Vietnam

I didn't spend long enough in Vietnam, only made it to one tiny little corner in the south, Ho Chi Minh City. I need to go back and travel into the north to Hanoi; Ha Long Bay because I've heard they are incredibly beautiful and Ha Long Bay is the favourite of everyone I've spoken to. 

Being in Ho Chi Min City was being in a city. They are all very similar with their own little quirks. HCM I quickly found is all about the mopeds. There's an insane amount of them and they drive like a murmuration of starlings, constantly moving around one another, speeding up, slowing down, turning in or turning off but never crashing. It's actually quite remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. 

I crossed into Vietnam overland from Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the border in Moc Bai. There's no tuktuks in Vietnam like the other SEAsian countries I've visited so I very quickly ended up on the back of a moped, giant backpack and all, to my hostel. Way to get integrated into HCMC life!!

I headed north to explore the Cu Chi tunnels, a vast network of tiny underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used to hide in during the Vietnam War. They were ridiculously small.

We could stumble through a widened version of the tunnels, the originals are far too tiny. Even in the widened ones you have to crouch really low and keep your elbow tucked in. There are lots of different levels too so all of a sudden there would be a hole dropping down to the level below.

They have dug ventilation holes and exits every 20m because people used to keep passing out! Now you can get out easily if you start to get claustrophobic. They're lit by regular lamps now too. I made it the whole hundred meters - last man standing. The last 20m I had to crawl on my hands and knees. It was ok with lighting and good ventilation, if incredibly hot, but I can't imagine being in there as it originally was, with no lighting, no air and the oppressive heat!

I went to Golden Dragon Water Puppet Show. That was definitely something different! All these wooden puppets moving through the water telling traditional stories. Musicians lined the sides of the stage playing traditional instruments, but I still can't work out where the puppet masters were hiding, I never saw sign of a string or a stick!

My favourite part of Vietnam was the Mekong Delta. I travelled south from HCMC for 2 days to visit the land where hundreds of tributaries run into the Mekong as it runs into the sea. The abundance of life there was amazing. Small shacks on stilts line the edges of the river in the north and further south it becomes a mass of ship yards and industrial shipping buildings.

Our first stop was through the mangroves in Can Tho province in traditional dugout canoes. Wearing non la of course - traditional Vietnamese conical hats.

 We travelled by boat around the rivers to a rice paper making factory where I had a not awful go at it. Rice is milled and mixed with water then spread in a circle onto a pancake type hot plate. Left for 20 seconds then peeled off with a wicker rounders bat shaped tool and placed onto a drying mat in the sun. It can then go through a shredder that turns it into rice noodles, or be used to wrap vegetables for spring rolls. We tried rice pizza while we were there, a strange sweet crispy cake type thing that was delicious. 

That night I stayed at Hung's Homestay. We used rice paper to wrap our own spring rolls and fried them in a wok before eating an incredible spread of wonderful Vietnamese cuisine.

And once we'd finished dinner the rice wine came out. Weirdly, I assume because they make it themselves, it was served in a bag. A chopstick is pushed all the way through, then slowly pulled out to leave a spout in the bottom, pushed back in to reseal. If you're wondering, rice wine tastes like vodka. Straight, raw and burning. It's about 25%...

Day 2 on the Delta took us to Cai Be Floating Market. Now this was something different!! Vendor after vendor pulled up alongside us toting their wares and offering sharp deals. Payment is taken and the items handed over, all without anyone leaving their seat. It's mostly fruit and vegetables, and everyone seems to have the same ones; whatever is in season I assume. I can't quite figure out how people can make a profit when so many have the same things...

The highlight of my trip has to be my visit to the Saigon Opera House to see Teh Dar, an extravaganza of tribal music, acrobatics and gigantic bamboo structures. I'm talking grease monkey like climbing on hanging bamboo; diving and somersaulting over an enormous bowl with bamboo spokes that rolled around the floor; and my favourite, playing an incredibly fast beat on djembe type drums with balls that they threw at the drums and each other with serious timing and precision. 

With just a few days in the city I definitely saw a lot of amazing things!