Vietnam - Part 2

Day 2: Mekong Delta

For day 2 in Ho Chi Minh, we had booked an all day tour of the Mekong River Delta. We were still mostly on Melbourne time (~4 hours ahead), so the early morning start didn't feel very early at all. The Mekong Delta is a little ways outside of HCMC, so the first step was getting on a bus and leaving the city center. It was about a two hour drive, but there were a few stops along the way. The first was at an official roadside rest stop. There was a washroom, restaurant, coffee place and gift shop, as well as a lovely garden to walk around. Justin & I grabbed some milk coffees and wandered through the lush greenery before getting back on the bus. Our next stop was the Vinh Trang temple, a very large Buddhist temple with massive statues of Buddhas outside. We were able to explore the whole temple complex. Even though we know less about Buddhist temples, we still appreciate how beautiful they are. This one was constructed mostly of wood, with tile floors and mosaic tile gates. Inside, all the wood was carved, including doorways and pillars. In the main building, there were statues all around the outside of the room, and then a massive altar in the middle. This was a working temple, so there were monks in saffron robes chanting, bowing, and beating a drum. Other parts of the temple were open air, strung up with flags and containing immaculately manicured bonsai trees.

The whole place was amazing, but Justin in particular loved the giant smiling Buddha. Our tour guide, a tiny Vietnamese lady named Sam, took a picture of him holding his own belly and laughing like Buddha. Sam thought this was truly delightful, and proceeded to call Justin Smiling Buddha for the rest of the trip.

Soon it was back on the bus as we headed for our final stop, the Mekong River marina. The Mekong is a very large river that weaves its way through China, Loas, Thailand, and Cambodia before finally making it to Vietnam. The Mekong is a big source of industry for those who live around it, particularly fishing, agriculture, and now, tourism. Even where the marina was, the river was wide and the water had a muddy opacity to it that made judging depth pretty much impossible. All along the banks we could see tons of varieties of palms. If you looked closely at the edges, you could see lots of floating plants on the water's surface that moved with the current. It made it really hard to tell where the land stopped and the river started. The boats on the Mekong all had a particular look to them. They were low and flat looking, with the sides sitting very close to the water's edge. All of them had covers to protect from the sun. The bows were uncovered, and squared off, often with a tire nailed to the front acting as a bumper. They were clearly designed to get on and off of quickly. The low flat bows could be brought right up to docks, sometimes practically on top of them. Getting on the boats was as easy as walking right on.

We headed down the river a short ways until we reached an island. There we got off and we're led to a coconut candy factory. We got to watch a guy peel a coconut out of the husk using what looked like a spear sticking out of the ground. Then he grabbed a machete, cracked the coconut and pried out all the meat. The coconut meat then went through a grinder, and then some kind of juicing press. The end result was pure white coconut milk, which was then put into a giant kettle to be cooked down into candy. The whole process reminded me a lot of visiting the maple syrup farm as a kid. We got to try the coconut candy at the end. It was really tasty, kind of like coconut caramel, but more like a salt water taffy consistency. The guy who processed the coconut was clearly quite adept at it, but the whole time I kept thinking about how dangerous the process was and wondered how many times he had accidentally sliced himself on the spike or with the machete.

From the coconut factory, we walked further into the island. Eventually we reached some Tuk Tuks, which are kind of a cross between a motorcycle and a tractor, but designed to carry people in seats on the back. As we travelled further into the island, we could see the locals going about their daily life: visiting the market, sweeping out their shops, enjoying their lunch.

Eventually we got to what looked like a picnic area of sorts. There were a series of pavilions with tables and chairs set up, with some sort of cooking facility in the back. Between the pavilions there were things to see and do: strange obstacle courses/jungle gyms built out of bamboo, animals (crocodiles, catfish (which we later learned were to feed the crocodiles), a peacock), hammocks, swings, etc. It was a bit early for lunch, so we were led to a small dock on the other side of the picnic area where we got into small river boats. The boats could only hold 4, and were captained by women with a single big oar, very similar to the gondolas of Venice. In the little boats we were steered down a tiny offshoot of the Mekong. The water was peaceful and both sides of the river were lush with palms. It was very cool (figuratively cool. It was actually very hot and humid). It made me think about how long people have been living on this river and using this land (the answer to this question is essentially always. The Indochina peninsula is one of the origins of civilization). We didn't go too far down the river before the captain turned us around and we headed back to the picnic area, where lunch was ready. I'm not exactly sure what we ate, but when we first Sat down there was an entire fried fish on the table. It was propped up in some kind of holder made of wooden sticks, so it was upright, the way it would be if it was swimming. It was both impressive and kind of freaky. I don't really know what we ate, but there was a soup thing, some fried egg roll type things, a rice thing, the fish, which was quickly whisked away and turned into spring rolls with cold noodles and lettuce, and some greens. Whatever it all was, it tasted good.

After lunch we had some downtime to explore the area. The crocodiles they had were not huge, but we're still very creepy. For a small fee you could feed them chunks of fish. We didn't partake but we did watch with horrified excitement as others did.

Soon it was time to get back on the boat and move to a new island for our next stop, a chocolate maker that also happened to breed pythons. They had a python we could hold that was adorable. I love snakes, so I was the first to volunteer to hold it. Justin wasn't going to at first, but was talked into it by Sam, our tour guide. He was shocked to discover how smooth and cool snakeskin is. 

I know we did a couple more things we did on the second island, but honestly, it's all kind of a blur. Eventually we got on a boat again, and headed back to the marina. We were a bit delayed getting on the bus at the marina, because our tour guide Sam ran into her idol. I don’t remember what the idol’s name was, but she was a very well dressed transwoman that Sam described as ‘The richest woman in Mekong’. To be fair, she was completely decked out in a beautiful orange dress and gold jewelry.  It was a longer drive back into HCMC as traffic had really picked up. We made it back, and opted to get dropped off at a downtown market instead of our hotel. It was about 5:30, and even though there was lots of snacking throughout the day, Justin and I were both starving. Luckily, we happened to be around the corner from a Bahn Mi place that was recommended to us by a friend.

We knew we found the spot because there was a line up into the street. It was the kind of place that pretty much only has one thing on the menu. When you get to the counter, you just tell them how many you want. Obviously we each got our own. And then we proceeded to absolutely devour some of the best Bahn mi we have ever had. They were so big, so full of pork, and so good.

As we slowly walked back to our hotel, we decided to check out a brewery. It was very much a western ex-pat bar. The beer was decent, and the bar had an interesting theme, but the place felt just like the kind of bar we would find at home (Halifax or Melbourne). We both agreed that while we enjoy brewery's, it really wasn't something we wanted to do while in Vietnam. We headed back to the hotel for some truly glorious showers, and I passed out before 9pm. It was fantastic.

Day 3: Exploring Ho Chi Minh

Day 3 in Vietnam was our last day in HCMC before heading to Da Nang. We decided to get organized with our city exploration and headed out towards the zoo and botanical gardens. Justin and I have pretty much never been to a zoo we haven't enjoyed. While this one wasn't very big, some of the animals were very impressive. Not to mention we got to feed the giraffes carrots. That was a definite highlight. After the zoo, we headed to the book street: a whole street of just book vendors. Sure, most of them were in Vietnamese, but it was still cool to look through all the stalls. After the book street we had to circle back to the hotel to officially check out and store our bags. Then it was back to city exploring. It was time for lunch, so we found a place for pho that had excellent reviews. Again, it was the kind of place where they pretty much only do one thing, but they do it very well. The matriarch behind the counter asked us ‘chicken or beef’. I got the impression this is one of the only english phrases she knows. We both answered beef. She nodded at us and pointed at a table. As we sat down she said something to her teenage-ish sons in Vietnamese. They brought us the soup, along with a basket of greens, some bean sprouts, and a plate of limes & chilis. Clearly this was a family place and she ran a tight ship. Luckily, from the food tour, we knew what we were supposed to do with everything they gave us. Pho, like lots of other Vietnamese foods, is a ‘build it yourself’ kind of deal. It's probably the most famous Vietnamese food: a beef based soup that comes with rice noodles and meat. Then they give you a bunch of add-ins, and you get to decide how much of each you like. The greens for pho usually include lemongrass and coriander, which Justin & I both add. We are also big fans of the bean sprouts, a squeeze of lime, and some soy sauce.

The pho was amazing. It didn't matter that we were eating hot soup in 30 degree heat. It was so good, we ate it all and then drank the broth. Reinvigorated from our lunch, we headed out to hit the classic HCMC landmarks: the post office, notre dame, the opera house, city hall, and the pedestrian street. There was some kind of music festival happening near the pedestrian street, so the area was full of people and vendors. After checking everything out, we headed to the Apartment cafes to get a better view of everything. The apartment cafes is an apartment building that has been turned into a bunch of cafes. Because the apartments had balconies, many of the cafes have seats that overlook the street. We opted for a cafe on the seventh floor called Buihaus, and managed to grab a spot on the balcony overlooking what turned out to be some kind of dance stage. For the next hour or so we watched performances by Kpop style dance groups, followed by some kind of quasi organized flashmob, again to Kpop. We didn't really understand what was happening, but it was all very entertaining. Soon it was time to head back to the hotel and pick up our bags before heading to the airport for our flight to Da Nang. Apparently, the Miss Earth 2023 beauty pageant happened in HCMC while we were there. All of the contestants were staying at our hotel, so every time we walked into the lobby there were tall beautiful women everywhere. Between the hotel beauty queens and the random dancers, we declared it to be the strangest but most beautiful day ever.