Spent a crazy three weeks in Vietnam; met many relatives I never knew I had and had a great time seeing the sites and experiencing the Vietnamese way of life. Here I've outlined the things some stuff I did.
Ho Chi Minh
Sat 20/01:
Left Melbourne in the morning, arrived in Ho Chi Minh City about 8 hours later. Average temp in Ho Chi Minh is about 35C and it's generally sunny and humid. Time is Vietnam is 4hrs behind Melbourne. Stayed at my cousin Sing-go's house in Cholon (district 5-6 of Ho Chi Minh).
Sun 21/01:
Went to my uncle's house (mum's brother) and Cholon (literally "Big Market") and met my mum's side of the family for the first time.
Mon 22/01:
Wedding of my cousin (son of my mum's brother). Went over to the bride's house in the morning to bring her back to the groom's house, then a banquet dinner that night.
Tues 23/01:
My cousin's new wife, Ting-Sou, took me out to Saigon (district 1 of Ho Chi Minh) for ice-cream. The buildings are magnificent and very posh; very much catering for the wealthy tourist.
5-Day Tour of Hoi An, Danang & Hue (Central Vietnam)
Wed 24/01:
Caught a plane from Ho Chi Minh to Danang, which took about 2hrs. Average temp here was about 20C and there were showers most of the time (which we were definitely not prepared for). Had lunch in Danang, then coached to Hoi An. Checked into Pho Hoi Riverside Resort.
Was taken to a silk factory with lanterns and silk-embroidered pictures. Walked through Hoi An Old Town - saw an ancestral home of eight generations (before it was taken by the government), the Japanese Covered Bridge and a Fujian Temple dedicated to Thien Hau, a deity said to save ppl from floods. Tried to do a little shopping but bargaining was hard (it was a bit of a tourist trap) and the salespeople were much more polite to non-Asians.
Thurs 25/01:
Checked out of Pho Hoi Riverside Resort and coached to My Son to see relics and monuments of the ancient kingdom of Champa.
Then we went to see marble carvings, Buddhist temples and pagodas at Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountains). Checked into Saigon Tourane Hotel in Danang.
Fri 26/01:
Checked out of Saigon Tourane Hotel and went to Hue to see the Tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh.
Then we visited the Citadel (the Emperor's Palace).
Afterwards we went to see Thien Mu Pagoda, home of the monk Thich Quang Duc who self-immolated to protest against the government's stand on religious freedom (remember the cover of that Rage Against the Machine album?). Went on a cruise of the Song Huong (Perfume River) that night with traditional Vietnamese music. Checked into Hue Queen Hotel.
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Sat 27/01:
Left early for a 5hr drive. Stopped off at a convent and then went to Phong Nha Cave. Had to take a boat down a river to get to the site, and then take a paddle boat to go through into the caves. The structures were really big and impressive but unfortunately I ran out of memory on my camera. Got a photographer to take "professional" photos, but unhappily they turned out really fuzzy so you can't really see anything :( Trip back to the hotel took forever and our tour guide gave everyone little sweet potatoes and taros so we wouldn't starve before we got to the restaurant.
Sun 28/01:
Checked out of Hue Queen Hotel and went to see the Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. Then headed back to Danang Airport to catch the plane back to Ho Chi Minh.
Ho Chi Minh
Mon 29/01:
Went to a shop to develop some photos I'd taken and took some "glamour" shots there in traditional costumes cos it was cheap (haha!). They're a little scary, but I blame the make-up artist for drawing me really big black eyebrows. Sing-go's wife got five of them blown up for us. Eww. Ewwww.
5-Day Tour of Nha Trang & Dalat
Tues 30/01:
Woke very early to catch a coach to Nha Trang (a beach area), but it ran late and our tour guide was generally pretty incompetent. Coach ride took around 10 hours. Stopped at Ca Na for some photos, and checked into Thien Tan Hotel in Nha Trang.
Wed 31/01:
Dad caught a bad cold in Hue, so he decided to stay in the hotel for the day and Mum & I went on the day's tour and looked out for each other (absolutely necessary - this guide was so bad, he didn't know if he'd left someone behind until another passenger had noticed). Sat on the bus for 2hrs and was suddenly told to board a boat and put on a life-jacket. I took my bathers with me just in case, but lots of ppl left theirs on the bus, and it wasn't until we were out at sea that we were told that we were going to go snorkelling
We were expecting to be taken somewhere to be geared up and perhaps for some of the unfortunate to purchase some swimwear, but as we were coming towards shore, the boat suddenly stopped and we were told to jump in and snorkel! At this moment I thought this guide was the greatest dipshit in the world. We were all fully clothed with nowhere to change and with a life-jacket as our only equipment. It was only a few minutes later that our guide thought to find some goggles. Amazingly six people did jump in, but they couldn't dive because of the life-jacket and the water was so shallow that at one point they were standing in knee-deep water. It was completely stupid - I really wanted to kill our guide because I had been looking forward to snorkelling.
Luckily the rest of the day improved. We were taken to beautiful Xuan Dung Beach, with warm, clear and shallow water (perfect for me) and you could buy fresh seafood to grill. Was blurry brilliant and probably the highlight of my trip. Later, went to Po Nagar Cham Towers in town and that night, we went to Thap Ba Hot Spring Centre. There, we had a bath in hot mineral mud, which, according to the brochure, "can help cure chronic rheumatism, gynecologic inflammation (HOW?!), bone tuberculosis...", but we just kinda felt dirty, especially as the mud began to cool. Bathing in 40C mineral water afterwards though was the best - there's a bit where you can stand and are sprayed with jets of water and then you go sit in a spa until the stars. Bliss! The water did end up being uncomfortably hot though - we were sweating in there and when we got out of the water, we still felt hot for hours.
Thurs 01/02:
Dad felt better and came out with us. Went to Hon Tam (Silkworm Island) shaped like a silkworm for water sports - I went scuba-diving and had a go on a jet-ski. Scuba-diving was pretty grouse - I was afraid at first because I couldn't get the hang of breathing underwater, but it was fine once I stopped panicking and we (the three ppl who decided to dive) had a guide each to look after us and change our weights, etc. Water wasn't very clear, but you could see coral and fish when you go up close. Touched some soft coral and it was weird, like having squishy nozzles sucking very gently on you. Have decided I don't like jet-skis though. They're too noisy and the person I went with drove so fast that we were continually being bounced up and down by the waves and couldn't see anything through all the spray. Afterwards, went to the Oceanographic Institute and saw lots of fish and a preserved dugong (of all things).
Then a long and bumpy 3hr drive to Dalat - my parents and I sat in the backseat with the guide I love so much and I really felt unwell on that trip. Was worth it though - Dalat is all mountains and the views are just sensational. Lots of vegies are grown there because the climate is agreeable and the soil is good. It was freezing that night though - my parents and I took a taxi from Red Sun Hotel, where we were staying, to Cho Dalat (Dalat Market) and everyone was wearing winter coats, scarves and beanies.
Fri 02/02:
Went to Domaine de Marie Convent, where the nuns and the children they take in knit products to be sold. My parents and I all bought jackets and jumpers there. Dalat became hot as the day warmed up, rather like Melbourne.
We went to Thung Lung Tinh Yeu (Valley of Love), a park I've forgotten the name of, Dalat Su Quan, which was a place with really beautiful silk embroidery (much superior to that of the place we saw in Danang), took a chairlift to Thien Vien Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest Zen Monastery) and went to the Summer Palace of Emperor Bao Dai, where I had photos taken as a Vietnamese Princess :) Afterwards we were granted some time to go to Cho Dalat, so my parents and I took the opportunity to see my dad's old family restaurant (since demolished) and some of my grandma's (dad's mum's) old properties (now with other families or taken by the government).
Sat 03/02:
Checked out of Red Sun Hotel and began the long and exhausting coach ride back to Ho Chi Minh. Stopped off at Prenn Falls, Tam Chau, a tea & coffee house. That night in Ho Chi Minh, Sing-go's wife talked us into taking family glamour shots, which turned out even scarier than my individual ones (in my opinion).
Ho Chi Minh
Sun 04/02:
My uncle (mum's brother) hired a van and we drove out to Bien Hoa to visit my grandpa's grave.
Mon 05/02:
Took a taxi out to Saigon to see the Reunification Palace, then had lunch at Ben Thanh Market.
When we got back to Sing-go's house, his wife's nephew Fong took me out for a drink at a nightclub-like place (really weird having blaring music in the middle of the day, especially after weeks of eating at stalls in Vietnam) and then took me to visit the factories belonging to Sing-go and his wife.
These were basically houses of many storeys with girls sitting at sewing machines and stacks of material everywhere. There's always a fan on and it's not too cramped, so it's not exactly bad working conditions, but it's certainly tough – these girls work 7am-9pm, seven days a week, with only a few weeks holiday around Tet (Lunar New Year). Their wage is taken as a lump sum by their families at the start of each working year, so during that year they must work hard. It's a depressing picture, but for the girls, it's an opportunity to feed their families and themselves.
That night, my uncle hired a van with a driver, and my uncle, my parents, my mum's aunt (her dad's cousin) and I drove to Soc Trang (towards the Mekong Delta and what is referred as the "countryside"), a 5hr trip which includes crossing a river by ferry. We stayed at an uncle's (grandpa's brother's son) new house.
Soc Trang, Bo Thao & Can Tho
Tues 06/02:
Got woken up before 7am for breakfast at the market (everyone living in the country wakes around 4am!) and visited some relatives.
Then we (including some Soc Trang rellies eager for the trip) drove to Bo Thao to see my grandpa's ancestral home (his sister now lives there). Had lunch, missed seeing a cockfight and played some pool with a 4yo cousin (son of the uncle we were staying with). Drove back to Soc Trang for dinner at my uncle's and more rellies came over.
Wed 07/02:
Had brekkie at the market again, sat about talking to rellies, then we started the drive back to Ho Chi Minh. Stopped off at Ben Ninh Kieu (a river) in Can Tho and had lunch.
Ho Chi Minh
Thurs 08/02:
Met up with a family friend from Melbourne for lunch. Ate at a market, then wandered the streets looking at shops. We were almost at the foot massage parlour of my mum's friend's brother when disaster struck. We were crossing a wide and busy street and were almost at the other side when suddenly a motorbike with two men seemed to almost crash into my mum and her friend. They reeled back in fear and then one of the men grabbed mum's friend's little bag and they sped off before anyone had time to react. We had thought the bag only contained some money, but it turned out that mum's friend kept everything in there, including her passport and plane tickets. Major, insane disaster and though she's been to the embassy and has been filling out forms, we're not sure if mum's friend will be able to get back to Melbourne as soon as she'd like.
We had gone into the foot massage parlour to contact her relatives and get help and since we were there, mum's friend talked us into getting massages. I really didn't want one and was certainly not in the mood considering the circumstances but she kept insisting, so we gave in. I think she didn't want us to worry, but I felt really uncomfortable getting massaged when she'd just been robbed.
The massage itself was weird. Started with putting your feet in painfully hot water and although it was a "foot" massage, it ended up being full body. All my fingers and toes were pulled so they cracked and at one stage, the girl used this wooden implement to press into pressure points on the sole of my foot. When the massage finished, I didn't feel particular refreshed – I couldn't relax thinking of mum's friend's situation and I didn't sleep well that night at all. Felt like I had no energy left and I'm still wondering if it was the massage that had left me feeling like I had no bones in me.
Fri 09/02:
Packed our luggage and went over to my uncle's house to attend the "full month" celebratory lunch of a relative's grandson (celebrating his being one month old). That night, uncle hired a van and the whole family went out to the airport with us to bid us farewell. Was sad to be leaving them and to be leaving Vietnam, but I really am glad to be back in Melbourne. There really is no place like home.