I'm writing from Ho Chi Minh City (still known as Saigon to those who live here). When I last left you all, I was in Rach Gia, waiting for my ferry to Phu Quoc Island. Phu Quoc was awesome. It was supposedly "high season," but the beaches were nearly empty and the three of shared a room near the beach for $6/night/person. The water was a beautiful sapphire blue although visibility was only around 5-7m. While there, we relaxed on the beach and went for a dive trip one day which included 2 dives. It wasn't the best diving in the world, but it was nice to get back under the water. I also went swimming nearly every day, and rented a bike to go to the center of the island (up lots of hills I was to learn) to hike to a nice little waterfall.
After Phu Quoc, we headed to Can Tho, a city of 2 million in the Mekong Delta. By the way, the bus drivers here are crazy (you've got nothing on these guys Brett - sorry :-) and we were very relieved to step off the bus. In Can Tho, I took an 8 hour tour of the Mekong by long-tailed boat. The Mekong Delta is a vast network of tributaries and man-made canals and is an impressive waterway. We visited a couple of floating markets, which was great fun. Hoards of people were out in the boats selling mostly fruits and vegetables (my kind of market). Most of the boats had dogs on them as well and just as I was wondering where they go to the bathroom, I saw a dog squat on the deck to relieve itself. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything from a boat with a dog on it. There are millions of shacks, houses, businesses and roads lining the Mekong and one wonders what it may have been like before man was established here.
Although I could have spent much more time in the Mekong, our visa expires Jan 5 and we have a lot to cover, so on to Saigon we went. Saigon is the old capital of the south (Hanoi is the official Vietnam capital now). It's a huge sprawling city (pop. 5.5 million) and supposedly there are more motorbikes than people here. I hope to get a picture of the madness before I leave, but we've heard stories from other travelers of cameras being snatched right out of peoples' hands in the middle of the photo! So, we'll see.
Aside from the craziness and comforts of a big city, travelers come here to visit the War Remnants Museum, Reunification Palace, and Cu Chi tunnel system. The War Remnants Museum is a collection of photos demonstrating the atrocities committed by Americans. It was a little one-sided, but I guess that's what one should expect in a Communist country. The Reunification Palace was taken by the north on April 30, 1975, signifying the reunification of Vietnam and the end of the war.
The Cu Chi tunnel system is a vast 3-level network of underground tunnels, leading to hundreds of large rooms where the people of Cu Chi lived during the French occupation and the "anti-American War" (as they call it here). It is located at the gateway to Saigon and the Americans, with all their tanks and bombs, were never able to infiltrate it. Many died trying. Before, they show you the tunnels, they show you a documentary that I found a little disturbing. It described how proud they were of killing many Americans and those who killed the most were awarded metals as "American-killing hero." Afterward, while touring the tunnels, we were shown the various homemade weaponry used to capture and kill Americans. All were designed to cause a lot of pain and a slow death and all had various metal spikes or sharpened bamboo. They were pretty gruesome. Although both sides are guilty of unspeakable atrocities during the war, it breaks my heart to see what our soldiers went through here, only to be spat on, denigrated, and altogether ignored by the government that sent them to war in the first place, when they returned home.
Anyway, as you can imagine, Vietnam is pretty intense and we'll be learning more as we head north. But for the next few days, we'll take a break and head to the mountains of Dalat for a trek and then to the beach for Christmas. I hope you're all doing well. I should have more pictures posted on Facebook pretty soon if you're interested (I gave up on posting them here as it takes way too long).
Sierra
