Vietnam has always been one of the top most travel destinations on our travel list. A cheap travel destination and one of the few where the home currency (when I was in India) was so strong compared to the Vietnamese Dong and of course movies like Apolcalypse Now and Platoon only fuelled the imagination on what would this country be like, emerging from the ravages of the war as recently as 1975. So we hoisted our backpacks and set off for a 14-day vacation which started from the southern tip and wound ourselves right up to its northern most borders with China. And this is only because of the meticulous planning of my wife, Madhuri. (trip itinerary at the end).
April 1 to 3: Bike Nation, Apocalypse Now and other stories
The first thing that strikes you when you fly into any Vietnamese city (we flew into Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City) is the sheer number of bikes on the road. Weaving, careening, zipping and zig zagging past you in hundreds and thousands. For every four-wheeler you spot on the road, there are fifteen of these fiendish machines roaring past you in all shapes and sizes. Vespas, Hondas, 125 cc, 100 cc, etc, etc...As we were reliably informed by the front page headlines of an English daily, this 90 million odd strong country has bikes numbering roughly 30 million and cars around 1.8 million.
Saigon in the South, (I like the old name, has a certain character to it) is the commercial hub of this S-shaped country and has a certain edginess and a buzz to it and to be right in the middle of the action, it is highly recommended you stay the Pham Gu Lao which is the backpackers' quarters in Quarter 1. Yes, the city is divided into quarters or quartiers (en francais) We stayed at this homestay with a very hospitable old couple (Mrs Long) in one of the a
lleys on this busy street which was just about perfect.
Far away from the noise but near enough to the action. TIP: Book well in advance as it is teeming with backpackers all over the world or you might have to settle for a room which is a bastardised version of a cross between an three storey house and a gaudy hotel room.
Saigon in April can get pretty steamy in the day time with tempartures climbing to 34 degrees but the nights are cooler though please hunt for a AC room which is de riguer if you are visiting then. The tourist season is between November and February. The backpackers quarters are also pretty ideal whether you want a haircut, massage, change mone
y (rates are as good as you can get into a bank), dig into some traditional street food or just sit at one of the various cafes which have taken over the footpath and watch the world go by. Of course, for the slightly more comfort inclined, the upmarket Dong Khoi area, nearby is always there which has some pretty swanky hotels and the city's most happening nightclubs with names such as (you guessed it: Apocalypse Now).
For the budget traveler, Vietnam can be a very cheap destination if you can get your head around the conversion rates and the decimal system which I must confess, my inattentiveness in junior school math classes came to pay back in spades (1USD = 19000 VND Vietnamese Dong, 1 HKD = 4200 VND, you get the picture). We took the bus from the airport which was parked right outside the terminus to our guesthouse mentioned above-- a nice trundling 45 minutes ride negotiating the evening rush-hour traffic and beats the risk of being gypped by the airport taxis.
Another rule: HAGGLE. Though it is quite cheap, everything is up for negotiations other than the taxis which have meters in them and even then be careful of them. For a guide: a meal for two: starters, two mains, a couple of beers at a stall should be around 100 000 - 150 000 dong, a ride in a cyclo for 2 to the musuem or palace should be around 50-80 000 VND.
After polishing up delicious bowls of pho ,
http://www.lovingpho.com/ my description won't do justice to this wonderful dish, and roasted fish we retired early on our first day night.
p>It is a nation of early risers. By the time we were ready by 7:30 a.m, I had a feeling that the Vietnamese were well and truly into the daily routine. We headed off for our day trip to the Cui Chi tunnels which is around 3 hours by bus or about 150 kms from the main city.
Crawling in Cui Chih
The Cui Chi tunnels really bring home to you the horrors of the war and the ingenuity which man resorts to in the face of such overwhelming odds. Built between the 1940's and the 1960's and at the height of the war stretching about 250 kms underground these tunnels had several layers depending upon the degree of attacks and had booby traps to fend off the invaders. There are a few of them open for now for tourists and go
ing into one of these tunnels, you being to wonder how could people spend days and weeks inside here waiting for the bombings and the attacks to cease. According to the guide, American war planes were ordered, while returning back from their missions to drop their unused bombs on this area. Of course, the Viet cong happily carted off the unexploded ones to use them in fashioning mines. And still they did not give up. As a fellow tourist remarked, to survive the Chinese, the French and the Americans is no mean feat. We took a shot at crawling through some of the tunnels. I gave up after the first tunnel which was about 20 meters long and about a couple of meters below the ground. My intrepid wife went for the second one too which was an easy 5-6 meters below ground and much more constricted. The downside: Our calves hurt like hell for the next couple of days.
On our way back we got off at the city center and wandered about a bit. The Dong Khoi area is quite well maintained and most of the swanky hotels are housed here. We wandered into the ferry pier where a colorful junk boat was departing for an evening out. After a long day of sightseeing, we raised a toast to the edginess of this beautiful city while watching the bikes returning homes on ferries.
Next day, we left bright and early to do our own recce around the city at our own pace. So we took our faithful lonely planets and set off on our walk abouts. One thing about Saigon, despite the dust and the heat, the city is dotted by numerous parks where the residents are taking a stroll, learning dancing or just chatting. After a couple of hours of strolling around, we took a cyclo the War Remnant Musuem and the Reunification palace, both of which are situated a stone's throw from each other.
The War Remnant musuem is THE PLACE to start if you did not know much about the war. Filled with photos (one above), weaponry used during the war and documentation of various deadly chemicals used in the war including Agent Orange, the place is quite chilling and gruesome. Nearly 60000 American soldiers died, not counting losses from other countries while about 1 million Vietnamese soldiers perished, according to the musuem. About 4 million civilians lost their lives and the effects of the war can still be seen to this day in the deformities, poor crops and landmines in this country.
Nearby is the Reunification Palace which was the palace for the head of the South Vietnam government propped up by the Americans. TIP: The palace is shut for 2 hours in the afternoon from 1100 to 1300 so please plan accordingly. After a detour at a nearby Chinese temple and the Hard Rock Cafe (the first to open in Saigon which will be followed by another in Hanoi later this year) for a hearty lunch, we arrived at the palace .
More than the well kept huge rooms of the palace, what is more interesting is the basement which used to serve as the nerve center at the height of the war. A vast cavern of underground rooms housing maps (according t
o a guide, some of the best maps of Vietnam are still to be found here), cipher rooms and other paraphernalia of the war and connected by claustrophobic narrow alleys, it is quite easy to imagine what it must have been during the height of the war. Bombed twice, it has survived the ravages and is now an important landmark for the country which is balancing a violent history and a optimistic future.
By the end of this, we were quite tired so to rejuvenate ourselves we headed back to the backpackers quarters and dug out the address for this masssage institute run by the blind which dishes out some really blissful massages. For an hour it was about 50K Dong per person and it was worth every minute of it. There are other places around too, but the prices are way more expensive than here.
We whiled away our last evening in Saigon, promising ourselves that we would be back again to visit this buzzing city soon.
Next post on the motorcycle diaries from Hue and the picturesque town of Hoi An in central Vietnam, coming up soon.
Tai Mo Shan or "Big Hat Mountain" is Hong Kong's tallest peak at 957 metres approximately and is located in the New Territories. In other words, for most of us city bred folks who haven’t seen much beyond the glitzy malls of Central and the clubs at Wanchai, it is a wonderful getaway place for a weekend. Getting there is fairly easy but given our track record, we almost made a hash of it. But that is a different story.
