It's Hot in Vietnam

A few notes about my latest trip to Vietnam 6-9 Mar 09.

The whole trip can be described as "exciting" - meeting Vietnam, their way of life, rich culture, and our own personal misadventures...

Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City
Also known as Saigon, first stop is dining in Allez Boo. I like the local stir fried noodles with seafood. But do stay away with local iced tea. One of us asked what is the quickest meal to prepare, the waiter replied "Bread and Butter" in straight face. Taray ng lola mu!

Settling for the first travel agency in sight, booked for a special day tour trip in Cu Ching Tunnels and Mekong Delta River Cruise.

On board are Leah, Chris, Nell, silent driver, myself and our charming tourist guide Viet...

Cu Ching is 200KM long built during their war with the Americans. What's amazing is that it's a 3 level tunnel in 10m depth. They go inside these tunnels when they are being bombed. Only the first level served as bankers and the other levels are just passage ways. These tunnels are designed only for petite asians to crawl. We got the chance to try one of the tunnels designed for tourists (widened). At first, it was really exciting but once your inside you cannot wait to see the end. It smells earth, feels like your inside a closed compartment, and it's difficult to breathe bec of less oxygine. I was the last so it feels really creepy. Im holding on to the shirt of the person infront of me; afraid to make a wrong turn and be left behind. I am thankful than ever that I am not yet alive during any war.

How about a delta river cruise at night time? The setting is far from Paris. The usual dark rivers whose main purpose is for commercial. Anyways, we visited 2 islets. In the Unicorn island, we had our lunch at around 6pm. We had local spring rolls, soup, prawns, fried rice and desert. It was good. Had the chance to see how are the local rice paper are being made. On the next island, called Dragon I think, we had a fruit platter and a serenade of local songs.

Highlights: Chris got to see silhouttes of 3 naked ladies.

Day 2 - Mui Ne, Phan Tiet
After a pain staking 5hour bus ride trip, Pandamus resort has welcomed us we all its grandeur, and grandpas and grandmas. The guests are all oldies except us of course. I think it's the most expensive resort in the area. The pool was nice but beach is not so spectacular. To enjoy the night, we went out for a livelier crowd. We had a good dinner and a really nice massage with real aloe vera. Witnessed a few drama on the road...

Highlight: Boob flash

Day 3 - Back to Saigon
Visited Sand Dunes just walking distance from the resort. Got to try slide in scorching hot desert. On way back to the city, beat the travel time to 7hours bus. ride.

Hightlight: A different sauna experience

Notes from Viet:
Xin chao - hello
Cam on - thank you
Pagoda/Temple - given to people who introduce new religion/spiritual organization
Nguyen - common surname; the whole country adopted the last name of their king in history of Vietnam to be able to easily distinguished them selves with other races and therefore unite themselves
Hi-way coffee shops - built as resting place for traveling motorbicyclists; instead of chairs and tables, they have hammocks. Adopted from farmers who must have his own hammock in his field.

Facts:
food - generally good food; recommends Highlands Coffee
motor bike - main mode of transpo; hundreds of them in streets
past time - watching traffic
no Starbucks - but saw Gloria Jeans and Coffee Bean
Jollibee - at home ka dito