28,000 Words from Vietnam

So, I figured it was about time for our first picture post from Vietnam.  We have seen tons so far, and we still have over a month left in the region.  Hopefully, the rest of our tour keeps getting better and better because it is getting harder and harder to impress me.  I’m just spoiled though :)

This is a shot of the walk down to the restaurant and beach from our bungalows on Phu Quoc Island.  We were lucky enough to score a great deal on a huge bungalow and ended up sharing our beach with a fantastic group of friends.  We had no problem spending a week lounging on the beach, eating yummy food and having some cheap Saigon Beers at Paradise City.

 

AH!  I can think of worse places to spend my birthday and our Anniversary.

 

A lovely sunset :)  My favourite!

 

I decided that I wanted to spend my birthday diving off the coast of Phu Quac, which was made possible by my parents.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday gift:)  Unfortunately, this was one of our dive sites.  Yes, those are rows upon rows of fishing nets.  I knew right then that we would be disappointed.  Not the greatest diving but at the end of the day a day of diving is better than a day not diving.

 

We stopped along the way to pick up some seafood for lunch on the boat.  UM- I can’t really think of a dive operator that serves sea food.  I found it a little strange to swim with fish and then serve them fried up with rice after but I guess every company is different.  The photo above is of a fishing net full of various sea creatures.  There were crabs, various species of angel fish and tons of small sharks.  I asked if they were going to throw any of it back but I guess everything they catch is sold at a local market for food or to be dried and made into powders for tablets.  Poor fish :(

 

OK, so I am bit of a hypocrite.  It turned out that they bought sea urchins from the fisherman.  I hate sea urchins, they seem to be everywhere and for some reason they are huge in Vietnam.  Evil poky things!  So I ate one and it was tasty:)  Ha- watch out sea urchins- you poke me and I will eat you!

 

Awe :)  This was my sweet little monkey friend.  I felt pretty bad that my guesthouse had a baby monkey but at least he had friends to play with- I guess.  Anyways, he was super adorable and so little.

 

He He.  Not only did they have a cute baby monkey but they also had a cute baby kitty- and they would play together.  So precious.  I did have to wonder though…. do they just trade in the big cat and monkey for smaller ones once they grow to be too big.  Tourists do like baby animals better than big animals.  Hopefully my theory is totally off base but something tells me that it’s not.

 

OK.  So this picture was taken in the city of Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta.  We were up at dawn to start our boat trip to the floating markets.  Hmmm, I was a little disappointed with the result but it is still a nice way to spend a hot day. 

This is one of the floating markets that we made the stop in Can Tho to see.  It wasn’t as colourful and bustling as the ones in Thailand.  Everything seemed to be brown.  Brown water, brown boats- no colour.  

I have been tempted to buy a Vietnamese hat because they are like an umbrella hat but more functional.  I haven’t caved yet, mostly because I think I will look like a idiot wearing one.

OK seriously.  I am so jealous of the fruit trees out here.  Banana trees, pomello trees and mango trees, just to name a few.  Yum!!  I want a banana tree…. and a mango tree and a pomello tree:)

This bridge was one of the best parts along our Mekong Tour.  Not sketchy at all :)

 

Thank goodness for Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).  It has been the city we have been waiting for all this time.  It is what we thought Bangkok would be like and we LOVED it.  If you take the time to chat to the street vendors they are very pleasant, they will often teach you a little Vietnamese and if they recognize you later they wont hassle you quite as much.  That being said, if I would have bought sunglasses from every street seller in Asia, I would have enough to open a knock off store back home.

There is nothing like an illustrated guide to the different animals you can consume in one sitting.  Tasty.

A beautiful street view of District 1 in Saigon.

So Dan and I braved yet another war museum, The War Remnants Museum and quite frankly I think they should have kept the original name, The Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes.   We only took pictures from the outside because I am sick of the way people treat other people and I don’t feel like documenting it anymore.  This was an American cargo chopper used during the Vietnamese war.  Freaky shit.

I don’t know anything about planes… sorry.  This I think was a small bomber plane?

This was the only picture I took in the museum.  It was an exhibit of children’s paintings from all over Vietnam.  Now that’s nice.

This palace was one of the sweetest we have seen so far- and we have seen our fair share of palaces over the past few years.  When the communist government took power in 1975, the palace was seized and to this day it remains much the same. 

Check out this swanky 70’s meeting room.  Rad right?

I love 70’s architecture.  Nice!

This is the swankiest games room I have ever seen.  Bitchin’ sofa.

Another shot of District 1 in Saigon.  So many eateries, bars and stores, we love it!

OK, back to the war mumbo jumbo.  This picture was taken at the Cu Chi tunnels just outside of Saigon. The Cu Chi residents had hundreds of kilometres of tunnels dug out, where they lived and fought off the American invasion. The Americans were never able to take this part of Vietnam, and the villagers that defended it are revered as heroes.

This, as well as the picture above, was a secret entrance to the tunnel system. The cover that Dan is holding literally covers the entire hole, and when covered in leaves and twigs, is virtually impossible to detect. Dan was able to get into the hole, but was too tall to fold his arms in once he got his body inside!

This was the largest section of the tunnel, it only got smaller and darker as we descended.

Getting smaller! It was basically pitch black…. There were a few lights at the beginning, but soon we were in total darkness. I couldn’t imagine crawling through these holding your rifle while bombs and mortars were exploding only a few metres above!