I had my first holiday in quite some time a couple of weeks back when David Pitron came out to visit in Ho Chi Minh aka Saigon. It was great to see David, and Vietnam from a fresh set of eyes again, including cowering at the traffic, and being enchanted again by the things that you can fit on a motorbike, we literally cried with laughter at the sight of half a dozen ducks….
We explored the Mekong Delta for a couple of days with a guide Jimmy and a driver. They were great, and didn’t seem to mind that w
e wanted to stop to look at rice being dried on the side of the street, or to get a picture of water buffalo. Equally, we were unfazed by the couple of stops at Bonsai places – where we were left to admire the trees for 15 minutes or so. The Delta was incredibly photogenic and absolutely stuffed full of fruit, which was harvested and then sent to the floating markets and on for sale throughout Vietnam. Didn’t get to find out how many days in the supply chain, before those of you at Compass ask….We stayed overnight in a home stay, where the family were very friendly, and we got to sleep on what can only really be described as tables with a mosquito net. Jimmy gave us a few moments of worry, as he took tonhis table/bed first at about 8pm and demonstrated what effect the fruits could have on your digestive system.Luckily it seemed to quieten down after a bit…The food was great, with freshly caught shrimps, and all manner of fruits. Bit of a shame that David eats neither fish nor fruit and a good thing that he likes rice.
One of the most memorable moments was wondering around the area that we were staying and watching people go about their business.
We also spent hours on a number of different kinds of boats observing life on the Mekong.
We made a couple of visits to a brick factory which seemed a little random, but turned out to be quite interesting, and a monastery where some nuns were chanting. They seemed not to mind us gawping.
We visited Saigon sights, and David took photos of convenience stores and supermarkets for his collection in his never ending search for the next big thing in retail. It was good to talk a bit about that world again…. The war museum was pretty harrowing, as at least half the photos there were to document the impact of Agent Orange on the
next generation. And there were a lot of photos.We took a trip out to visit the highly picturesque Cao Dai temples, and on to the Cu Chi tunnels. We crawled through the tunnels which had been widened for those of us with larger hips, but decided not to have a go at shooting rifles, the noise of which did add to the atmosphere, but left a distinctly uneasy feeling.
Hanoi is cooling down, (I’ve had to wear a cardigan twice now!) and I am still enjoying exploring it. In the evenings now on my walk home the smell of pollution is overpowered by the wonderful smell of hoa sua (milk flowers) that have the scent of cardamom and it feels distinctly exotic. The street food also seems to have changed a little and the waft of barbequed meat is also mixed into the aroma.
So I am looking forward to my next visitor, Laura, at Christmas when I will have a couple of weeks more to explore some of this fantastic country. I continue to be well and happy as I hope you are, Jean x
