Cu Chi Tunnels. May 23, 2013

Cu Chi is a system of underground tunnels built by the vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong) in South Vietnam with the help and support of South Vietnamese farmers and workers,  to fight the war against Americans. The tunnels run 3 levels underground with many tiny, secret entrance holes, dead ends with traps to trick the Americans, ventilation holes disguised as termite mounds. Absolutely amazing amount of work and ingenuity.  They refer to it as the American War. They say things like: "Like a crazy batch of devils they fired into women and children.  Even pots for cooking" 

"Merciless American bombs"

and they gave out "American killer heros awards" 

May 27, 2013 HA LONG BAY

Long bus ride from Hanoi to Ha Long. Nice bus but packed so hot. Ha Long is a World Heritage Site. 

I LOVE this boat. We are on a small cruise.  Very old dark wood boat. Four levels. Looks like and old paddle wheeler. Larraine and I are on the bottom floor with the staff. I wasn't even expecting a private bath but I love our room. The second floor is cabins. The third is the dining room and the top is the deck. There are 35 passengers including 6 kids. Most are from Malaysia. A family of three from Russia and two Canadians

We visited a floating village where we took a kayak out to explore some caves and the village. The caves open into a lagoon with only one way out-the same cave entrance we went in. Unfortunately the lagoons we full of litter and waste. The whole village just dumps their sewage and trash into the ocean. Disgusting. We showered as soon as we got back to our boat just in case we were covered with e-coli. 

Then we had a "sunset party", two hours before sunset, free wine and fruit, then we all loaded back into the small boat for a visit to Titop Island. Titop was named for a Russian government official that Ho Chi Minh was was very fond of. 400 steps to the gazebo at the top of Titop seemed easy after the Great Wall 10 days ago. Back to the boat for Happy Hour (3 drinks for the price if two) with karaoke but only two Canadians showed up. Us. Dinner was amazing. Ten dishes again. We can't make a dent in the food. Then a couple hours on deck trying to get wifi. 

Sunset party with Vietnsmese wine

Our cute little cabin

Top deck of the lovely Aclass Opera cruise ship

Happy hour margaritas

View from top of Titop Island

View of Ha Long Bay from our boat

Peddlers come to back of our boat and right up to our cabin window "please buy from me. Baby hungry"

JUNGLE TREK & Leeches May 25, 2013

Our guide, Jung, met us at the ecological centre and we all hopped into the back of the jeep for a 9km drive. Then we trekked 5km through the jungle to a forest ranger station that overlooked Crocodile Lake. Unfortunately we were too late for early morning croc sitings and too early for early evening croc sitings so we had to settle for a male firefly, a blue headed lizard, civet cat dung(missed the cat), and a giant Tung tree.  We left the park by ferry, then our driver took us directly to the HCM airport which took over 5 hours. We got a 10pm flight to Hanoi. 

HO CHI MINH Street Scenes

Durian. So smelly it is not permitted in hotels or on airplanes. Vietnamese love it. 

I

Five Million registered motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Population 9 million people. The women all wear masks, long sleeves and gloves to keep their skin white 

Mekong River Delta May 22, 2013

The Mekong River is up to five km wide in places and is known as the Yellow River in the south and the Red river near Hanoi due to the pollution.  We took a three hour bus ride to Cai Be where we boarded a long boat and toured thru village life on the delta. The floating market is a wholesale market. Smaller boats buy a minimum if 10kg of product and resale at retail markets. Each boat sells one product as designated by the item hanging high on a pole. One boat had an onion on a pole. 

Smaller boat purchasing a load of watermelons for retail sale from wholesale boat.

We watched then make coconut candy from only coconut and sugar. Some has added ingredients like peanuts or cocoa for flavour varieties:

Melting the sugar and coconut to soft chewy candy consistency

They roll the coconut mixture out, cut into long strips, cut each strip into squares, wrap each candy in rice paper and then wrap each in a labeled wax paper.

We stopped at a guest house for lunch, borrowed some bikes for a short ride thru the village, then we relaxed at the hammock cafe. Hammock cafes are everywhere. What a great idea. 

This lady is making rice paper for spring rolls etc. She pours a thin layer of rice batter (just rice that sits in water for a long time) on fabric stretched over a fire. She then hangs the patty to dry for a minute over a wicket basket, then lays them on huge woven bamboo trays until dried for packaging. 

Ladies waiting to row us through the village

May 21, 2013 HO CHI MINH CITY

Our flight was delayed last night so we didn't get to out hotel in Vietnam until 3am. We made it to breakfast by 9am and then walked our neighborhood, hit the giant Ben Than market, booked a tour for tomorrow and a hiking trip for Friday and then had a foot massage. $10. More expensive than Cambodia and Thailand. HCMC is less civilized than China but far, far more modern and advanced than Cambodia. 

Beijing Last Day. May 20, 2013

Larraine and I walked to the Temple of Heaven. It is almost as huge as the Forbidden City. Would take days to see it all. For example a 40,000 square foot Fasting palace used just for the emperor to fast from meat, alcohol and women for three days a year prior to the sacrifice of goats to the gods to pray for a good grain harvest. Another vast temple called temple to pray for grain etc. 

We found another adult playground on the way back to hotel. Larraine on a rowing machine