Mui Ne
The
next morning after the canyoning we headed off to Mui Ne, another beach town,
though much dustier and quieter than Nha Trang but also with a heavy Russian
presence. The “town” was really just one strip along the beachfront, a beach
which for some reason had been built up with a concrete barrier type thing. Not
especially inviting actually in terms of hanging out beachside. Still, we found
lots of amazingly delicious and cheap seafood and Patrick added a turtle to his
exotic animal victim list. He apparently went back to watch the preparation and
filmed the resulting unnecessarily cruel inhumanity of the poor thing’s death.
Even he felt bad about it. The less said the better probably, as the video
would undoubtedly spark PETA protests and massive Facebook de-friendings if it
ever saw the light of day.
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| Before |
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| After |
Grabbed
motorbikes during the day and had a nice little drive around, walked up a
stream to a fairly average waterfall and encountered the indescribably potent
stench of a fish sauce production area. The smell seems to have actual physical
weight and presence it’s so overpowering. Not sure the exact ingredients but
it’s basically a bunch of big clay/earthenware jars filled with gross and fishy
things and left to sit in the sun for a few months. Throughout my travels I’ve
encountered some serious scents, but this one was uniquely disgusting. Would
not want to be the neighbors of that place. Oh yeah, and along the way we rode
an ostrich around in a circle for a couple seconds. Definitely good to check
that off of the ol’ bucket list… Capped off the day at some nearby sand dunes
which were pretty and hosted a decent sunset and full-moon rise. Decided we’d
pretty much exhausted the Mui Ne scene and went onwards to Ho Chi Minh City nee
Saigon.
Saigon
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| Saigon Telecom |
Saigon
definitely had a more Western oriented vibe than Hanoi, not to mention a
distinct lack of police in trucks riding around and screaming at everyone to go
home at midnight. Checked out the nightlife a couple nights and had a lot of
fun but didn’t really seem anything too special. There’s a street that’s just
lined with places selling cheap beers that gets fully packed with Westerners 5
rows deep on each side drinking and having a good time. Some fire-breathing
acts ply their trade their as well, including kids who seem far, far too young
to be walking around at midnight blowing kerosene out at torches not to mention
the gross, ‘swallow a live snake and then pull it out’ act. Was walking home
with a couple of beautiful Danish girls (who I’d actually previously met in Hoi
An) at 4am and two guys on a motorbike had crept up behind us, then gunned it
past and made a snatch for one of the girls handbags, trying to rip it out of
her grasp. Luckily she hung on as he was off target and only managed to
completely rip her dress. Dude looks back like, “oh well, next time.” What an
asshole and sure enough we see him do the same thing 30 yards up the road and
snatch a purse off some girl and ride off. A different late night going home I
got a version that seemed tailored to us generally purse-less men: A prostitute
accosted me, tried to back me into a corner while soliciting me and molesting
me with one hand while the other tried to go through my pockets. Joke was on
her though as I’d rather perfectly budgeted for that night and had like 50
cents in my pockets. Saigon for you I guess. One night, for some reason, we
decided to go to some local little circus act which was so bad and cheesy it
did actually verge on funny and entertaining at least for brief moments. Dogs
wearing clothes jumping through hoops of fire; what’s not to like?
Got in
our cultural day by going to the popular War Remnants Museum, formerly known as
the Museum of American War Crimes. Was pretty heavy stuff actually and some of
it was hard to take really, especially the Agent Orange related deformities.
Dioxin is nasty stuff to be dropping in large quantities where people live.
Felt almost unaccountably guilty and bad when an older gentleman selling books
on the premises came up to me with his missing limbs and other evidences of
some serious injuries in the past, offered his stump to shake and friendlily
inquired as to my country of origin. Yikes. Glad I went though, and a lot of it
was really interesting and even moving. Definitely not cheerful or uplifting
really though.
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| Captured US military hardware on display |
So,
after a few rather late nights and a touch of culture we decided we’d seen
enough of Saigon and booked a ticket for a 2 day tour down the Mekong Delta
after which we’d make our way to the island of Phu Quoc off the Southern tip of
Vietnam.
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| What the hell...circus dogs |
Mekong Delta and Phu
Quoc
It was
interesting seeing the mighty Mekong and all the industry and fishing and boats
that seemed to make their living off the delta area but frankly the first day
of the tour was a fairly touristy affair which involved being shuffled
cattle-like to some random places where you, coincidentally I’m sure, could
also purchase things. We had heard it was like that though and so were
expecting it and consequently not really disappointed. It’s still interesting
really; I hadn’t previously known the local processes for making coconut candy
or rice noodles and enjoyed seeing it. There was also an apiary that produced
honey and royal jelly thrown in the mix and got to hold a giant python at least.
We got a new guide at the end of the first day who
was to take us to our homestay with a local family in some nearby village. It
definitely was out in the boonies but they’d built a little shack with some
beds for their foreign guests and it wasn’t too roughing it really. Apparently
drinking rice wine after coming in from the fields is rather a traditional
farmer pastime and our host was already quite drunk when we got there at 7 or
so. The kids were really sweet and adorable and seemed thrilled to have us
around to talk to and show them random party tricks and other little games.
They also fed us a huge amount of really tasty food. Being the polite person
that I am I also ended up drinking quite a few shots of rice wine despite our
early start the next day. Jackie, our guide who stayed there with us had fought
for the ARVN (South Vietnamese) during the war and as he got progressively
drunker really started to go on about the war and his thoughts on it.
Interesting really. He’d been recruited by the US Navy and they took him back
to the States for a year to give him a crash course in English and then back to
‘Nam to tag along with special forces patrols in the region as guide and
translator. Then after the war he’d had to spend a few years in ‘re-education
camps,’ which from my general impression didn’t take to well. He definitely had
an interesting perspective, feeling that the North Vietnamese were the
instigators in the conflict and that the South was just defending itself and
that the Americans and Australians were, if not exactly good guys, certainly
didn’t come over there with the intention of wholesale slaughter and mayhem.
This was of coursed mixed with his memories of the bombings and all the
innocents who fell victim to them. He also commented on the weirdness going so
abruptly post-war from shooting and being shot at by his Northern neighbors to
them all being expected to be best of friends in the new reunified Vietnam. Got
a bit somber listening to him, especially as he got increasingly hammered but
was a really interesting perspective. Must be tough to have, by accident of
geography really, ended up fighting on the losing side which is now vilified as
a puppet regime of the homicidal American government.
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| Our awesome ex-ARVN guide after a few rice whiskey shots |
So the final Mekong tour day was pretty laid back,
saw some floating markets (which was really kind of just a bit of boat to boat
commerce by the time we got there) as well as a local, non-tourist market that
was pretty wild and full of freaky stuff. Took a gander at some Chinese temple
too where Jackie explained to us the pitfalls of ever involving yourself with a
woman who was born in the year of the tiger. Good practical relationship advice
to be sure and nothing at all to do with his ex-wife, obviously. Then finally made our way onwards to the quiet and peaceful island
of Phu Quoc.
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| Burning the incense was supposed to bring me good fortune up until the time it burned out. So of course there were these giant elaborate coils locals had paid for that burned for extended periods of time. Tricky |
John
had left us in Saigon, as his visa was expiring so Patrick and I found a nice
little bungalow to split just a few short steps away from a nice beach. Did the
usual motorbike rental and had a nice cruise around the island, including some
seriously bumpy dirt roads. Riding the bikes is great and gives you a sense of
freedom and being able to go wherever but it’s quite exhausting on bad roads.
Takes some serious concentration and you get jostled around a lot. Still, a fun
drive and saw some pretty scenery and stopped at a nice beach. The day after we
went on a cruise around some even smaller unpopulated islands which was a great
day lounging on the top deck of a boat, getting tan and having the occasional
swim and snorkel. One interesting thing
we did get to see was the local method for removing coconuts from palm trees to
protect the tourists from an embarrassing death. A local guy climbs the tree with a rope
around his waist and then uses the rope to safely lower the coconuts to the
ground. Pretty crazy and dangerous looking and I doubt the pay or insurance
coverage is all that great. A local told
us the Thais are smarter: they train monkeys to do the same job. Still, the guy doing it was pretty buffed out
and looked justifiably proud when he got to the bottom; shirtless and breathing
hard as everyone looked on in some awe. Bet he gets all the hot island girls. Quite
a pleasant little stopover all in all and again we got some pretty good seafood
there but decided it was a bit too quiet at night not to mention romantic
couple oriented and so arranged our way onwards again to a brand new country
this time. Cambodia and Sihanoukvile, here we come!
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| Almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning in this drive-through market traffic jam |
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| Work Vietnamese style: one man works and three men supervise |
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| Seafood...yumm. |
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| Tough life |
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| ....and scene! |
