer resist their lure. The park was completely decked out for a Festival on Tourism with tons of agents advertising themselves in various booths around the area. There was a dance/music stage (a few of them, actually) and collections of food booths like an outdoor food court all over the place. Towards the front entrance of the park a few groups of guys were playing a hacky-sack like game, kicking around a ball and hitting it with various parts of their bodies. It was 9:30 PM by the time we got back to the room. The next day we planned to go to a unique museum, but I’ll let Henk tell you all about that!
Francesca
On the bus ride, we snacked on the food we brought and read more short stories from our Australian Tragic book (which is awesome if you haven’t read it yet!) for pretty much the entire way to HCMC. Only at the border did we have to file off the bus like cattle so the patrol could search the vehicle and stamp all of our passports. A process that was painstakingly slow, but at least somewhat organized. Exhausted from the trip, we arrived at our guesthouse we pre-booked, the Me Them Guesthouse, which we were pleased to find had an excellent (although, a bit loud from the traffic) location on the colorful backpacker strip in town. Plus a fabulous internet connection! Since the connection had been so horrible in Cambodia, we had run through quite a few of our movies – but here we were able to download like crazy with awesome speed!
That evening we went to check out a “dinner and a movie” place I had read about in the Lonely Planet called Bobby Brewers. I have to say, after getting our meals we were very impressed. The food was not expensive at all. Plus they have so many great deals going on that we later found out (from their colorful brochures) change slightly every week. We arrived in the “buy a pasta entrée, get a free soft drink or beer” and “buy an entrée and drink, get free ice-cream) week and decided to take full advantage of the offers… we even checked out the movie room upstairs which played random movies along with music video interludes between showings. Incredible! (I’m such a sucker for “dinner and a movie” themes, but still I think anyone would be impressed.)
Henk and I chowed down on our tuna pasta (for him) and chicken sandwich (mine) before returning to our guesthouse for some well-needed rest. Plus we wanted to get up early the next day!
On the 8th of April we left between 9:30 am and 10:00 am in search of a healthy breakfast... BUT we ended up caving and tried out the Indian food we found down a side street after walking around in the heat and getting really hungry. Our stomachs full, we continued walking through HCMC, sweating like crazy! It was disgustingly hot outside and we were soaked in sweat almost immediately. Occasionally throughout the day we’d duck into various businesses or shops just to bathe our bodies in the AC for a moment, before venturing back out into the heat.
We made our way down Pham Ngu Lao Street, quickly realizing that this city was decently sized. The immediate source of fear for me however was the terrifying traffic around every corner! The combination of cars and motorbikes flying all over the place at top speeds, stopping – no, not EVEN slowing down – for no one.
Everywhere I looked I swore I witnessed a near-miss accident. Crossing the street was an extremely tense game of chicken and pedestrians surely never had the ‘right-of-way’ here. Pictures can’t really do the crazy traffic justice, so you’ll have to come experience it for yourself! (If you dare…)
Shortly before noon Henk and I walked pass the opera house and the people’s committee council, which both had shining white buildings that were architecturally worthy of closer looks. We crossed the street at each to investigate, but our real date was at the various museums in the heart of the city. While not on our list, we decided to check out the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as the Revolutionary Museum) mostly because we needed desperately to get out of the heat and the sun. Sadly, the museum wasn’t blessed with AC so we were still sweltering inside but at least the sun wasn’t blazing down on us.
On another down note through, the most interesting thing about the museum were the wedding pictures being taking in the lobby. The rest of the museum was completely outdated with boring exhibits and descriptions that weren’t even worth reading. Even the fact that part of the museum used to be a bomb shelter (which you could still walk down into) did not prove interesting. But hey, it was less than a dollar entrance so it wasn’t a tragedy. But for sure a waste of time… so don’t go there!
Anyways, on to the Reunification (aka Independence) Palace. Which proved (at least for us) a bit difficult to find! It was probably just because the heat was so overwhelmingly dazing, but we ended up at some random building poking around, thinking it could be the palace. Thankfully we were completely mistaken and after the guards there pointed us out we ended up walking a bit further and finding the real Reunification Palace. As soon as we walked in and proclaimed we spoke English we were ushered towards a tour-guide speaking to a group in the next room about the palace. Our tour had just started!
First we learned that the palace, which was commissioned in 1966 by President Diem and built in just three years, is still in use by the current government for receiving foreign guests. However, the palace was once (according to virtualtourist.com) the, “home of then President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu until the fall of Saigon in 1975… on April 30th when the tanks from the North Vietnamese Army crashed through the gate and ended the war.” Walking through the palace was interesting, and the rooms were mostly left in their 70’s state. The cabinet meeting room, the banquet room, and the map room were all a flashback to the era. The latter even included original telephones that were in the palace at the time. We walked into the Office of the President where we were shown a door and told we’d find out where it led later in the tour.
Next we saw the President and Vice President’s reception rooms plus one of the most beautiful rooms in the palace – the “credentials presenting room.” This room had a mural painted on the back wall which was highlighted in gold and depicted a “battle of old.” Our large group rumbled up the steps and we made it to one of the upper stories which, due to the garden in the center area, felt surprisingly like we were back on the ground floor again. This area was originally the home of the South’s President before Saigon fell and housed a few of their personal “treasures” such as animal skulls and skins.
The following rooms were The First Lady’s Reception Room decorated in pink with flowers, the Movie Room which had an original projector still set-up, and finally the Four-Direction Tower which was another level up. We climbed the stairs and saw the helicopter and heli-pad before making our way all the way down to the commanding room where original equipment of war was set-up. There were maps of various war zones, and the place looked like it could be a movie set waiting for the actors to return. Towards the end of the tour, we watched a video on the palace and the war, a history which we’ll relate to you all in later posts.
After the palace, we headed towards the Notre Dame Cathedral to take a quick look inside. I thought the license plate décor was really interesting, and as we were walking around the cathedral I noticed that a light bulb must have fallen from the super high ceiling above us just a while before we entered. There was glass all over the floor and the light bulb was missing… glad we weren’t under it! We spotted a doctor’s office (and spoke to them real quick, as I needed to make an appointment) before heading to the War Museum just before 4:00 PM. At first we weren’t sure how much time we’d need in the War Museum or how interesting the visit would be. Quickly after we arrived we realized for sure we’d need to come back another day and spend more time!
The War Museum was an incredible collection of absolutely horrific Agent Orange pictures, which show in graphic detail what victims suffer through, as well as images of the massacre and brutality American soldiers inflicted on the Vietnamese. For example the toxin dioxin found in Agent Orange was sprayed all over the dense jungles of Vietnam in order to kill off the thick forest and find the Viet Cong more easily. Not only did the substance contaminate the water and food supplies of local villagers, but it completely decimated their land’s entire ecosystem, thus bankrupting their ability to have a livelihood. On top of all this the spraying of Agent Orange left both the villagers and their unborn children with deformities on a scale that is difficult to imagine if you don’t understand dioxin’s intense toxicity. To give you a bit of background we learned from the displays at the museum, here is the main information we learned about the use of Agent Orange:
“According to the US Defense Department data, from 1961-1971, the US Air Force sprayed 72 million liters of toxic chemicals of various types on Vietnam, including 44 million liters of Agent Orange containing 170 kilograms of Dioxin. In a study by scientists at Columbia University (New York) published in Nature Magazine, the total volume of toxic chemicals that the US sprayed over Vietnam amounted to approximately 100 million liters, and the content of Dioxin reported was double that of previously announced figures. According to the study, 3,851 communes suffered direct chemical spraying and the chemical directly affected between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese people… [Furthermore] scientists agree that dioxin is the most harmful and toxic chemical discovered by mankind to date [and] only as little as 85g of dioxin (a tablespoon full) could kill a whole city with a population of 8 million.”
Knowing that mind-blowing paragraph of information should help you comprehend the following photographs (warning VERY graphic) below:
We resolved to return to the museum the following day since it was closing and headed back to the hostel in a cab. After relaxing for a short while, we headed out again to get dinner. First we thought about eating at a place on the corner called Allez Boo but once we glanced at the menu it looked a bit more expensive than we originally thought. So instead we headed back to our new favorite place! Bobby Brewers it was again and ordered up some sandwiches we shared while watching The Rock as a hockey player/tooth fairy (I wonder if that guy knew his acting career was going to turn out that way!) in a family comedy.
On our way back from dinner we noticed the shimmering blue lights across the street from our hotel in the park and could no longer resist their lure. The park was completely decked out for a Festival on Tourism with tons of agents advertising themselves in various booths around the area. There was a dance/music stage (a few of them, actually) and collections of food booths like an outdoor food court all over the place. Towards the front entrance of the park a few groups of guys were playing a hacky-sack like game, kicking around a ball and hitting it with various parts of their bodies. It was 9:30 PM by the time we got back to the room. The next day we planned to go to a unique museum, but I’ll let Henk tell you all about that!
Francesca
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