Life in the Fast Lane: VIETNAM:Chau Doc and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - July 19th

We were now ready for the last country on our journey....Vietnam! We took a bus from Sihanoukville in Cambodia, to the Vietnam border. Once there we had to cross once again on foot, going through customs as we exited Cambodia, spending some time in "no mans land" in the middle as we got our visas cleared (we had to pay the Vietnamese border patrol agent a "convenience fee" to avoid any hassles), clear customs again as we entered Vietnam, and back on another bus. We stopped at a small town not far from the border called Chau Doc. This wasn't a big tourist attraction, just a place to stop for night and break up the trip. All the traveling was starting to catch up with us so other than dinner we spent most of the time in our hotel room and were back on the bus early the next morning.

We arrived just past noon in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon). Some people say Thailand is more hectic, others say Vietnam. Em and I side with the Vietnam theory. Never seen so many motor bikes in our lives. The cities in Vietnam feel much more modern than I had realized they would. However, much less English is spoke in the country so we really felt the language barrier for the first time and it made for some interesting conversations. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and markets.

The next day Em and I differed on what we wanted to do, so we (gasp!) split up for the very first time on the trip. Any guess what she wanted to do??? Shopping....I think Vietnam is the holy land of shopping or something. Don't worry, she wasn't alone. She spent the day with several of the British girls from our tour group. I went with some of the guys to take a tour of the Cu-Chi Tunnels, one of the most famous battlegrounds of the war. We had a chance to go down into the small tunnels that the Viet Cong used during warfare, check out a variety of their jungle booby traps, and go to a shooting range for target practice.....a very manly day. I was excited to get back into the city to see my wife (all together now.....ahhhhhhh). Em found a purse and sunglasses on her shopping excursion so a win-win situation for all!

Since four members of our group were leaving the next day and four new ones were joing us that evening, we went out for a big dinner and some drinks. A good all around day.

Hard to tell, but we're on a fairy......with our bus.

Hard to believe, but not the largest load we saw being carried. Honda should definitely use this for an ad campaign.

Harvesting rice....they spread it on the side of the road. The sun and heat from the asphalt help dry it quicker.

It went on for miles.

A yummy dish cooked in a claypot. Can't remember what type of meat, don't think it was of the domesticated variety though.

In Vietnam, people pay property tax based only on the surface area their property covers, so everything is built slender and up.

HCMC ( SAIGON)

At this restaurant we cooked our meet on a roof tile over coals in a bucket.....awesome!

At the Cu-Chi tunnels.....an example of a trap door...

....hard to see but check out the wicked spikes in the pit.

A hole.....

....Vietnamese man climbing in the hole...

....now you see him....

.....now you don't.....

....Jon in the hole...

...now you see him....

.....still see him....

.....and now he's stuck.

One of the enterances to the underground tunnel system.

Humid and cramped doesn't even begin to describe it. Not for those who have even a hint of claustrophobia....in other words...another reason Emily didn't want to go.