Saigon and Chau Doc, Vietnam

Chào, Vietnam!

Decorations for the upcoming Tet holiday were everywhere in Saigon.

Monday, January 13

This morning we flew from Vientiane, Laos, with a layover in Phnom Penh, to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.  The city was decorated for the upcoming Tet holiday celebration, which made it colorful and festive.  

Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City-motorbike traffic and Tet holiday decorations.

Dane had always said he didn’t get to Vietnam when he was in the Army in the late 1960s, so he was glad to see the friendlier version in 2014.  We found the new generation of Vietnamese has moved rapidly past the war, and indeed were most welcoming.  Also, there seems to be no old-school communism--HCMC is booming and busy with lots of beautiful skyscrapers and lots of traffic, mostly motor bikes. There was a sea of motorbikes all coursing jam-packed along the streets and boulevards.  HCMC has a population of about  12 million, and most of them ride motor scooters, we learned, for we saw few cars, and then mostly taxis,  in all the sea of scooters. 

A sea of motorbikes spread in front of our bus.  Motorbikes with two, three, four passengers, plus taxis, all flowing smoothly.

Though the traffic was certainly dense, there was an orderly chaos to it. First of all it helps that we did not see too many “hotdogging” drivers trying to claim territory on the roadway or speeding.  If  drivers had to switch to the other side of the road (perhaps crossing five lanes of bikes) they just slowly and deliberately did so, and their fellow bikers made way for them, like a gentleman holding a door.  Similarly, when we pedestrians, had to cross a street full of bike traffic, we were told to just step off the curb, and slowly but deliberately, without stopping or making any sudden, unexpected movement, cross, not making eye contact with any of the drivers.  When we looked at the traffic, we thought “no way!”  But we followed the instructions, and wow, it worked!  Now I am not telling you the drivers stopped, but they did weave around us, and their fellow bikers cooperated.  Amazing.  Another culture.  (Never try this in New York City or Philadelphia!)

Bride and groom in front of Notre-Dame Basilica

It was early to check into our hotel, so we had an orientation tour of the city, visiting Notre- Dame Basilica and the Post Office nearby, then a walk through the old French Quarter, finishing at the Ben Thanh Market.

Notre-Dame Basilica, built between 1877 and 1883, is a neo-Romanesque building with two 125 foot square towers.  The church is so picturesque we saw several wedding parties having their pictures taken with it in the background.

Saigon's General Post Office, a grand old colonial building by Gustave Eiffel.

Right across from the cathedral is Saigon's General Post Office, an early 20^th century neoclassical building designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel when Vietnam was part of French Indochina.  The grand old banks of phone cabinets, with mural-size historic maps above, now have become banks themselves, with ATMs inside.  

The old telephone booths at the General Post Office now house ATMs!  Note the map above. 

Within eyeshot of the Post Office, with a shining new skyscraper in the background, is the infamous building in the old American Embassy compound from which the Americans were evacuated by helicopter on April 30, 1975. 

The building in the old American Embassy compound from which helicopters evacuated people on April 30, 1975.

On our tour of the French Quarter we saw Saigon City Hall, with a beautiful park in the foreground,  built 1902-8 in French colonial style.  In 1975 the name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee.

The French Colonial-style former City Hall of Saigon, built 1902-1908.

The most central of all Saigon's markets, Ben Thanh, and its surrounding streets comprise one of the city’s liveliest areas. Formerly known as Les Halles Central, the clock tower is the symbol of saigon.  First opened in 1914, it has everything that is commonly eaten, worn or used by the Saigonese available here, and of course there were many fine items popular with the tourist trade on offer as well. We helped the economy a little, of course!

Everything, in every color, is for sale at the Ben Thanh market in the center of HCMC.

The Rex Hotel, known for its rooftop bar with panoramic Saigon view.  Tet holiday decorations too!

After our tour around the French Quarter, we went to the Asian Ruby 3 Hotel to check in and have dinner. Afterwards, a few of us walked up the street to the Rex Hotel, where the U.S Information Agency, the military and press from America gathered at the rooftop bar during the Vietnam War.  The 5 pm briefing became known as "The Five O'Clock Follies," and now the Rex has a drink with than name.  

Panya with cocktails and beer at the Rex Hotel rooftop bar: Saigon Express, Singapore Sling and Saigon Beauty, plus Saigon lager beer.  

Panya joined us and we tried some more fun cocktails and local beer, though it was weird to think what it must have been like for those fighting and reporting on the war decades ago. Panya taught us how to say“cheers” in Vietnamese:  Một hai ba, yo (one, two, three, yo!)

Tuesday, January 14

Banh trang wrappers drying on reed mats. 

After breakfast we boarded a bus to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, a remnant of what the Vietnamese call the “American War.”

Joan trying her hand at spreading the batter.

On the way we stopped by a little shop where women were making the thin rice paper wrappers with seeds and dried shrimp, used to make spring rolls.  Three women and a cute little kitten made up the staff. They spread the batter thinly over a disk heated by water for a brief interval then let it cool and dry on a reed mat.  They even got Joan to try her hand at it – she soon found it isn’t as easy as it looks to get the batter to spread out evenly on the hot plate.

The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located about an hour’s drive Northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that used to underlie much of south Vietnam.

Our local guide, Duc, explaining the Cu Chi tunnels to us.  

The tunnels and underground chambers were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots, as well as serving as supply and communication routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. They were also the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.  Though an effective wartime strategy, the tunnels were nasty. It is estimated that 100% of the Viet Cong working the tunnels had intestinal parasites, and over half had malaria. 

Guide showing us a hidden entrance.

Steamed cassava root and ground peanuts for a snack.

Our tour started with a good orientation, and then we actually got to go into a few tunnels, and see how traps were set and how entrances and ventilation holes were hidden  None of us got a disease from them though.  We were carefully steered around the introductory video, which was, we gleaned from previous OAT visitors' comments, very one-sided.  We would have been interested in seeing the video, but it was not to be.  We did get a little treat at the end, a taste of steamed cassava root, which we dipped in ground peanuts.  Starchy, but yummy with tea.

Pho-beef brisket and rice noodles in broth with vegetable garnishes ready to be added.

Back in HCMC, we had lunch at a restaurant that specialized in pho (pronounced fa).  Pho is a broth  loaded with noodles, greens and meat or fish of Vietnamese origin, but lately it has gone global--there are several good pho restaurants in Philadelphia which we have enjoyed.

Our next stop was the Museum of Vietnamese History.  We were on a schedule, so did not have much time to linger in the huge complex. Helpful signs with English translations start with information about the Paleolithic period and go up to modern history, with many beautiful pieces of sculpture and art.

Captions helped us understand the history and migration of the Vietnamese people at the Vietnamese History Museum.

One of the highlights of the Vietnamese History Museum.

Next we saw the fascinating Golden Dragon Water Puppet show, entertainment which originated in the 11^th century and emphasizes the importance of water in Vietnam.  The stage is fitted out to look like a temple, and its terrace is really a pool of water.  The puppeteers work from behind a bamboo screen and manipulate the puppets by using poles and string under the water.

A performance at the Golden Dragon Water Puppet theater.

Very much like Punch and Judy, and of course lots of splashing water.  The program, with wonderful accompanying music, included such folk tales as Lion Dance, King Le Loi on boat tour, or the legend about “Restored sword,  Dance of the Four Holy Animals,  and On a Buffalo with a Flute. Seats in the first row are not recommended, but kids loved it.

The puppeteers take a bow after the performance.

Taking a picture while riding on a cyclo, or pedicab in HCMC.

After the show, we climbed aboard yet another mode of transportation, cyclos, or pedicabs,  to go to dinner.  The ride was scenic, great fun, and we got a feel of what it was like to be in the flow of traffic.

Joining the fray: what it looked like as a passenger riding a cyclo in the motorbike traffic in Ho Chi Minh City!

Ted learning to chop with several knives at once.

Our destination was Mai Home “The SaigonCulinary Art Center.”  We had a simple cooking class, including some tips on knife skills using three knives at once to chop, and we learned to make a traditional braised chicken dish with ginger, Gà kho gu’ng.

Chicken ready to be marinated for our cooking class.

Here's the recipe:  

200 g chicken breast, sliced

10 g fresh ginger, julienned

2 teaspoons caramel syrup **

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon chopped spring onion

1 teaspoon chopped shallot

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

**To make caramel syrup, in a heavy saucepan stir 2 tablespoons white sugar in 1 tablespoon cooking oil until dissolved.  Heat over medium heat until the sugar is caramelized and then add 1 tablespoon water, being careful as it will splatter and burn.  Keep stirring until the liquid is a smooth syrup, and then remove from heat.

Pretty fresh fruit salad dessert at Mai Home.

In a saucepan marinate the chicken pieces with fresh ginger, caramel syrup, chicken bouillon powder, pepper, fish sauce, sugar, spring onion, and shallot for about 15 to 20 minutes. 

Bring the ingredients in the saucepan to a simmer over low heat.  When the sauce is very thick, add 1 cup of water.  Simmer for a further 5 to 10 minutes until the sauce becomes thick again. Serve with steamed rice and fresh cucumber sliced thinly. 

After we cooked our braised chicken with ginger dishes, we enjoyed it in a delicious meal including steamed shrimp dim sum, lotus stem salad with pork and shrimp, sour soup with seafood, steamed rice with papadam leaf and a pretty variation on our usual fresh fruit dessert, always with local beer, of course!

Dramatic ultra-modern skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City.

The ride back to the hotel at night showed us the beautiful skyscrapers of HCMC.  We would like to return and spend more time in this interesting city and country.

Wednesday, January 15

Hammocks at a "hammock coffee" stop

Individually brewing coffees with sweetened condensed milk.

Our stay in HCMC was far too short; we packed up and boarded a bus for the day-long ride to Chau Doc.

Showing us the spurs put on the beautiful fighting cocks in Vietnam.

En route we stopped at a “hammock coffee” rest stop along  the highway, one of many we saw which caters to motor scooter travelers who stop and let their overheated motors cool while they rest in a hammock and have a coffee on their journey between cities.  Seeing the cocks the owners raised for fighting was another glimpse into a different way of life.

Beautiful green rice paddies south of Saigon, Vietnam.

We enjoyed watching the passing scenery, including many towns and villages, lots of rice paddies and other fields of agricultural products.  The Mekong Delta is a very fertile area, we came to understand.

Water lilies, rice and sugar cane in the fields of southern Viet Nam.

A rice warehouse in southern Viet Nam.

Rice paddies were everywhere.  We saw warehouses filled with rice, barges carrying rice down the Mekong, and rice for sale in the markets.  Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice after Thailand and the seventh-largest consumer of rice.

We crossed many branches of the Mekong river, by small and beautiful large bridges,

View from a bridge over one of the branches of the Mekong River.

Rạch Miễu Bridge, a beautiful cable-stayed suspension bridge over the Mekong River.

A ferry across the Mekong River.  

then finally by ferry to Long Xuyen, where we had a hotel lunch and visited a Cao Dai temple.

Colorful Cao Dai temple in Vietnam.

Exterior of Cao Dai temple in Vietnam.

Panya was excellent at finding interesting places for us to visit on the spur of the moment.  We stopped the bus along the route to visit a nursery full of plants in flower ready for sale in Sa Dec City, the "flower kingdom" of the Mekong Delta, and to see bricks being made at a family brickyard.

Flowering plants ready for sale in Sa Dec City, the "flower kingdom" of the Mekong Delta.

A riverside brickyard in southern Vietnam.

Rose apples (green with pink inside) and jackfruit (yellow hunk in read) at the Chau Doc market.

We arrived in Chau Doc in time to tour the local market, where we saw and sampled more unusual fruits, including guava, roseapples, jack fruit and tamarind.  The jack fruit was especially delicious.  OF course there were lots of fresh and preserved fish for sale, as well as many many different varieties of rice.

Learning a bit about the wide variety of rice for sale at the Chau Doc market.

Dried, salted, pickled, preserved, fresh: fish in many forms at the Chau Doc market.

Beautiful purple yam soup!

Finally we arrived at the Dong Nam hotel in Chau Doc just before dinnertime.  The hotel was rather new, but dreadful, really the worst of all the places we stayed, but we understand there was little choice in this riverside town.  The highlight of the day was dinner with a local family, where we had delicious, interesting food including purple yam soup with ground pork, which was very glutinous, a peppery pork fried spring roll and a delicious shrimp, scallop and squid noodle dish.

Delicious seafood and noodles dish for dinner at a private home in Chau Doc, Vietnam.

Thursday, January 16

Our first stop this morning was the floating village and fishing farm of Chau Doc. We were diappointed to have a rushed walk through the morning market at the riverside, for we passed all sorts of street vendors preparing delicious looking breakfasts.  

But the quick boat ride out the the fishing village netted (sorry for the pun) some great shots of the Mekong River.  

Some of the contained fish at the fish farm of Chau Doc.

The fishing farm was interesting, but not reassuring to see the confined fish flailing for the food the fish farmer tossed to them.

We enjoyed seeing the colorful houseboats of the floating village.

Then began one of the most interesting parts of our trip.  We transferred to a speed boat for our morning trip up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh, which is described in the next post in this blog.

No, not the speedboaat, but one of the working boats of the floating village of Chau Doc

A colorful working boat filled with equally colorful bags of rice.