August 6, 2007
Back in HoChiMinh yesterday afternoon, we decided to do a little shopping while we were downtown since the hydrofoil ends at the city center and it would take a lot of time to battle the traffic back to Phillipe's to drop the luggage and then back into town again to shop. Aly had spied a little "outlet mall" before we left - 20 little boutiques with designer-name goods spilling into the central corridor in a "mall" all of 40 feet wide - stores about 15 feet deep on each side with a 10-foot walkway in the middle filled with 6 foot wide carts leaving 2 2-foot wide walking aisles. We intended to take our luggage into the mall (4 pieces + daypack) but after surveying the scene, I found there was not a place to sit at all, let alone with a pile of luggage. So I stayed outside on the front steps for 30 - 40 minutes while Aly hit every store I'm sure. Of course, I was quickly drawn away from my book (wonderful biography by Vietnamese-American writer, Andrew Pham, Catfish and Mandela), by the entertainment of the street vendors cooking their wares on little wood fire pits and tiny iron cookware right on the sidewalk. And of course just the people-watching!
Then it was dinner, cards for me and Aly and a late movie from Phillipe's mostly foreign film collection of DVD's, which he projects onto a 10 x 15 foot wall to make a very nice little "cinema!" We saw a French love story, based on an autobiographical novel, set in Vietnam in 1929. Very good history and culture lesson.
Today was our final day at the Orphanage with Mr. Chien. When we arrived, he embraced us warmly and glowingly offered us a DVD that had already been made from the first two days we spent with him. Tonight we will get to watch it - what a wonderful way to preserve the memories! In addition to playing with the smaller children again (Aly took a 9-month old in tow for most of the morning), we observed all of the elementary grades that included both normal and blind children. The teachers are paid by the government - not sure who selects them - and then there are two "specialists" who oversee the the teaching program and particularly the services to the blind. We never did observe the braille texts or machines that were evident in the 2000 video that Mr. Chien had sent. Apparently some of the footage was filmed at another site.
We then got to tour the Pagoda worship spaces, which we had not seen on the previous visits. We had thought they might be "off-limits" in some way, but in retrospect I think Mr. Chien thought we were there to see the children and the programs not the Pagoda so just hadn't toured us there. In any event, when we asked today, he was more than happy to take us up each of the 6 levels explaining the various symbolism and different Buddhas and other religious figures. All of this intricate design is within the lava-like mountain rocks that form the outer walls of the Pagoda (that you see from the outside) and of course all is open-air - there is no AC in the Pagoda and Children's Center. The towering Pagoda also sits over a 30-foot deep (and dark) cavern with other poured concrete flowers and vegetation that serve as the foundation. As we got up to the 4th level, Mr. Chien motioned to us to sit down to point out that with the 4 foot walls around us, you could not see any buildings of the city, just the Buddhas in all directions (maybe 12 or 15) and the huge trees surrounding the Pagoda. As we got to the 6th level where we sat under a blue pastel curved ceiling, Mr. Chien laughed that we were now in paradise!
We were then invited to another sumptuous vegan lunch - soup with a green zuccini squash type vegetable and onions, steamed green beans and bean sprouts, sauteed tofu and vegies with "much rice" and papayas, two kinds of applies and a great bright yellow watermelon (tasted just like red) for dessert!
Before saying our goodbyes, Mr. Chien gave us a little lesson in reincarnation and the life of spirits in the death and rebirth cycle - very interesting. A final joke - Aly was rubbing his head, which had become her show of affection for him, where the soft gray stubble had grown out since we had seen him 4 days earlier. Each time she did so, he laughed playfully, but this time he said: "Of course I will not forget you, no one in Vietnam may touch may head, only you!" Aly looked aghast for a split second realizing that she had violated both cultural and religious decorum, but Mr. Chien laughed and gave her a hug - always accepting of the intention behind the act.
We fly out tonight at 11:30PM - although the flights are slightly shorter, trade winds apparently going West to East, we have 4 hour layovers in both Tokyo and Dallas - ugh - so it's about 28 hours to get home - our own beds will feel GREAT tomorrow night!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Vung Tao Beach Adventures
5AUG07 Return to Civilization from Vung Tau
All good things must come to an end, so without the sun for 3 days at the beach at Vung Tao, we have decided to come back to HoChiMinh City a day early to see Philippe, Xuan, Mr. Chien and hopefully to learn more about the training program the Orphanage has for the blind, which is the one part of my initial purpose that has not been fulfilled. The sun actually breaks through for 15 minutes about 8am after my workout – so I head to the pool for a cold swim and to “catch some rays!” However, the sun is long gone by the time Aly awakes, and today we’re on a bit of a timetable in order to leave and catch the hydrofoil for our 12:30 tickets. We return to Highland Coffee for our usual breakfast and Internet morning routine. There must be 7 young women who faun over us – they run to open the door when we come and leave (breakfast as well as after dinner when we stop there again) and give us a big smile. They look 14 – 18 to me but could be 25 – 30 says Aly. I really love the friendliness of the people generally but particularly the staff in every establishment. It is amazing how many there are, like the Ritz, they generally outnumber the customers!
In addition to Highland Coffee, we also found a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant on the fourth floor roof “garden” with a panoramic view of the beach. The elegance of the setting (white linen chairs, tables, table clothes – everything except the chairs in the outdoor section where we ate), the staff (women in pale blue silk traditional suits) and the cuisine would be a match or probably exceed anything Nashville has to offer, at one-quarter the price!
Glad to visit this place – quite a contrast from Destin or Gulf Shores!
4AUG07 – Vung Tao Beach Resort
Like everything else we’ve experienced, Vung Tao, the beach “resort” to which we have gone, is “uniquely Vietnamese,” which is to say everything is just a bit different than what you would expect in the West, which leads to a continuing stream of surprises, pleasant and not so pleasant.
Aly asked me how the thatched roof on our bungalow kept out the rain, and I answered that there must be some sort of “membrane” between the “thatch” you can see from the outside of the hut and the thatch you can see from inside. Well, perhaps there is, but more likely there isn’t. We should have anticipated that there was a reason for the plastic tarp on the bed! It turned out that the main functionality of the tarp was not to keep the rain out. Instead we observed 1 or 2 dime-sized spots at the head of the bed, suspiciously looking like bird droppings. So we were careful to keep the tarp on the head of the bed whenever we weren’t asleep! Aly wasn’t so lucky with her favorite Tri-Sig sorority t-shirt, which now has an auspicious yellow stain – another unexpected Vietnam souvenir!
While the Japanese boys/teens wear Western bathing suits, 99.9% of the females wear everyday clothes into the ocean and pool, i.e., the older women wear their full-length “pajama pantsuits” and the teens where their shorts and t-shirts, underwear included. I’m sure it’s modesty rather than not being able to afford a Western bathing suit. It just occurred to me that I have no idea how they get their clothes dry – the humidity is 95% all the time, nothing dries even though there is a constant 10 – 20 mph breeze – and it’s not like there is a guest laundry with lots of washers and dryers in the hotel.
The beach starts filling up as soon as the sun rises, well for all I know people are there before the sun rises since I never actually go out to look until the sun rises around 5:45AM and at that point there are dozens of people up and down the beach frolicking in the waves as you would expect at mid-day. While the hotels are far from full, it’s clear that the clouds and rain are no deterrent to going to the beach since getting a tan is the furthest thing from the social goal of the local women. Light skin is beautiful! We haven’t seen a single person laying out – of course we haven’t seen the sun either!
In addition to the people staying at the hotel, every day there are between 10 and 20 buses of all sizes from 15 or 20 person up to full size coaches that show up in the hotel parking lot. The folks unpack their coolers, cases of beer, food and beach gear and head to the umbrellas on the beach. It’s not clear how the hotel makes money, maybe there is a parking charge plus they own the umbrella concession! At the end of the day, they all board up again in their wet clothes and head home from a fun-filled day at the beach.
I talked Aly into riding a tandem bike yesterday – actually she was very willing to give it a go, as she has been on every activity and adventure the whole trip. Our goal was to ride up the mountain to see the “Christo” – which looks to be about 40 feet tall and the mountain also pretty imposing – I’d guess 1,000 feet. Suffice it to say that the tandem bike experience was a great illustration of Murphy’s Law applied to Vietnam:
The cab driver drove past a nice looking bike rental spot on the “strip” [i.e., the store fronts facing the beach a mile or so down the beach from us] and let us out to get a bike from a nice OLD woman. Must have been his mother or a relative!
After looking at the rusty clunker bike, I motioned that we needed to raise the seat – no dice! After paying her and riding off, the seat was so low our knees were hitting the handlebars and with a single speed (despite 21 gears – nothing shifted), I decided to return it, without refund, and look for a better bike.
About 10 yards down the street, we then found a better looking bike from a guy who looked like he might actually know something about bikes. Again, I illustrated that I wouldn’t take the bike unless he could raise the seat. That required a metric socket wrench, which he didn’t have, so I had to ride the bike down the street to a friend’s place who had a wrench. In about 5 minutes, we were fixed up and ready to go – this 21 speed was not even rusty so I thought we were in business!
Starting off amid even a few motorbikes and taxis is a little intimidating – we could have used a bobsled start to get up some speed!
When we finally got going, Aly started to feel a little less wobbly – however once I determined that the gears didn’t work, so going up the mountain was out, plus I didn’t not want to scare Aly to death coming down the mountain, even assuming we could make it up!
Turning away from the beach we road on the little commercial/residential streets with almost no cars and not too many motor bikes. Within about 5 minutes I noticed a black cloud directly in front of us, from which you could see the rain pouring. I hoped out loud it was going the other direction – no such luck! Within another 2 minutes, there was a gale of 25 – 30 mph winds and pelting rain – the worst storm we have experienced the entire time in Vietnam, and we are out on a bike in the middle of the city somewhere! Looking for shelter, and already soaked to the skin within about a minute, we found and awning big enough to get ourselves and the bike under – had to laugh at our luck. After about 10 minutes of whipping rain, which was cascading off the awning right in front of us, the storm slowed to a relative trickle, so we decided to venture out. Within a few yards, as the rain started to pick up again, the chain fell off! I fumbled in the rain to get it back on while Aly held up the back of the bike (so I could turn the pedal backwards) – one thing for sure, this rental place did not spare on the chain grease – my fingers were black. We decided to head back – of course I thought it would be faster to continue the direction we were going having gone about 60% of the way around a big rectangle (or so I thought!) However, after another 5 minutes, a second gale kicked up and we were forced to look for shelter again. This time we found a bigger open air “café” – and a longer rainstorm. Of course the restaurant folks tried to sell us some food, but that was out of the question. Finally it let up enough for us to start back, and then actually stopped raining!
Now we had two problems – first we were lost, well not really lost, we just couldn’t figure out which way was back to the beach, and once away from the strip no one speaks enough English to communicate with. It turned out Aly’s instincts on the direction were better than mine – after riding around and making a few turns, we found a large (60-foot tall) war memorial that we had walked to that same morning so we then knew how to get back.
That left the second problem – the chain. It was clearly too loose by a ½ inch or so – and was starting to come off every block or two. I wasn’t getting that much faster getting it back on, and Aly was at the point where she thought we should just walk the bike back – but that wasn’t an option for me so she relented and after 5 or 6 “chain stops” we finally made it back.
The guy who had rented us the bike (for which we had already paid and given him a 50% tip for fixing the seat for us), laughed and pointed at the sky as we rode up – quite a sense of humor!
In the cab back, we had to laugh at the timing of the storm, it hadn’t rained since early that morning – we had waited (and wasted) 2 hours of good conditions before going out in the storm, so all and all, it was a pretty funny outing and we escaped with just a little grease under the fingernails and wet clothes so not too bad!
If you like to sweat, this is the place to exercise – in 30 to 40 minutes on the exercise bike, my shoes are literally filled with sweat as if I had walked through 4 inch puddles or ridden a tandem bike in a mini-typhoon! After spending an hour or so running the hairdryer inside and outside the shoes to dry them the first time, I figured out I could wear “flip-flops” with socks to avoid the problem. However, the wet shoes issue remains whenever we get caught in the rain – which has been twice – and there is no way to get my exercise socks dry (and they have to be washed every other day) without the hairdryer routine! However, since I’m an exercise addict and the more adverse conditions the better, I like my exercise routine of getting to the “gym” by 6:30 or so, working out for as long as I can take it, almost made an hour today, and observing from the seat position on the bike that it’s unlikely that anyone has used it during my stay.
2AUG07 – Buddhist Theme Park Field Trip
Just when you think you’ve seen everything HoChiMinh City has to offer, another amazing surprise is delivered up: a Buddhist Theme Park. This mini-Disney World rises out of the surrounding urban squalor with its golden 50-ft long dragons, ornate gold and red Buddhas and an beautifully ornate “Electric Pagoda” shrine. Mr. Chien had told us we were going to a “waterfall” – so we dressed in our bathing suits under shorts and t-shirts, only to find out it was a “theme park” – with a few little waterfalls as part of the scenery. We were also under the impression that we were taking the 4 to 6 year olds – I was envisioning a wild time trying to keep up with them at a waterfall and lake. Instead, we had 8 boys age 7 to about 13. The two youngest ones, 7 and 9, were already novice monks dressed in gray robes. They warmed up to us immediately and were holding hands with me as well as Aly.
Similarly to a theme park in the U.S., they had a “parade” with dancers and “floats” – mostly Vietnamese fruits with beautifully dressed “beauty queens” waving to the crowds. They also had some cheesy little rides that the monk permitted them to ride on – a boat ride through a “mountain” with various “scenes of dragons, cavemen and mythical animals; and a horrible Halloweenish “House of Horrors” with cheaply done “torture” scenes at every turn.
There were a few notable differences from U.S. theme parks. First, there was a gorgeous Pagoda or perhaps a “shrine” or temple since a pagoda is a place of worship and the location in a theme park would seem to limit the opportunity for any services. The paintings including the rotunda ceilings, as well as the central Buddha and other worship figures were incredibly ornate. The incongruous thing was a series of pastel colored fluorescent circle lights surrounding the Buddha’s head, which lit up in a 20 or 30-second pattern, I guess signifying his enlightenment. The electronic display was so inconsistent with the rest of the worship space but apparently that was the “style” of all the pagodas built in the 1970’s.
Second was the alligator farm – hundreds of alligators from adolescents to adults (the babies were out of view somewhere) and opportunities to buy bait to “fish for gators” – which the boys insisted that Aly try! Very cool.
All good things must come to an end, so without the sun for 3 days at the beach at Vung Tao, we have decided to come back to HoChiMinh City a day early to see Philippe, Xuan, Mr. Chien and hopefully to learn more about the training program the Orphanage has for the blind, which is the one part of my initial purpose that has not been fulfilled. The sun actually breaks through for 15 minutes about 8am after my workout – so I head to the pool for a cold swim and to “catch some rays!” However, the sun is long gone by the time Aly awakes, and today we’re on a bit of a timetable in order to leave and catch the hydrofoil for our 12:30 tickets. We return to Highland Coffee for our usual breakfast and Internet morning routine. There must be 7 young women who faun over us – they run to open the door when we come and leave (breakfast as well as after dinner when we stop there again) and give us a big smile. They look 14 – 18 to me but could be 25 – 30 says Aly. I really love the friendliness of the people generally but particularly the staff in every establishment. It is amazing how many there are, like the Ritz, they generally outnumber the customers!
In addition to Highland Coffee, we also found a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant on the fourth floor roof “garden” with a panoramic view of the beach. The elegance of the setting (white linen chairs, tables, table clothes – everything except the chairs in the outdoor section where we ate), the staff (women in pale blue silk traditional suits) and the cuisine would be a match or probably exceed anything Nashville has to offer, at one-quarter the price!
Glad to visit this place – quite a contrast from Destin or Gulf Shores!
4AUG07 – Vung Tao Beach Resort
Like everything else we’ve experienced, Vung Tao, the beach “resort” to which we have gone, is “uniquely Vietnamese,” which is to say everything is just a bit different than what you would expect in the West, which leads to a continuing stream of surprises, pleasant and not so pleasant.
Aly asked me how the thatched roof on our bungalow kept out the rain, and I answered that there must be some sort of “membrane” between the “thatch” you can see from the outside of the hut and the thatch you can see from inside. Well, perhaps there is, but more likely there isn’t. We should have anticipated that there was a reason for the plastic tarp on the bed! It turned out that the main functionality of the tarp was not to keep the rain out. Instead we observed 1 or 2 dime-sized spots at the head of the bed, suspiciously looking like bird droppings. So we were careful to keep the tarp on the head of the bed whenever we weren’t asleep! Aly wasn’t so lucky with her favorite Tri-Sig sorority t-shirt, which now has an auspicious yellow stain – another unexpected Vietnam souvenir!
While the Japanese boys/teens wear Western bathing suits, 99.9% of the females wear everyday clothes into the ocean and pool, i.e., the older women wear their full-length “pajama pantsuits” and the teens where their shorts and t-shirts, underwear included. I’m sure it’s modesty rather than not being able to afford a Western bathing suit. It just occurred to me that I have no idea how they get their clothes dry – the humidity is 95% all the time, nothing dries even though there is a constant 10 – 20 mph breeze – and it’s not like there is a guest laundry with lots of washers and dryers in the hotel.
The beach starts filling up as soon as the sun rises, well for all I know people are there before the sun rises since I never actually go out to look until the sun rises around 5:45AM and at that point there are dozens of people up and down the beach frolicking in the waves as you would expect at mid-day. While the hotels are far from full, it’s clear that the clouds and rain are no deterrent to going to the beach since getting a tan is the furthest thing from the social goal of the local women. Light skin is beautiful! We haven’t seen a single person laying out – of course we haven’t seen the sun either!
In addition to the people staying at the hotel, every day there are between 10 and 20 buses of all sizes from 15 or 20 person up to full size coaches that show up in the hotel parking lot. The folks unpack their coolers, cases of beer, food and beach gear and head to the umbrellas on the beach. It’s not clear how the hotel makes money, maybe there is a parking charge plus they own the umbrella concession! At the end of the day, they all board up again in their wet clothes and head home from a fun-filled day at the beach.
I talked Aly into riding a tandem bike yesterday – actually she was very willing to give it a go, as she has been on every activity and adventure the whole trip. Our goal was to ride up the mountain to see the “Christo” – which looks to be about 40 feet tall and the mountain also pretty imposing – I’d guess 1,000 feet. Suffice it to say that the tandem bike experience was a great illustration of Murphy’s Law applied to Vietnam:
The cab driver drove past a nice looking bike rental spot on the “strip” [i.e., the store fronts facing the beach a mile or so down the beach from us] and let us out to get a bike from a nice OLD woman. Must have been his mother or a relative!
After looking at the rusty clunker bike, I motioned that we needed to raise the seat – no dice! After paying her and riding off, the seat was so low our knees were hitting the handlebars and with a single speed (despite 21 gears – nothing shifted), I decided to return it, without refund, and look for a better bike.
About 10 yards down the street, we then found a better looking bike from a guy who looked like he might actually know something about bikes. Again, I illustrated that I wouldn’t take the bike unless he could raise the seat. That required a metric socket wrench, which he didn’t have, so I had to ride the bike down the street to a friend’s place who had a wrench. In about 5 minutes, we were fixed up and ready to go – this 21 speed was not even rusty so I thought we were in business!
Starting off amid even a few motorbikes and taxis is a little intimidating – we could have used a bobsled start to get up some speed!
When we finally got going, Aly started to feel a little less wobbly – however once I determined that the gears didn’t work, so going up the mountain was out, plus I didn’t not want to scare Aly to death coming down the mountain, even assuming we could make it up!
Turning away from the beach we road on the little commercial/residential streets with almost no cars and not too many motor bikes. Within about 5 minutes I noticed a black cloud directly in front of us, from which you could see the rain pouring. I hoped out loud it was going the other direction – no such luck! Within another 2 minutes, there was a gale of 25 – 30 mph winds and pelting rain – the worst storm we have experienced the entire time in Vietnam, and we are out on a bike in the middle of the city somewhere! Looking for shelter, and already soaked to the skin within about a minute, we found and awning big enough to get ourselves and the bike under – had to laugh at our luck. After about 10 minutes of whipping rain, which was cascading off the awning right in front of us, the storm slowed to a relative trickle, so we decided to venture out. Within a few yards, as the rain started to pick up again, the chain fell off! I fumbled in the rain to get it back on while Aly held up the back of the bike (so I could turn the pedal backwards) – one thing for sure, this rental place did not spare on the chain grease – my fingers were black. We decided to head back – of course I thought it would be faster to continue the direction we were going having gone about 60% of the way around a big rectangle (or so I thought!) However, after another 5 minutes, a second gale kicked up and we were forced to look for shelter again. This time we found a bigger open air “café” – and a longer rainstorm. Of course the restaurant folks tried to sell us some food, but that was out of the question. Finally it let up enough for us to start back, and then actually stopped raining!
Now we had two problems – first we were lost, well not really lost, we just couldn’t figure out which way was back to the beach, and once away from the strip no one speaks enough English to communicate with. It turned out Aly’s instincts on the direction were better than mine – after riding around and making a few turns, we found a large (60-foot tall) war memorial that we had walked to that same morning so we then knew how to get back.
That left the second problem – the chain. It was clearly too loose by a ½ inch or so – and was starting to come off every block or two. I wasn’t getting that much faster getting it back on, and Aly was at the point where she thought we should just walk the bike back – but that wasn’t an option for me so she relented and after 5 or 6 “chain stops” we finally made it back.
The guy who had rented us the bike (for which we had already paid and given him a 50% tip for fixing the seat for us), laughed and pointed at the sky as we rode up – quite a sense of humor!
In the cab back, we had to laugh at the timing of the storm, it hadn’t rained since early that morning – we had waited (and wasted) 2 hours of good conditions before going out in the storm, so all and all, it was a pretty funny outing and we escaped with just a little grease under the fingernails and wet clothes so not too bad!
If you like to sweat, this is the place to exercise – in 30 to 40 minutes on the exercise bike, my shoes are literally filled with sweat as if I had walked through 4 inch puddles or ridden a tandem bike in a mini-typhoon! After spending an hour or so running the hairdryer inside and outside the shoes to dry them the first time, I figured out I could wear “flip-flops” with socks to avoid the problem. However, the wet shoes issue remains whenever we get caught in the rain – which has been twice – and there is no way to get my exercise socks dry (and they have to be washed every other day) without the hairdryer routine! However, since I’m an exercise addict and the more adverse conditions the better, I like my exercise routine of getting to the “gym” by 6:30 or so, working out for as long as I can take it, almost made an hour today, and observing from the seat position on the bike that it’s unlikely that anyone has used it during my stay.
2AUG07 – Buddhist Theme Park Field Trip
Just when you think you’ve seen everything HoChiMinh City has to offer, another amazing surprise is delivered up: a Buddhist Theme Park. This mini-Disney World rises out of the surrounding urban squalor with its golden 50-ft long dragons, ornate gold and red Buddhas and an beautifully ornate “Electric Pagoda” shrine. Mr. Chien had told us we were going to a “waterfall” – so we dressed in our bathing suits under shorts and t-shirts, only to find out it was a “theme park” – with a few little waterfalls as part of the scenery. We were also under the impression that we were taking the 4 to 6 year olds – I was envisioning a wild time trying to keep up with them at a waterfall and lake. Instead, we had 8 boys age 7 to about 13. The two youngest ones, 7 and 9, were already novice monks dressed in gray robes. They warmed up to us immediately and were holding hands with me as well as Aly.
Similarly to a theme park in the U.S., they had a “parade” with dancers and “floats” – mostly Vietnamese fruits with beautifully dressed “beauty queens” waving to the crowds. They also had some cheesy little rides that the monk permitted them to ride on – a boat ride through a “mountain” with various “scenes of dragons, cavemen and mythical animals; and a horrible Halloweenish “House of Horrors” with cheaply done “torture” scenes at every turn.
There were a few notable differences from U.S. theme parks. First, there was a gorgeous Pagoda or perhaps a “shrine” or temple since a pagoda is a place of worship and the location in a theme park would seem to limit the opportunity for any services. The paintings including the rotunda ceilings, as well as the central Buddha and other worship figures were incredibly ornate. The incongruous thing was a series of pastel colored fluorescent circle lights surrounding the Buddha’s head, which lit up in a 20 or 30-second pattern, I guess signifying his enlightenment. The electronic display was so inconsistent with the rest of the worship space but apparently that was the “style” of all the pagodas built in the 1970’s.
Second was the alligator farm – hundreds of alligators from adolescents to adults (the babies were out of view somewhere) and opportunities to buy bait to “fish for gators” – which the boys insisted that Aly try! Very cool.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Arrival in Vung Tau
We traveled from HoChiMinh City (which I'm learning to pronounce like Philip - strong accent on the "Ho" and glide over the "ChiMinh" similar to the "proper" way to pronounce "Knox' vul") to Vung Tau - a city of 200,000 that has miles of beaches south of the city around the tip of a peninsula - with 100 hotels according to the tour book, of which 95 you would be afraid to stay in! We planned to take the "hydrofoil" boat - supposed to ride on 6 inches of air, retired Russian Navy assault vessels apparently.
It turned out to be more of an adventure that we planned for, which is actually not so unusual for travel in Vietnam. It was a windy and rainy day so the "smooth as silk" ride on the hydrofoil was not so smooth - we got to the dock on the Saigon River [Fr. pronounciation: Shy' gun, accent on the first syllable] in downtown HCMC at 10:45am for the 11:00. However, despite being "scheduled" for every hour on the hour, it appeared that demand and/or availability of the hydrofoils determined how often they went so there was no 11AM. Waiting until noon wasn't bad, there is a decent little "river park" with benches all along the river in the down town, except that within 5 minutes of sitting down (after Aly had gone window shopping, I had 5 street urchins surrounding me trying to sell me books and trinkets.
I haven't had a chance to write about our shopping in the down town the afternoon before, after the visit to the Buddhist Theme Park - suffice it to say I'm very pleased with my $7 North Face backpack, and my $23 gold "Rolex" - I should have asked for orders before leaving home. Not sure we'll have time to go shopping again, but if anyone wants some great looking "name brand" watches, let me know, all in the $20 to $40 price range!
Back to the hydrofoil, although it looked pretty decrepit from the outside, it was actually fairly "luxurious" [by Vietnamese standards] on the inside, much like a US airplane only more leg room. Aly gets seasick so I was a bit worried about the ride - it was fairly smooth for the first 30 miles winding down the Saigon River, but then got pretty choppy as we ventured out into the South China Sea for the last 30 miles. Aly hung in great but didn't feel too good in the open sea at the end. However, we couldn't beat the price: $7.50 for a 60 mile ride (at about 40 mph, which is really moving on a boat!)
When we got to Vung Tau, it was so rough that the boat couldn't dock on the bottom of the peninsula near the beaches so we had to dock in the main harbor and take a cab through the city - very industrial with a series of oil refineries, chemical plants and seaport cranes. We had booked the only 4 star hotel on the beach, but it must have been some VERY far away stars, certainly not Michelin rated. The hotel actualy looked great from the outside but it was across the street from the beach and not so great on the inside, so after checking into our "deluxe room" with a view of the rubble in a vacant lot next door, with AC that hardly worked, the exercise room closed, we decided to check out and go to another "resort" hotel that was right on the beach across the street, which had been recommended by the taxi driver - we hould have listened to him in the first place. We got a cute little "bungalow" -- a separate thatched roof looking unit - much nicer with great AC, HBO and ESPN, and a nice little fridge that they stocked with water, beer and fruit juices - still a little Spartan in the furnishings and only room for one double bed we have to share. All during this time it is alternating pouring and drizzling - hotel staff speak broken English so you aren't quite sure what they understand of our questions.
Our hotel seemed very deserted when we checked in but the dining room was almost full for buffet breakfast this morning - nice little individually made fried or scrambled eggs but nothing but hot peppers available to add to make an omelet. Maybe 80 people at breakfast (all Japanese and Vietnamese tourists, no Americans at all or Europeans that we could tell.) All the "nice" hotels seem pretty deserted - after all it's the rainy season and it has rained EVERY day, but yesterday was the first day with no sunshine, the cab driver said there was a typhoon in Japan, affects all weather - the Internet says 60% chance of rain every day and cloudy. Nice sandy beach and water - very shallow, you can wade out 50 yards and the tide went out about that far, but Vietnamese people are not too concerned with cleaning up their trash, unfortunately. And none of the hotels or beach restaurants are either. Last night we found a very upscale new shopping area - European designer brands and it has a Starbucks type chain called "Highlands Coffee" here, from Montreal, great upscale coffee and we are there now using the Internet - hotel internet doesn't work! So we are happy hanging out hoping for sun, at least for another day, if it's not sunny by Sat. we may head back to HCMC - Aly's idea - she really likes the kids, the monk, Philippe and Xuan!
It turned out to be more of an adventure that we planned for, which is actually not so unusual for travel in Vietnam. It was a windy and rainy day so the "smooth as silk" ride on the hydrofoil was not so smooth - we got to the dock on the Saigon River [Fr. pronounciation: Shy' gun, accent on the first syllable] in downtown HCMC at 10:45am for the 11:00. However, despite being "scheduled" for every hour on the hour, it appeared that demand and/or availability of the hydrofoils determined how often they went so there was no 11AM. Waiting until noon wasn't bad, there is a decent little "river park" with benches all along the river in the down town, except that within 5 minutes of sitting down (after Aly had gone window shopping, I had 5 street urchins surrounding me trying to sell me books and trinkets.
I haven't had a chance to write about our shopping in the down town the afternoon before, after the visit to the Buddhist Theme Park - suffice it to say I'm very pleased with my $7 North Face backpack, and my $23 gold "Rolex" - I should have asked for orders before leaving home. Not sure we'll have time to go shopping again, but if anyone wants some great looking "name brand" watches, let me know, all in the $20 to $40 price range!
Back to the hydrofoil, although it looked pretty decrepit from the outside, it was actually fairly "luxurious" [by Vietnamese standards] on the inside, much like a US airplane only more leg room. Aly gets seasick so I was a bit worried about the ride - it was fairly smooth for the first 30 miles winding down the Saigon River, but then got pretty choppy as we ventured out into the South China Sea for the last 30 miles. Aly hung in great but didn't feel too good in the open sea at the end. However, we couldn't beat the price: $7.50 for a 60 mile ride (at about 40 mph, which is really moving on a boat!)
When we got to Vung Tau, it was so rough that the boat couldn't dock on the bottom of the peninsula near the beaches so we had to dock in the main harbor and take a cab through the city - very industrial with a series of oil refineries, chemical plants and seaport cranes. We had booked the only 4 star hotel on the beach, but it must have been some VERY far away stars, certainly not Michelin rated. The hotel actualy looked great from the outside but it was across the street from the beach and not so great on the inside, so after checking into our "deluxe room" with a view of the rubble in a vacant lot next door, with AC that hardly worked, the exercise room closed, we decided to check out and go to another "resort" hotel that was right on the beach across the street, which had been recommended by the taxi driver - we hould have listened to him in the first place. We got a cute little "bungalow" -- a separate thatched roof looking unit - much nicer with great AC, HBO and ESPN, and a nice little fridge that they stocked with water, beer and fruit juices - still a little Spartan in the furnishings and only room for one double bed we have to share. All during this time it is alternating pouring and drizzling - hotel staff speak broken English so you aren't quite sure what they understand of our questions.
Our hotel seemed very deserted when we checked in but the dining room was almost full for buffet breakfast this morning - nice little individually made fried or scrambled eggs but nothing but hot peppers available to add to make an omelet. Maybe 80 people at breakfast (all Japanese and Vietnamese tourists, no Americans at all or Europeans that we could tell.) All the "nice" hotels seem pretty deserted - after all it's the rainy season and it has rained EVERY day, but yesterday was the first day with no sunshine, the cab driver said there was a typhoon in Japan, affects all weather - the Internet says 60% chance of rain every day and cloudy. Nice sandy beach and water - very shallow, you can wade out 50 yards and the tide went out about that far, but Vietnamese people are not too concerned with cleaning up their trash, unfortunately. And none of the hotels or beach restaurants are either. Last night we found a very upscale new shopping area - European designer brands and it has a Starbucks type chain called "Highlands Coffee" here, from Montreal, great upscale coffee and we are there now using the Internet - hotel internet doesn't work! So we are happy hanging out hoping for sun, at least for another day, if it's not sunny by Sat. we may head back to HCMC - Aly's idea - she really likes the kids, the monk, Philippe and Xuan!
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