Made it to Saigon airport and I’ve already forgotten my new guides name, I really should’ve slotted a day off into this whirlwind Vietnam tour of mine. It is a fairly clear day, so we hit the usual tourist sites in Ho Chi Minh. Reunification Palace, the War Reminants museum, post office and Notre dame church. Then dinner at a steak house, Aussie steak at a third of the price and twice as good. The meal cost about $85au all up, including beers and a tip! I’d drop that much at McDonalds in Australia just feeding all my lot a happy meal each, geez.
The drive out to the Mekong was so rough, I regretted not packing a sports bra. My driver knocked over a scooter rider, called him a drunk and continued to drive on. It was with some relief that I was deposited on the side of the road, near a hammock cafe and pointed at the back gate beyond a rubbish pile. That gate lead through a little village on the delta, where I found a canoe man to take me through the canals. He informs me half way down the canal, that there used to be crocodiles.
He dropped me at a coconut lolly factory, and after watching them being made I didn’t feel inclined to buy any. So the proprietors draped a large snake on my shoulders, and gave me some wine from a bottle that had a cobra and scorpion floating in it. It was surprisingly good wine. It is now New Years Day, and everybody seems super happy to muck about and invite you in. I met the family and their animals, the cats they said were tiny tigers and were for eating, so I declined brunch and bid them farewell as the karaoke machine was being wheeled out.
I wander through this village and end up at the river where a boat will take me to Turtle Island for lunch. Now I had no problem throwing down booze with snakes in it, but an elephant fish that had been deep fried live and placed on a stand with all its scales sticking out, was hard to make myself eat. I think I’ve some biscuits in my kit somewhere.
The next morning is spent at the tourist mecca, the Cu Chi tunnels. A place where a thousand Vietnamese are still missing, a war tomb and relic now crawling with tourists. I join the scores of people that take a crawl through a tunnel, a woman in front panicked and had to back out. This meant I had to take the tunnel backwards and then forwards again. I lunch on a meal that I’m fairly sure was not pork or chicken (no matter what the waiter said), and then headed back to Ho Chi Minh city.
My clothes dripping wet from the high humidity. I hit the shower and emerged to the sounds of drums, cymbals and Vietnamese techno. A lion dance party blessing was kicking off in the street, I grabbed my gear and followed the noise. Next thing I know I’m being swept along with a tide of people, as the lion and dragon dancers stopped at each family business to accept an offering. Then they pulled out a bunch of props and stands and put on a full show right there on the busy (still filled with traffic) street, I found myself seated with the family that had hired the lion troop. It was such fun, and I’m so glad I got to be involved in it. Some two or three hours later, the drums still ringing in my ears I made my way back to my accommodation. I can’t think of a better way to spend my last day in Vietnam.
Packing to go home was easier than I thought, I had lots of room, but hey I’m used to packing for eight. And as I type on the plane it is about 2 am in Australia, but my body has now settled into local time and thinks it is around 10pm, so I’m not able to get to sleep, even with chemical assistance. Staring out the window at the stars, which are beautiful from eleven thousand feet up, I saw a meteor burn up across the sky. I’ll be on Australian soil by 7am.
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