Viet Man

29/12/10

Banana Paper

29/12/10  ...that you can eat! :)

The Vietnam War

We've learned a lot about it these last 4 weeks, it's fascinating and shocking and will stick with us.  The two war museums in Hanoi and Saigon were amazing, mainly down to the photographs, which is why it was great to see the 'Requiem' exhibition today - a memorial to international journalists who were killed in the war.  The photos told the real story, from both sides.  We also visited Cu Chi to see the unbelievable tunnel networks the Viet Cong used in their guerrilla war.  Up to 10,000 of them lived underground, and they even had tunnels under an American base.  Most of our info however has come from reading 'Saigon' which not only tells a great story with loads of action and adventure, but includes historical and political updates at the beginning of every chapter, perfect.

Requiem Exhibition

Cu Chi Tunnels
(made bigger for tourists)

Saigon, Anthony Grey

Stuff On My Bike.com

Scooters and push bikes are the way in Vietnam, and we've seen plenty of stupid stuff being transported.  Unfortunately we haven't always had the camera to hand, but here are a few from when we did.

Ducks

Bush

Big shop

Family

Friends (the double power pedal)

Rain or shine (the double Poncho)

 No problemo

Boxing Day

26/12/10  We went for a walk on boxing day, as you do, and we found the sailing club.  Took this little RS Fera out for a wobble later in the afternoon.  Loads of wind, took all we had to keep it up right with only the main sail!  Boxing day action, yesssss! Sailing rocks :)

Best Presents

Panda sweets!  Just white candy balls with graphics on the clear wrapper.  They look all silly :)

The most popular sport in Vietnam (or so it seems).  Shuttle cock evolved into a hacky sack = Hacky Cock! sweet :)

Socks for flip flops. Awesome :)

Merry Christmas

25/12/10  Its nice to Skype at Christmas :)

Ho ho ho-hello to the Bendles :)

And to y'all at Goathland :)
Robbie's first!!!

Christmas Dinner

25/12/10 3 courses of BBQ fish, with booze and sunset :)

The BBQ boys!

Fresh shrimp spring rolls with satay sauce.

Shrimp and Squid skewers.

Baked red snapper with rice and vegetables.

Saigon Green beer and Calabat rice wine.  Merry :)

And the whole thing came to 240.000 VND (just under a tenner!)

Christmas Day

25/12/10  Merry Christmas everyone, we hope you had a fun one, and thanks for all our messages :)  We spent ours on the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam!  Pretty exciting! But we missed home too :(

Christmas Tree!

Presents!

Christmas Pho!  It may look like noodle soup from a cheap roadside shack, but there's chicken AND beef in this dinner!

Beer on the beach with home made hats!

Ok, Go!

Christmas Shopping

23/12/10  "You can't get away from it, town was just dreadful..."  We went to Cholon (Saigon's China Town) to buy stupid things!

Seen lots of paper clothes recently, with no explanation.

Peer Pressure

We tried some good traditional Vietnamese food in the Delta.  Not sure if we've had dog or squirrel yet, but we've certainly tried rat and duck embryo.

We'd only been with Hung for 5 minutes and we stopped to pick up 3 fat rats from the side of the road on the way back to his home stay.  A guy grabbed them out a cage by the tail, knocked them out on a rock, then broke their necks.  His wife then chopped the heads feet and tails off (with scissors) and skinned them for us.  Not used to seeing all this, but its probably similar for chickens, right?  Anyway, at least they were super fresh, and from the paddies (not drains) and they tasted real good :)

Photos a little out of focus, but just imagine you'd been drinking rice wine as we had.  You can just make out the head and the beak!  Umm Al Dente?

Wash it down with cheapest local rice wine, you don't even get a bottle!
1L, 20.000 VND

We feel fine :)

Mekong Delta

19/12/10 We spent four days exploring the Mekong Delta area.  From Saigon we headed west to a home stay in a village just outside of Can Tho city, then North to another home stay on an island near Vinh Long, South East to Tra Vinh, and then North to Ben Tre, before heading back to Saigon.

Hung's Home Stay, near Can Tho. We stayed in a little thatch bungalow right on the water. Mmm mosquito :)

Exploring Hung's village in the morning rush hour.  Going to school in traditional Ao Dai.

Watermelon farm.

Pink Pineapple! Every girl's dream accessory. (This is how they grow).

Set off for the market a bit late, so took breakfast on the boat :)

Under the monkey bridge and past the fishing net...

...continue straight ahead at stilt houses.

 Arriving into Cai Rang floating market.

The sticks in the background show what produce each boat has to sell.

Cai Rang is a whole sale market, so large boats were travelling from surrounding villages to buy and sell.  Lots of watermelons and cabbages.

We bought pineapple cut like wishmeams :)

 Heading home, fully loaded.

On the way to Cai Be market from An Binh island (this is a river, not the sea).

Rice Barge!

It was the 15th day in the lunar calendar which meant it was full moon and we saw lot's of special offerings laid out.  This offering was made for the van, to bring it good luck.  They put the hazard lights on and opened the doors to make it look excited! Woop :)

Everyone told us there was no way from Tra Vinh to Ben Tre, except for mega bucks by taxi.  We took bikes then a car ferry for free and luckily found a local bus on the other side!  No worries.  The motor bike journey was amazing, don't think many people travel through those fields and farms.

 Ben Tre turned out to be sleepy sleepy.