*updated*
click here for photos.
Woke up early for the day tour. The day didn't start off so great, I didn't get my coffee and the bus was supposed to pick us up by 7:45am but they didn't arrive until 8:30am. Then the driver takes us and the rest of the tourists back to the travel office to switch buses. A few broken English exchanges later and we're on another bus only to have the air conditioning break down less than 5 minutes through the ride and we turn around again to hop on the original bus that picked us up. Whee!
I have read about Vietnamese drivers on the hi-way. They're supposed to be major speed-racers with little or no respect for road rules. I was honestly excited. After that 3-hour Bantayan bus trip, I was ready to experience this ride. However, we happen to get the slowest bus driver I have ever had. It took us OVER 3 hours to get to the Cao Dai Temple. Since I didn't get coffee in the morning, I napped through most of it so it wasn't so bad. We had a very nice Vietnamese tour guide. He told us about the country's poor economy, the people and warned us about cholera, malaria, diarrhea when eating food from street vendors. Even if he did speak English, I felt like we all needed another translator to understand his version of the language. He would repeat each sentence twice just to make sure we understood him but all I got were little fragments.
click here for photos.
Woke up early for the day tour. The day didn't start off so great, I didn't get my coffee and the bus was supposed to pick us up by 7:45am but they didn't arrive until 8:30am. Then the driver takes us and the rest of the tourists back to the travel office to switch buses. A few broken English exchanges later and we're on another bus only to have the air conditioning break down less than 5 minutes through the ride and we turn around again to hop on the original bus that picked us up. Whee!
I have read about Vietnamese drivers on the hi-way. They're supposed to be major speed-racers with little or no respect for road rules. I was honestly excited. After that 3-hour Bantayan bus trip, I was ready to experience this ride. However, we happen to get the slowest bus driver I have ever had. It took us OVER 3 hours to get to the Cao Dai Temple. Since I didn't get coffee in the morning, I napped through most of it so it wasn't so bad. We had a very nice Vietnamese tour guide. He told us about the country's poor economy, the people and warned us about cholera, malaria, diarrhea when eating food from street vendors. Even if he did speak English, I felt like we all needed another translator to understand his version of the language. He would repeat each sentence twice just to make sure we understood him but all I got were little fragments.
Cao Dai Temple at noon worship
After the temple, we all went to lunch as part of the package tour. Food was so-so but since all we had was a ham and cheese sammie for breakfast, we all scarfed down our food like it was the best meal ever.
Travel to see the Cu Chi Tunnels was an hour and a half from the resto. I napped again after the full meal and woke up only when the tour guide told us we had reached our destination. This was my favorite part of the tour. It started out with a viewing of a very old film about the Vietnam war followed by a lecture about the tunnels. He then took us on a walking tour of the area. The vietnamese people are very scary smart. The whole time I kept flashing back to the film Heaven and Earth which we had to watch for class in high school. Ruthless and violent, I remember how scared I was of vietnamese soldiers then. We saw the kind of booby traps they made and they were all horribly fantastic!
The tour ended with a "walk" through of one of the tunnels. We were to go into one of the holes and come out of another. I have been warned by my mom and books that the tunnels were made to fit the average size viets as they run through the tunnel bent by the waist. Being a girl of my size, this was not an easy feat. The video below is predominantly pitch black because that's how it was under there. I had to DUCK WALK CROUCHED DOWN the entire stretch. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this in the blog before but I am seriously afraid of the dark. It would have been okay if it was simply a long, straight tunnel all the way through. But it turned, and dipped and would fork in some places. There would be other tunnels that would be perpendicular to the one I was in. I tried my very best not to think of The Descent the entire time and wouldn't even dare turn my head to glance in the other passages in case I see something I wouldn't want to. I cut some parts of the video because there was a lot of loud panting and groaning on my part that it almost sounded like I was doing something else, if you know what I mean.
The tour ended with a "walk" through of one of the tunnels. We were to go into one of the holes and come out of another. I have been warned by my mom and books that the tunnels were made to fit the average size viets as they run through the tunnel bent by the waist. Being a girl of my size, this was not an easy feat. The video below is predominantly pitch black because that's how it was under there. I had to DUCK WALK CROUCHED DOWN the entire stretch. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this in the blog before but I am seriously afraid of the dark. It would have been okay if it was simply a long, straight tunnel all the way through. But it turned, and dipped and would fork in some places. There would be other tunnels that would be perpendicular to the one I was in. I tried my very best not to think of The Descent the entire time and wouldn't even dare turn my head to glance in the other passages in case I see something I wouldn't want to. I cut some parts of the video because there was a lot of loud panting and groaning on my part that it almost sounded like I was doing something else, if you know what I mean.
Cu Chi Tunnel experience
The trip back to the hotel was another hour and a half but this time I didn't sleep. Earlier in the bus when I'd wake up in between naps, I'd feel disoriented and would constantly keep reminding myself that I was not in my own country. The landscape is very similar to Manila's if not for the strange signs and unfamiliar language. By the time we got back to Saigon, it was already dark out and the lights of the city had come alive. Despite my mother's incident last night, I can't help but feel some form of awe towards the Vietnamese. Looking around all the structures and establishments, it's easy to forget that it was only a little over 3 decades ago that the country was in ruins from the war. In a very short period of time they have risen and rebuilt their country to what it is today. Their resilience is quite remarkable.
Bonus clip below is when I crossed the street to Le Lai park infront of the hotel to try to take night footages of Ben Thanh Market and the city lights. The market's lights were out so all I got were flashes of headlights from the speeding motorbikes and buses.
Bonus clip below is when I crossed the street to Le Lai park infront of the hotel to try to take night footages of Ben Thanh Market and the city lights. The market's lights were out so all I got were flashes of headlights from the speeding motorbikes and buses.
My mom was very worried that I'd get mugged or something so she had the hotel security guy walk with me to the park. He would have me hold his arm as we attempt our way across Saigon's chaotic streets. He told me "When we go you do not stop ok. You keep walking and don't step back or they hit you."
Nice.
Nice.
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