The River

Saturday night we went on a dinner cruise on the Saigon River. They have them in Bangkok too but we have never taken one in all the times we have been there. We took a cab to the appointed pier for the cruise on a Junk that left at 7:30 P.M. We had a welcome drink that I think was pepto bismal but I am just going by the taste. Some kind of fruit and cream thing I guess. Everything went up hill from there. As we cruised up the river, or down; I have no idea, but we had a nice buffet with lots of seafood and Asian dishes. The entertainment was really quite good. The girls, dressed in colorful, native costumes sang songs and did dances from their history. Later, one of the singers and the keyboard player entertained us until we returned to the dock and back to our hotel.

The next morning we were picked up in the morning for a trip to the Mekong Delta. We went by minibus with only two other people. We spent an hour or so meandering through the waterways and one of the main tributaries of the Mekong. We stopped at the floating market and that was a real surprise. It was as different from the one in Bangkok as night and day. The one in Bangkok is aimed at the tourist and they sell all sorts of touristy things. This floating market was aimed at the local people and produce was the main thing that was sold. The people on the boats bring their produce to the river and stay on their boats for a week or so until it’s all sold. I should explain that the Mekong Delta spreads over 400,000 square kilometers and thousands of islands are located here. The locals living in the delta travel by boat to school, to shop or to work, if their job is located on a different island.

We also stopped at one place and saw how they made rice and banana crackers. They were flat like a thin tortilla. We bought some made from bananas. Surprisingly, there was no high pressure, sales pitch. We also saw a man making puffed rice in a huge wok and others making cookie type things much like a rice crispy treat but with a slight taste of ginger. We also saw others making coconut candies that are cut by hand, and since they are sticky, they are wrapped in rice paper (that you eat with the candy) and then wrapped with waxed paper, overall. We were supposed to see how they make rice paper but they weren’t making any that day. Later on the boat tour we saw how bricks are made. A kiln is fired with the hulls that come off the rice. After the rice hulls are burned the ash is used as fertilizer in their gardens. They don’t waste anything. We noticed that all the work at the brick yard as at most other projects is done manually with little or no power equipment. The people are poor and lead a very simple life. They don’t make much money but they have most of their needs met by nature. The vegetation is very lush and many varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown. The river provides fish and people have their own chickens and ducks. The guide told us, that unfortunately the most children raised along the Delta do not go to school. Some young people from the cities come to the delta on their school break in the summer and volunteer to teach the kids to read and write.

Many people left the delta and came to Saigon during the war because most of the fighting was done in the jungles and in the rural areas including the delta. From the 50’s until 1975 it just wasn’t safe along the river. First, came the war with the French and then the Americans who didn’t leave until the mid 1970’s. There are 85 million people in Vietnam and 8 ½ million of them live in Ho Chi Minh City, formally knows as Saigon.

We had a nice lunch and then returned to town in horrible traffic. I guess a lot of the people who come to HCMC to work go home on Sunday to visit their families in the delta. As we were coming back into the city thousands of people on motor scooters were also returning home, making the highway look like the start of the N.Y Marathon-scooters instead of runners. The whole family, mother, father and one or two kids would all be on one scooter. There were even a few mothers with infants in their arms. It was scary. Surprisingly we have only seen one accident since arriving.

holey moley

I am not sure if my literary skills are up to describing our arrival in Ho Chi Minh. We arrived from Bangkok sometime after 3 PM Friday afternoon. By the time we took care of the all the official requirements it was about 4:00 or so. We went outside and negotiated for a cab and off we went. Off we went for the ride of our lives. There were at least a zillion motor scooters on the road. No exaggeration, there were hundreds at every intersection and thousands in each city block. It is impossible to describe the scene. Some with one person and some with two and some with 2 adults and one or two kids all driving like there was no tomorrow. Many mothers had infants that were one year or less standing in front of them and another behind them. There were cars and cabs and buses all honking and cutting in and out and driving in any lane no matter which side had been designated for them originally. It was amazing to see little toddlers calmly eating a snack while sitting in front of their parent who was cutting in and out of traffic. I almost forgot that mixed into all this, were bicycles and pedi-cabs too. Pedi-cabs are bicycles with a seat in front of the handle bars where the basket would normally be located. At least they drive on the right side of the road. We finally arrived at our hotel without killing someone or being killed. We are hoping that this was Friday night rush hour traffic and tomorrow it may be possible for us to cross the street. This makes Bangkok seem calm and Cairo seem quiet.

The immigration process was unique too. We set up our visa on line before we left home and had a paper printed out that we brought with us. We were also to bring two small passport type photos. When we arrived we went to the appropriate window where they gave us a full sized sheet of paper to fill out. After we filled it our and paid our fee they stapled one picture to the form and gave it to us. Passport control didn’t want it, so we took it with us. We didn’t need the other photo. The hotel wanted our passports which they keep until we check out. They didn’t want the paper either. Maybe if we are stopped for something or get killed in traffic it would identify us. Who knows?

Now we just need to figure out what we are going to do with our time left. We lost so much time getting here that we will have to curtail some of our more lofty plans. We will go to a travel agent in the morning and try to set up a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels made up of over 200 miles of tunnels and chambers below the city, that were hand dug and used in the French War in 1940’s and the American War in the 1960-1970’s. (Or as we called it, the Vietnam War.) We also want to take a boat ride on Mekong Delta.

Day 1 or 2 or 3 or whatever day this is

We were lucky enough to get on to Business Class for our flight from San Francisco to Narita. We had a four hour wait in Tokyo before the flight to Bangkok. We were one of the first standbys called. We didn’t get business but did get “economy plus” which is slightly more roomy than the regular economy seats. When we were seated we were talking with each other how Carla’s seniority really helped us. The man next to me said what seniority are you flying on and we said 1987. He said I’m 1956. Wow! He retired in 1990 after working as the head mechanic in San Francisco. He had then moved back to the east coast to retire. If 1956 seniority couldn’t get Business Class we didn’t feel too bad. The flight is nearly six hours long and so tiring. We would doze and then wake up because your neck or leg or back were killing you.

We obviously didn’t have any hotel reservations so we stopped by the hotel desk at the BKK airport to see about finding a room. It was 11 PM by then and we didn’t want to be walking the streets dragging our suitcases behind us. The attendant called the Nana Hotel, (Carla and Jayna will remember that hotel), and they were totally booked. She did find us a room that cost more than the Nana but was not unreasonable, so we booked it. The Ambassador is actually a nice hotel. By the time we got checked in it was after midnight but our bodies didn’t believe it. We had our second wind so we hiked down to the Dynasty and had rice soup. Yum!!!! We had a wild and crazy Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel. It was 2 PM by the time we got to bed. We woke up at 6AM because our internal clocks are still on US west coast time. We will have to work today to stay awake until tonight, having had no more that a short nap to get ourselves in this time zone.

We leave tomorrow afternoon for Vietnam. So we are looking forward to a new adventure.

Best laid plans

We didn’t make our flight yesterday to Hong Kong as the plane was completely full. We had planned to spend a night and day in Hong Kong and then go on to Vietnam. When we checked on today’s flights we found that our chances weren’t much better of getting on than yesterday. So after some research we decided to fly to Bangkok via Narita and then buy a ticket to Ho Chi Minh. The first flight to Narita leaves about half and hour before the flight to Hong Kong and there is another flight to Narita. So by hook or crook we should get somewhere today. Hopefully!

We had a nice dinner with Katie and Fernando in San Francisco Sunday night at an Indian restaurant. I did one of my graceful “fall down in the street” maneuvers and hurt my toes, knees, elbow and hand. I am totally disgusted with myself .

Yesterday morning Everett’s sister Shirley took us to the airport and then had to come back and pick us up a few hours later. Then she had to take us back again this morning. We will spent the night with then last night.

It was disappointing not getting on but we didn’t really lose a day as we started out a day earlier than we had originally planned. We have a pretty good chance of getting to Japan but we may get stuck there tonight. I checked into buying a ticket from there to Vietnam but it was way more that we are willing to spend.

Ahh… the adventure of travel. We will keep you informed.
UPDATE: We are in Japan and hope to go on to Bangkok tonight. If it looks too bad we may try Singapore

Getting ready for Vietnam

Since we never had a blog before this is an experiment to find out how it works. We will be leaving in a couple of weeks for Vietnam and I guess it would be easier to keep a travel journal this way that just sending emails. We shall see.

The visa process has been greatly improved to get into Vietnam. No need to send in your passport and hope to get it back in time or at all. We just went on line and sent in a request with a small fee. In a few days we received a letter via email that we will use to get our visa when we arrive in Ho Chi Minh City.