Cruise on the Mekong Delta

As a transfer from Saigon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we took a two-day cruise on the Mekong Eyes cruise boat.  All boats, large and small, on the Mekong Delta waterways had eyes painted on the front, legend being that it scares off crocodiles.  The Mekong River starts in Tibet and empties into the ocean in Vietnam, and it certainly looked like it picked up some silt and pollution along the way.  Still, it was a beautiful ride with the highlights being the floating market, sunning ourselves on the upper deck, relaxing with drinks/cigars on the deck, and sunrise and sunset.

The Mekong Eyes cruise boat held 23 passengers.

Our little cabin with private bathroom. It was very peaceful to be rocked to sleep.

We got off the boat to take a stroll through nearby villages. Cute duckies!

At a temple for the Cao Dai religion, centered in the Mekong Delta, where the divine eye is the symbol of faith.

Beautiful offering at the temple.

Floating Market.

Squash at the floating market.  Boats would advertise their wares by  hanging a sample on a bamboo pole to be seen from a distance.

Boat drive-up restaurant. There were boat gas stations like this too.

More boats with flowers and fruit for sale.

At a rice noodle and rice paper factory.  A little stinky but very interesting.

Getting my nails painted and eating pineapple while cruising through the market.

Sunrise over the Mekong River.

Saigon

First a clarification on the city's name: it was known as Saigon from the 17th century but was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1975 when communist North Vietnamese forces captured the city, ending the war.  It's still known as Saigon unofficially and I prefer to call it Saigon because that name evokes more intrigue somehow.


One morning we took a day trip 30 minutes out of town to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where Vietcong forces lived underground and evaded the US Forces.  We saw the Vietcong's techniques such as tiger traps and hidden passageways.  Andrew put it best: the feeling wasn't anti-American but it was pro-Vietnamese as in look-how-smart-we-are.

Andrew crawling through the tunnels.  It was so dark in there that I kept taking pictures so the flash could light the way.  Not a place for the claustrophobic!

After that we went to the War Remnants Museum in the city to see the Chinook rumored to be interred there.  That museum had a full floor dedicated to protests against the "American War,"  and a great neutral exhibit (at least it seemed neutral to me as an American) with black and white photographs from journalists killed in action, but the most chilling were the photographs of birth defects caused by the use of Agent Orange.  Some photos were of young children born as recently as 1992.  Horrifying.

Andrew estimated about 25% of the instrumentation is the same today.

General impressions about Vietnam:

• Everywhere in Vietnam the people were preparing for the lunar new year, or Tet.  There were fresh flowers, kumquat trees, red lanterns, and bright decorations all over the place.  
• Motorbikes can carry everything!  A family of five or an entire store.  And a van can fit a thousand times more!  We even saw people riding on top of the vans to get to their Tet destinations.
• Facebook was banned, presumably because it's a communist country.
• The food was delicious and fresh.  Dare I say PHOnomenal?  There must be crack in the broth of the pho there because we couldn't get enough.

A spirit house like we saw all over with offerings of food for ancestors.

Conical hats and shoulder baskets everywhere- so iconic.

This shoulder basket was a traveling soup restaurant!

We preferred restaurants with tables and beer, especially rooftop ones.

View from the Sheraton at sunset over Saigon.

See, motorbikes can carry everything!

Dragonfruit and a very tropical scene. The fresh fruit was incredible!

Andrew in a crazy market. I chose to post the veggie picture and not the one with skinned live frogs!

Hanoi and Halong Bay

First stop on our Indochina tour was Hanoi, in northern Vietnam.  The city was hectic with motorbikes,narrow streets and misty rain, but still endearing.  Our 4 star hotel for $45 per night was a great first impression to the city.  We had heard from a friend that the city was vile, so we were prepared for the worst but we only saw one rat and only time were we shoo'ed away from a restaurant because we were foreigners.

We spent just one full day in Hanoi, exploring the twisty streets and shops of the Old Quarter and the Hoa Lo Prison.  The prison is also known sarcastically as the Hanoi Hilton and it's where John McCain and other servicemembers, especially downed US bomber pilots, were held by the North Vietnamese during the war.  The prison's museum emphasized the days of French colonialism when the French imprisoned Vietnamese men and women there, but there was also a section about the housing and treatment of US servicemembers.... mostly a skewed version showing smiling soliders and claiming good quality living conditions for the prisoners.  It made me wonder what foreigners visiting museums in the States think of our perspectives.

Inside the Hanoi Hilton. See the broken glass bottles in concrete on the tops of the walls?

Hanoi's War Remnants Museum with the skeletons of US aircraft.

The next day we traveled east three hours to Halong Bay (translates to Descending Dragon Bay).  We lunched and enjoyed a leisurely cruise through the bay on a private boat.... it must have been the low tourist season because we were on a boat built for 25 or 30 people- not very green of us!  The limestone formations and floating village in Halong Bay were magnificent, and with the misty fog I expected to see the Loch Ness monster vacationing from Scotland.

Vibrant Vietnam and Charming Cambodia

We just returned from 9 days in Vietnam and Cambodia.  It was a wonderful getaway and we covered a lot of ground in a short time, which was tiring but we couldn't leave anything out.  I expected to see a lot of similarities with Thailand but instead each country was very unique and very endearing in their own ways.  A blog post about the whole trip is too daunting to I'll break it up over separate posts in the next week or so:

1.  Hanoi and Halong Bay
2.  Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City)
3.  River Cruise on the Mekong Delta
4.  Phnom Penh
5.  Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

Here are two pictures as a teaser:

In mythical-looking Halong Bay in northern Vietnam.

With travelmates Mark and Jess in front of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Skiing in Korea

New Year's Day we drove two hours to a ski resort and did some night skiing.  It was different enough from the States that I thought it deserved a blog post.  I guess we're spoiled with our skiing because these things seemed pretty odd:

• Pay by-the-hour for lift tickets.  Our three hours of skiing cost $35.
• The lifts run 24 hours a day, except for 4-7am and 5-7pm when new snow is made/blown and the mountain is groomed.
• All man-made snow, but surprisingly good quality.  It wasn't too icy or too wet.
• The potential to be way too crowded, which was our incentive to do night skiing on a Sunday night.  There are three quad lifts running parallel to one another up the mountain but they all pick up and drop off within 100 yards of one another!  
• To board the chairlift, we skiied onto a conveyor belt that lined us up for our chair.  I bet these are common in places with man-made snow, but it surprised me the first time.

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Trail Map of Konjiam Resort.

We're hoping to ski at Whistler next winter-  now that's how it's done.