Southern ventures and beyond

We spent a couple days exploring as much of Ho Chi Minh that we could handle; this is really a huge and happening city. Of the many colorful (or perhaps totally insane) markets here we have visited the Ben Than market a few times. This is a massive indoor market selling absolutely anything you could bring to mind. Sections of the market are dedicated to, for example, the latest fashion jeans and shiny pumps, to raw meat and green tea, or to the colossal heap of fabric, marble, and wood trinkets. We wandered the streets filled with food vendors, cafes, and literally over a million motorbikes zooming around. We were also impressed by the cleanliness of the streets, the big green parks, and massive old growth trees around the city.


As tradition to our northern adventure, we decided to find a 125cc moto that would take us around the backroads of the Mekong delta and beyond. This time, however, there were no saddlebags, and our raybans weren't new anymore- they were badly duct-taped together. For the nine days we packed only the essentials into two small bags, one which rode between my legs and one which hung from Laurens shoulders. 60km of not-so-pleasant crowded industrial roads led us out of the City and into the snaking roads, rivers, and canals of the Mekong. The Mekong River originates high in the Tibetan plateau and flows 4500km to Vietnam in two main branches, where it then branches and spits out an infinite amount of small brown canals. This marshy landscape is responsible for producing Vietnams 'rice basket,' which yields more than enough rice for the nation's entire population. Besides endless rice paddies the delta is also home to fish farms and produces sugarcane, a variety of fruit, and heaps of coconut. 'Beautiful' does not capture the image of motorbiking through this landscape. We passed through scenic rice fields with sleepy agrarian villages and worked our way across the maze of waterways on dodgy wooden bridges and on the hysterical ferry system. To get on a ferry we paid anywhere between 10-35 cents and rode (jammed) our moto into a kind of cell block with often a couple hundred other motos and pedestrians, slammed knee to knee. We would wait in this cell for usually five to ten minutes- full of exhaust and cigarette smoke- until the chaos of battling to the front of the mob to try and earn your spot on the ferry (or else you wait for the next boat- common). The rusty ferry shuttles the hoards across the river in similar tight quarters, but sometimes with a breeze. As with many other ventures we take on, it was apparent that not many westerners take these local ferries. Streaking across a college campus doesn't attract half as many stares.

In one of the first towns we stopped in, My Tho, we hired a local boatman to show us some sights around the area. Besides boating deep into some of the canals, he took us to an island to enjoy fresh honey tea, pungent banana wine, and some exotic fruits. On a different island we went to a small factory producing coconut candy, one of our favorite candies here. Here we saw the warm coconut goop being stirred, chopped, wrapped... ect. Our first night was spent in nearby Ben Tre, a small island village with a pretty waterfront. We slept in a hotel run by the communist party, where we had to fill out more extensive papers that get sent to the government and the rooms were dingy.

A gorgeous day of driving brought us to Vinh Long, a bigger city, but with access to nice islands and "homestays" across the river. In search of a homestay, we shuttled over the river and rode down a single track muddy road that we thought would only lead us to a crate of chickens. After tentatively riding on we were surprised to find a place that took us in. 'Homestay' is used loosely here- what it actually means is a 'homey' guest house that you have to depend on for food and drinks because you are too stranded to go elsewhere. This particular place had nice lemon and orange orchards, and huts with tables overlooking the river.

The next day we headed out to the west coast of the delta, Rach Gia. The drive was a bit punishing due to the never-ending construction zones in which we were forced onto horrendously bumpy and muddy roads. For too many miles we banged around trying to hold onto our backpacks and keep ourselves from eating dirt. The government, in trying to gain popularity, has embarked on an immense construction project, revamping and building hundreds of roads, bridges, and buildings across the country. The bumpy drive proved well worth it, though, as we found a hotel room with a high balcony on which we could enjoy a few drinks and watch the buzzing of the river/ocean port until the sun went down. The next day we arranged to put us and our motorbike on one of the large hydrofoils that took us about 130 km offshore to Phu Quac island.
Phu Quac- Vietnam's largest island, at 48km long- was our paradise for four nights. The island has a couple main towns with ports and a scattering of small fishing villages. 70% of the island is national park. Phu Quac has amazing landscapes, combining heavily forested mountains that fall sharply down to incredibly beautiful palm lined, white sand beaches. We traveled the island via bumpy red dirt roads that lead from beach to village to mountains to beach... We stayed in a bungalow for four nights complete with hammock and idyllic waterfront. We also had a Kiwi neighbor who had lived in Vietnam with his Vietnamese wife for some time. He was a great source of inside knowledge (like the "mafia" that runs the island). We motored to a few different beaches with perfectly tranquil, turquoise waters. It was such a funny thing to see such beautiful beaches completely deserted; if this beach were somewhere else in the world it would be monopolized on and packed with people. We have found this has actually been kind of a pattern in Vietnam, so I will interrupt the dialogue of our ventures to explain something we've noticed over the last couple months...

It is amazing- for better and for worse- how defined of a tourist track there is here. We are impressed at how many tourists come here and how little they sometimes see. Westerners come here on a couple-week whirlwind trip and see just the "spots"... Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Saigon. And the problem is that tourists often don't even see these areas properly. Tours and guides are extremely common- rarely people venture out on their own. Furthermore, these tours often do an incredibly poor job at giving you a proper experience. One problem is that the tours all take you to the same places which are heavily fabricated and designed to fit what they think westerners will want (remember our colorful fluorescent lights in the Halong Bay cave?). Also, guides get commission for taking you to these certain areas- so they are all in partnership taking you to hoaxy places rather than the deserted, beautiful spot just 5km away. Vietnam has an incredibly clear line between local and tourist. For example, in Saigon, we can walk down one street lined with pricey gifts and souvenirs and restaurants and cafe's neatly designed for tourists, selling meals for $3-6. The next street will be full of street vendors, food carts, and local restaurants: a light blue, high ceiling room with small, colorful plastic chairs and tables, and on top of the tables a platter containing chopsticks, toilet paper (napkin), soy sauce, hot sauce, and toothpicks (essential for picking out hunks of meat from your teeth). We don't see too many tourists in the local spots. We realize that every country has tourism and the effects of tourism, but we've noticed that the impact has been stronger here than any other country we've seen or known about. In short, by traveling deluxe and by tour in Vietnam, many people have a serious disconnect with what this country is all about- much more than in other countries.


There is one other (somewhat dangerous) generalization that we will blog about here that deals with this issue of tourism and the impact it has had on the people. The entrance of wealthy tourism into a large population of poor Vietnamese people has had some bad effects, and again, more than in other nations we've experienced. We've noticed that Vietnamese people have taken huge advantage of this tourism and gotten fierce to rip off tourists. In a touristy area, it is so rare to have an interaction with Vietnamese people that is not centered around them trying to get our money. And in the places off the tourist track we have found that people are incredibly wonderful and absolutely genuine- they care so much about meeting us and taking care of us, never charging a penny more than something is worth. The more touristy the area, the nastier it gets... and it can get nasty. In a local market of the Mekong Delta we could buy a clump of 15 big bananas for 15 cents, in Nha Trang they want $2 for those same bananas. There is an important distinction that should be made. We do feel that the Vietnamese people, more than other nations' peoples, have largely exaggerated this cut-throat, money-ripping problem. However, this is tricky because it is us, the tourists, that are causing this problem. We couldn't rightly blame Vietnamese people because it our own infliction. And moreover, while Lauren and I feel so privileged and happy to see the backroads of this country, we cringe when thinking about the fact that we could be encouraging the sort of tourism in these pristine areas that has such bad effects. While it would be great to have people seeing the beautiful, local areas of the country, might that lead to an erosion of the original beauty? Lastly, it's important to keep in mind that this is a huge generalization and I don't mean to sound pessimistic. Even in big cities we have still met wonderful people and, in general, the Vietnamese are colorful and interesting to get to know. The men especially are quite a goofy and erratic group.


Anyways... back to paradise. Phu Quac tanned our skin and morals as we lounged around eating fresh fruit and grilled fish. We also took a day-long snorkeling trip on a boat that toured us lazily around the small islands and floating villages south of Phu Quac. We loaded back onto the hydrofoil with our motobike and shipped back to Rach Gia, and then set off for the Mekong Delta's capital, Can Tho. This was a big city with a nice waterfront, full of women vending grilled corn and jumbo coconut-sesame crackers. The next morning we drove 8km to the Delta's largest 'floating market.' We hired a man with a small wooden boat to show us this eye-opening scene, which took place on a large river branch. Several hundred boats stuffed full of produce, ranging in size from five to seventy-five feet, swarmed around like ants buying and selling. Larger boats bore a long mast upwards, skewered with the different products they were selling. After the market, we began the long journey all the way back to Saigon.

We've had the last couple days to further explore and enjoy this massive city. One of the most significant things we did was go to the War Remnants Museum. This was an incredibly well-done exhibit, and certainly one of the most emotional we've ever seen. There are hundreds of vivid and honest pictures taken from the front line, and the museum captures the narrative and sentiment of the war extraordinarily well. There is also an extensive array of machinery used during the war, including planes, tanks, helicopters, bombs, weaponry...ect. A section on the use of Agent Orange included photographs of the terrifying mutative effects (including fetuses in bottles). Throughout the museum were narratives from soldiers, civilians, and reporters which helped to convey the brutality of the war.

Our last couple nights have been spent drinking Bia Hoi under thunder storms and befriending locals through meals and dominos. Tonight we are headed for the airport to return home- both a sad and exciting time. Stay tuned for a heap of photos to come in the next couple days.

J & L