More on Vietnam
My apologies, its increasingly difficult to keep the blog up to date. We've let the kids diaries get a little behind also... so back on track!
We spent five days in total in Hoi An, the whole tailoring thing got the better of us and we ended buying shoes and more clothes than we had planned, and needed to buy another bag to lug it all around in. Brannan even got a pair of army pants in camoflague print 'tailor' made :-)
We had heard uncomplimentary comments about Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) before we arrived there so planned to keep our visit short and sweet, do the sights and leave asap. The traffic was busier than Hanoi and the atmostphere was smoggy but we couldn't honestly fault the place any more than any other big city. We stayed at a hotel run by Madame Cuc who's a bit of an institution in the back packing world - she owns three hotels in Saigon and they pamper you with unlimited bananas (Petra ate 5 in one sitting!) tea, coffee and juice whenever you come down to reception. We were a bit disappointed we didn't get to meet Madame herself, but apparantly she's in the States visiting her son... as you would if you could in Vietnam :-)
Whilst in Saigon we took a trip out to the famous Cu Chi tunnels, a network of 250kms worth of underground tunnels built during the Vietnam war and used to help defeat the South (and the Americans) The tunnels were a little hard to appreciate as they were underground (doh!) and way to small for the average westerner to get down, although there was a small segment they had enlarged to allow visitors...Mum and I were happy to take the photos of Mark and the kids as they emerged and to just imagine what it must have been like down there (the talk of cobras had put me off!!)
We also paid a visit to the War Remnants museum (formally known as the American War Crimes museum!!) which had some gruesome pictures of war scenes and jars of pickled deformed babies (a result of Agent Orange spraying). I wasn't sure about taking the children to the museum, but they were really quite interested and reflective about what they saw, and there have been no nightmares to report to date!
On our last day in Saigon we took a morning tour of the city on cyclos - a kind of bike (invariably powered by some old man who looks like he might collapse at any second) with a seat for passengers in front. We usually use three cyclos for the five of us, but often see one cyclo piled high with six or seven people.
In the afternoon Mark took the kids to a waterpark for a bit of light relief after all the war stuff, and Mum and I hit the markets. If any Asian stall keepers happen to read this post here's a tip to avoid scaring off us NZ (and possibly other) customers... leave us alone to look. The second we put foot in the market we were fair game, pushed, pulled, shouted at. A most unpleasant experience and the market was all indoors with no ventilation - I think we lasted 20 mins (good for the budget I suppose!)
There is a saying here in Asia - 'Same Same but Different' and its soooo true. All the stalls and hawkers sell the same things, silk (dubious), t-shirts, choptsicks, bracelets... - and we're talking tens of stalls in a row selling the same things. I asked one hawker what the '...but Different' part of the saying meant, she told me 'same goods different person selling'??!!
We spent five days in total in Hoi An, the whole tailoring thing got the better of us and we ended buying shoes and more clothes than we had planned, and needed to buy another bag to lug it all around in. Brannan even got a pair of army pants in camoflague print 'tailor' made :-)
We had heard uncomplimentary comments about Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) before we arrived there so planned to keep our visit short and sweet, do the sights and leave asap. The traffic was busier than Hanoi and the atmostphere was smoggy but we couldn't honestly fault the place any more than any other big city. We stayed at a hotel run by Madame Cuc who's a bit of an institution in the back packing world - she owns three hotels in Saigon and they pamper you with unlimited bananas (Petra ate 5 in one sitting!) tea, coffee and juice whenever you come down to reception. We were a bit disappointed we didn't get to meet Madame herself, but apparantly she's in the States visiting her son... as you would if you could in Vietnam :-)
Whilst in Saigon we took a trip out to the famous Cu Chi tunnels, a network of 250kms worth of underground tunnels built during the Vietnam war and used to help defeat the South (and the Americans) The tunnels were a little hard to appreciate as they were underground (doh!) and way to small for the average westerner to get down, although there was a small segment they had enlarged to allow visitors...Mum and I were happy to take the photos of Mark and the kids as they emerged and to just imagine what it must have been like down there (the talk of cobras had put me off!!)
We also paid a visit to the War Remnants museum (formally known as the American War Crimes museum!!) which had some gruesome pictures of war scenes and jars of pickled deformed babies (a result of Agent Orange spraying). I wasn't sure about taking the children to the museum, but they were really quite interested and reflective about what they saw, and there have been no nightmares to report to date!
On our last day in Saigon we took a morning tour of the city on cyclos - a kind of bike (invariably powered by some old man who looks like he might collapse at any second) with a seat for passengers in front. We usually use three cyclos for the five of us, but often see one cyclo piled high with six or seven people.
In the afternoon Mark took the kids to a waterpark for a bit of light relief after all the war stuff, and Mum and I hit the markets. If any Asian stall keepers happen to read this post here's a tip to avoid scaring off us NZ (and possibly other) customers... leave us alone to look. The second we put foot in the market we were fair game, pushed, pulled, shouted at. A most unpleasant experience and the market was all indoors with no ventilation - I think we lasted 20 mins (good for the budget I suppose!)
There is a saying here in Asia - 'Same Same but Different' and its soooo true. All the stalls and hawkers sell the same things, silk (dubious), t-shirts, choptsicks, bracelets... - and we're talking tens of stalls in a row selling the same things. I asked one hawker what the '...but Different' part of the saying meant, she told me 'same goods different person selling'??!!
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