Adventures of Anette: Vietnam

Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Sightseeing in Vietnam: The Mekong Delta

Anette 11:05:00 AM

Our last day in Vietnam me and Adaora went on another day trip, this time to the Mekong Delta a little bit south of the capital Ho Chi Minh. The Delta Adventure Tours picked us up at our hotel at 7:45 in the morning, and our next adventure had began.

After a 3 hours long bus trip our first stop was My Tho, where we changed to a local motor boat and headed for the smaller islands.

The harbor of My Tho

Picture taken inside the river boat, just as the guide is talking about the places we were going to visit.

Our first stop was the so-called Unicorn Island where we got to try some locally produced honey wine. Here you can see our guide along with some of the bees that produces the honey here.

But they did not only have bees to show of at the small honey farm. They also sold some alcoholic beverages with other local specialities (?!) inside as well.

And they also had an available pet-snake that some of us were lucky enough to hold for a while. With that said, Adaora asked me to state in the blog that she kept a good distance from the snake.

They did not only have a big pet-snake, but they also had some dead ones they used to make yet another kind of funny drink for the tourists. Of course I could not resist the temptation to try out one shot of it, and to be honest it did not taste that much.

I did not think much more about it, I mean, snakes are kind of creepy but it is not really that bad. We even had snake-soup while in Taiwan.. It was not until our guide revealed that there was another animal inside the bottle - a dead crow - that I started to feel it in my stomach. On the upper left side of the bottle you can actually see the beak of the bird. YUK!

Besides other tourists and some locals, the only thing to see is the nature.

After a short boat trip to another island, our next thing to try out was a trip with a a local rowing boat.

On the small river going through the delta. Although this seems to be mainly based on tourists it is a fun experience with nice and quiet surroundings and locals passing by us in their boats probably on their way to pick up new tourists (and some of them keep on asking for money as they pass you.)

Back on open water again

Me and Adaora at one of the islands where they are making coconut-candy. Thanks to our new friends from the Philippines who took the photo:)!

Not to mention that we had another short delta trip, this time by a bigger motor boat.
Then it was time for lunch. The lunch was so-so, but they had a menu there too so for those who wants more food it was possible to order more.
After lunch there was only a few things to do left on the program, and none of them was too impressive to be honest. First we got the opportunity to take a bicycle trip around the island we had lunch. But the bicycles were in such a bad condition that some of them was nearly impossible to use. Most of them did not have brakes and so on.. :p
After that the last thing on the program was to hear some locals sing and play on some interesting Vietnamese instruments. It was alright, though the best thing about it was that we got served fruit while listening! Haha:)

In older days people used to be afraid of crocodiles in the river, and for this reason they painted eyes on the front of their boats to scare the crocodiles and thereby avoid being attacked by them.

The trip was really fun at start, but both me and Adaora felt that it kind of dabbed off after the lunch. The price of the tour was 210.000 Vietnamese Dongs pr. person, so at least it was cheap and we did have some interesting experiences too, so I still would not hesitate to recommend this trip to others.

All posts about Vietnam

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Vietnam

Sightseeing in Vietnam: The Củ Chi Tunnels

Anette 8:29:00 PM

On our third day in Vietnam me and Adoara went to see the so-called Củ Chi tunnels, situated a little bit outside of Ho Chi Minh city. These tunnels were used by the local Vietnameese guerrillas under the Vietnam War; not only did they use these tunnels to escape attacks by the Americans, but they also served other purposes such as living quarters etc. Normally the tunnels were being used mostly by daytime, but at times the guerrillas were forced to stay in the tunnels for days in row..

In the Củ Chi area there are a lot of holes in the ground which leads you down to the tunnel system. Obviously a lot of them has been closed down or destroyed by heavy rainfalls, bombings during the war and so on, but some of them remains more or less intact (or modified to be more fitted for tourist..) so that you still have the chance to go down there for yourself and see what it looks like.

One of the entrances to the tunnel.

Our guide talking about the tunnel system..

.. and by moving away some of the leaves on the ground he revealed to us on of the openings to the tunnels. This one, however, is not a regular entrance but was instead only being used as a point of reference: the guerrillas stuck their head up to orient themselves or to check that the surroundings were safe.

Besides the tunnels Củ Chi also has a lot of booby traps to show off. Here you have the classical one where you take a step onto what seems to be normal land, but in reality it is a pit of death..

In fact there are so many different traps to display that they have made a tiny "self made weapon gallery" where you can check out a whole loads of different types of booby traps..

And trust me; you do not want to run into one of these while you're out walking in the park or something..

The picture in the background shows how the American soldiers ended their lives (or got damaged for life) in various booby traps..

Our guide seemed to have a good time demonstrating traps and declairing: Tis is haw we kill Americans!". Adaora on the other hand did not look all that happy... :p

The Củ Chi tunnels has different levels, and the upper levels was used as living quarters not only for the warriors but also for women and children.

If you take a trip to the tunnels you also have the chance to do some shooting at the place the tourist groups stop for lunch (not included in the price of the trip).

And after lunch it is time for the real thing (for those who dares); a trip down to the tunnel itself.

And I can guarantee that the number of people who waited outside was larger than the number of people who went through all of the tunnel area. At first I thought it would be a rather claustrophobic experience, but it was not as worse as I would have thought. There are lights most of the way (the last part did however not have any light at all and I had to crawl on my knees too), and every 10 meters or so there are new stairs going up to the surface and I somehow felt a little bit secured by that.

Anyway, it was a really fun experience! (I mean, I was so proud of myself that I made it through whole of the tunnel xD!!)

Picture taken inside the tunnels. A little bit further inside the tunnel you can see another tourist as well..

Me and Adaora at the exit of the tunnel.

Some remaining bombshells from the American attacks

All posts about Vietnam

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Vietnam

Exploring Asia: Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

Anette 12:56:00 AM

We left Thailand by plane going straight to Vietnam's capital Ho Chi Minh (formerly known by the name Saigon) on the 18th of March. The weather was nice and the city looked appealing, but even though we arrived early in the afternoon I had caught a fever, and did not feel like doing much that day. But after some rest and a good nights sleep we were ready to check out the city!

One of the first sights that met us in the capital, was one of the many Vietnamese people wearing their traditional hat and carrying their baskets with mostly food or beverages.

There are some nice small parks in the city, and we found it quite refreshing to take a short walk through one of them.

On our way to the palace we also encountered a guy selling coconuts, and we got to try holding the thing he used to carry them around. A bit heavy if I must say so, at least considered the fact that he is walking around with that thing all day..

Anyway, the fresh coconuts were really good and cheap too..!

Walking from our hotel to the Reunification Palace did not take too long. Everything worth seeing in the city was in walking distance, cause the city is not that big.

A picture from inside the palace.

This one shows me on the roof of the palace, with some helicopters in the background.

And this.. thing.. in the background is actually a car! Haha.. Fancy. As you can see there are also loads of motorbikes here..

The War Museum

On our exploration of the city we also decided to stop by the Vietnamese War Museum. And the first thing that met us was the sight of some huge American aircrafts..

Me and Adaora (and a bunch of other tourists) in front of the War Museum

Some of the guns being displayed inside of the museum.

The museum had a huge selection of photos which had been taken under and after the war.

The photos really made a lasting impression; it was horrible to see what damages the war had cost not only to the landscape and the soldiers, but also not to mention the damages done to the civilians. The picture being displayed here is almost harmonic and peaceful compared to many of the other pictures we could see here, and the stories being told really strikes you in the hart (unless it is made of stone or something..)

Because the Americans used strong chemicals when they bombed Vietnam there are still children today that are being born with defects and misshaped bodies. At the War Museum you can support some of the victims of the so-called Agent Orange by donations or by buying souvenirs made by some of the victims.