Driving in Saigon Again

I found this video I took of all the scooters in Saigon. It might give you a better idea of what I was on about. It just looks nuts ...

And the rains came ...

During the rainy season here there's a deluge once a day for an hour or two. And it did just that, like clockwork, for the past two days, except for one thing ... It's not the rainy season - this weather is two months early (cue errie music). And I here Ireland is getting it's winter now, in Spring and reports from New York are of unusually heavy snowfall ... What's going on?

From Vietnam Photos

The Mekong Delta

70% of the countries rice is produced here in the Mekong Delta. We took a 4 hour boat trip around some of the islands here and was the closest scenery yet to a Vietnam war movie. Really beautiful. I think it was Unicorn Island, Phoenix Island and Bentee province, but not sure. We took a short trip in a canal boat down a canal (traditional hats and all) and it felt just like Apocalypse Now (see Jim, I followed your orders).

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

Firing an AK47

At the Cu Chi tunnels they had a firing range and a choice of guns - Wohoo!!! $1.30 per bullet, so I went halves with this australian girl for 5 bullets. Amazing - I never expected it to be so loud! And the power off the thing is amazing, it jumps right back into your shoulder. Missed the target, but great craic. We chose the AK47, but we could have easily chosen others like the M1 or Carbine. This is one of these "must do's" :-).

From Vietnam Photos

The Cu Chi Tunnels

In Ben Dinh, not far from Saigon are the Cu Chi tunnels. The Viet Cong, during the American war dug themselves out of harms was from the American B52s - the result was a huge network or tunnels by the Saigon river. This was a great day out and very interesting. The whole place is set up quite well for tourists complete with a sample tunnel to go through, sample food that the tunnel inhabitants used to eat (tapiochas), a firing range and some other displays. Great fun well - worth the visit.

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

The Viet Cong even had backward sandals to confuse people running after them.

The Cao Dai Holy See

We visited the Cao Dai Cathedral in Tay Ninh. A very unusual religion, it's a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, Confusianism, Christianity and Islam. As well as choosing their prophets and saints from traditional religous sources many famous authors are also saints - Saint Victor Hugo, for example. The cathedral itself is really beautiful - all religions should decorate like this, just take a look at some of the pictures below ...

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

A reoccuring symbol in the religion is the "all seeing eye," a bit like the lord of the rings. Pretty errie looking ...

From Vietnam Photos

Saigon

Saigon is a lively city. We used this as a base for the week in Vietnam. As I mentioned earlier the traffic here is nuts. A lot of the 4 million motorbikes here are a Chinese made model that only cost $400 new and $200 second hand ... how bad?

Having read "The Quiet American" I was eager to catch some of the sights mentioned in the book. You'll find a lot of these in District one, the old French quarter. The Continental Hotel, Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi), Notre Dame Cathedral and the post office.

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

And here's the American Consulate. Remember, where they had to be airlifted from the roof at the end of the war ...

From Vietnam Photos

St. Patrick's Day in Saigon

Of course we had to do something for St. Patrick's day, no matter where we were. We found a little Irish bar in Saigon called "O'Briens Factory". The place was jam packed full of Irish people! Amazing! Felt like home the second we walked in the door. Irish music playing, shamrocks everywhere, looked just like a bar from home. They even sold Guinness!

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

From Vietnam Photos

The War Remnants Museum

This was an interesting place. Formerly called the "War Crimes Museum" the place has, understandably, a very anti american slant. There's a very fun display of tanks and guns in the courtyard.

From Vietnam Photos

Onward to Vietnam 17-3-2007

From Phnom Penh we made our way to Vietnam, crossing the border at Moc Bai. A fairly painless border crossing this time compared to entering Laos as we had bought our visas in advance back up in Chang Mai. We were headed for Saigon where we'd spend a week - to see the city itself and to use it as a base for tours beyond the city. Our plan then is to fly from Saigon back to Bangkok, saving us the horrible bus journey between Siem Reap and Thailand (or so we're told). The rumor is that some airline is paying the Cambodian government to not repair the road there, so that people keep buying flights to the city.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to start making our way north through Vietnam as we were beginning to run out of time. But how bad? You need something to come back for right?