Saigon and the Mekong Delta

Trip Start Jul 05, 2007

Trip End Sep 13, 2007

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Flag of Vietnam Saigon, Vietnam
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

So much has happened since I last wrote that I don't quite know where to start! We reached Saigon, Vietnam on the 21st and stayed for two night with a friend of Claire's who was really generous and let us stay and took us out for the evening on him. This city is absolutely crazy. The traffic is just one big free for all with literally thousands of motorbikes everywhere all of which don't seem to care whether they run you over or not! Even so, it's a buzzing city and I quite like it.

For the last two days we took a trip to the Mekong Delta. First we got on a boat and visited various places along the river and then arrived in a city where we were taken to stay with a local family for the night. We parted with the rest of the group and were taken to another boat which set of down the river. Unfortunately the river was really low and we ended up getting stuck in the mud! The people on the boat couldn't speak any English so we didnt know what was going on and they didn't seem very bothered about telling us, sitting down and having a rest for a while. So we sat there...and we sat there (whilst I'm starting to get desperate for the toilet!!) until a boat comes past..phew we think, someone to help us! But no, the boat just continues past and totally ignores us!! We sat there in the dark for about 45 mins before the lady on the boat finally decided to do something and got in the water and started to drag the boat along! I felt sorry for her but we couldn't stay there all night. Finally we reached some deeper water and could go along as usual. When we got to the house there was food all ready for us and we sat and chatted with some other people with us and a member of the family that could speak pretty good english. We slept in a little cabin which was fine except it seemed to be right next to all the chickens and the rooster typically decided that morning was at half 4 and started crowing...was so loud I thought it was sitting on my head! Not being able to sleep we got up really early and had some breakfast before heading back to the boat.

We rejoined the rest of the group who had decided not to do a homestay and visited the floating markets which were really interesting...totally not what we expected. It's difficult to explain so you will have to come here and see it for yourself! After this we visited a few more places before heading back to Saigon.

Today we visited the Cu Chi tunnels about 40 miles out of Saigon where the Vietnamese lived during the Vietnamese war with America. It was quite interesting but we didn't get to go in many of the tunnels which I was expecting and we had a guide who seemed to think Claire was stupid and kept asking her if she understood when I think she understood more than we did!

In the afternoon we went to a war museum which was horrific. Almost as bad as the museum in Phnom Penh with the photos of all the people killed under the Khmer Rouge.

So now we are just waiting for a bus to a place called Mui Ne which is meant to have some good sandboarding! Looking forward to that :D xx