H C M C - day 3

Wednesday 31 May

Had "Pho" or Noodle soup for breakfast - which is a Vietnamese institution. During the consumption of said noodles (delicious), we were approached like you often are over here by a moto driver. At first, as usual, we were half ignoring him, but he pulled out his book of 'references', of which there were many photos and good comments from tourists who him and his cousin had shown around Ho Chi Minh City. We decided to go with these guys, as we had very little plans, and so far on our trip we haven't taken motorbike (moto).

In Cambodia, I thought to myself that there must be 20 scooters for every car. In Vietnam I think there must be about 60 scooters atleast, to every car. It very much is the predominant form of transport.




Here's a brief rundown of our tour of HCM city with Mr Dat, and Mr Ton:

1. Chinese Pagoda - 6 tiers high - good panoramic views of HCMC.

2. Chinese Temple - had a cup of tea. Shown funeral urns containing ashes on shelves - buddhist version of a cemetry.


3. China Town Market - fairly typical market, very few tourists, cleaner than most we have visited, also very colourful and some great smells from the various herbs, spices, fruits and flowers.

4. Chinese Medicine Shops - Snake Wine. I tried some - at first alot like a Whiskey, but with a strong almost metallic aftertaste (need I say bite?), shark fins, snake spines (for male potency! apparently 3 hours worth. I informed all in the store I did not need this).




5. Lunch - fish and vegetable hotpot soup, in a seperate dish sizzling fish marinated in fish sauce - with spring onion and garlic, steamed rice, and the all important fish sauce with chilli on the side for dipping. This was absolutely delicious food - some of the best we've had on our trip - a local favourite. The staff, which appeared to be 3 generations of 2 families, were amused as we wolfed down the food whilst practicing various Vietnamese phrases with them. We're finding the language very difficult by the way. More complex than Khmer (Cambodian) it seems - more tones.

6. China Town Temple - 300 years old. Chinese buddhist. Wrote family names on red piece of paper, attached to spiral incense which was hung from the ceiling and will be prayed for by the buddhist monks while it gradually burns through over the next 10 days, promising our famillies good health and good luck.

7. Floating Market - Saigon River. Famillies who live and work on the river bring fruits and veges from the Mekong Delta region up to Ho Chi Minh, and sell the goods from their boats which they also live in, for 5 days. They buy various goods while here and take them back down to sell in the Mekong area.





8. Shopping Centre - apparently a favourite amoungst ex Pats here. Alot of good quality clothes, bags etc. at reasonable prices. Bought a few more DVDs here.

A great day overall. Really enjoyed riding on the back of motos, experiencing the crazy roads here from a different angle again. Seemed like we saw alot of the city, but apparently we haven't covered much of it relatively.

Tommorow we're being picked up by the same drivers early and are heading out of HCMC to the Cu Chi tunnels. So will get to see some of the countryside.

Tommorow night we jump on an overnight train which will take us almost half way up the country to Hoi An - the ancient city. Which also happens to be on the beach. Looking forward to taking a dip.