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Vietnam & Surrounds day 12

Day 12, Monday, 3/24/25, Cu Chi Tunnels & City Tour

I feel the need to warn you. Today’s post contains some very disturbing images and text. I am reporting what I saw. War can be very cruel and often has been. So if you feel sensitive to cruel and disturbing images, including death, perhaps you should bypass today’s Post.

The view from our room is overlooking part of the city, but not necessarily the prettiest part of the city. We have breakfast overlooking the city today. The restaurant is on top of the hotel in the open air! Then we go to our room and pack up for todays tours.

Our guide today is Ty (pronounced Tea). 11.7 million people live in Ho Chi Minh City. Motorcycles dominate the streets. Vietnam is a very war torn country. Prior to the Vietnam war, from 1957 to 1973 was the French War, from 1944 to 1955.

Gasoline here hovers around $3.10/gallon. Ice is a luxury afforded to hotels and restaurants. We drive through stop and go traffic for well over an hour. Note to self, the front seat of most buses have no leg room. So what makes our cameras happy do not do so much for our legs! You may notice signs that say, “Saigon” or Sai Gon”. The city of Saigon officially changed its name to Ho Chi Minh City on July 2, 1976. This renaming occurred upon the formal establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and was intended to honor the late Communist leader Hồ Chí Minh. The city, which had been the capital of South Vietnam, was renamed to commemorate the country’s reunification. However, there is a large amount of Vietnamese that have never accepted the name change and continue to use the name Saigon for the last 50 years!

We eventually leave the city area and go rural. We pass rubber plantations. Ty tells us about the NLF, Northerner Liberation Family- Also known as the Viet Cong. This is the group that eventually succeeded in overthrowing the South Vietnamese Government and united North and South Vietnam under Communist rule. They were well disbursed in the south which is why it was virtually impossible to defeat them. Today we are visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels, a complex of underground passages and living spaces where the Viet Cong would disappear into when attacked. The tunnels, which span over 200km, played a critical role during the Vietnam War and were functioning underground cities that included trap doors, living areas, storage facilities, weapon factories, field hospitals, command centers, and kitchens. We learn about the construction of the tunnels and spend the next few hours exploring the tunnels and war remnants, gaining insights into the harsh conditions and ingenious methods used to maintain life in the tunnels. Also note there are specific rules for visiting the tunnels. We are in a communist country. We don’t ever want to find out the consequenses of breaking rules here!

Next we pass through a display of the traps that the VC used against America GI’s. The gruesomeness was amazing! We all found ourselves trying to visualize the pain caused by these traps before you’d die.

There is a firing range nearby, which adds a creepy realism to our walk through a forest to visit the tunnels. Ty tells us, “American GI easy to kill. Vietnamese soldiers not as easy because of the tunnels.” They would tie leaves on trees in a special way so the Viet Cong could locate the tunnels. M1 tanks were used as bunkers. The VC would wear their shoes and sandals backwards to confuse soldiers that were tracking them. We see a Military Workshop where tools were perfected.

So now it’s time to go through a tunnel. I try to crouch to go through but it’s too much on my legs. So I drop to my hands and knees and crawl through. Not bad for an old guy! That’s if you don’t listen to the people behind me! Comments like, “What’s taking so long?” and “There’s an old guy going really slow!” This is quite the maze of tunnels! And I only go through 100 meters!

After going through the tunnel, it’s now time for the 90 minute ride back to the city. We stop at Cosmo Restaurant for lunch. Food is very good and the egg coffee for dessert is surprisingly good!

We now board the bus for a tour of the city. First stop is the ‘American War’ Museum. I know it as the Vietnam War. This is a very moving perspective from the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre Room appeared quite accurate and a reason why we had severe protests in the USA.

The printed signs inside the museum warrant a good read as they represent the Vietnamese views of the war.

The Agent Orange Room leaves me breathless, pun intended. The horrors of chemical warfare give a whole different look at war and conflict. The famous Pulitzer Prize Winning photo of that naked little girl was on display. You know the one, the photo that has come to represent the Vietnam War.

During that war, there were hundreds of war crimes committed by both sides. If you believe the Vietnamese perspective, the US were the worst war criminals ever. And I don’t have anything to say in defense of America. War is Hell! I have to say that one of the only things that doesn’t come across with the Vietnamese perspective was the fact that women and children were used as combatants.

We watch a photo shoot with a beautiful model (something that seems to happen a lot in Vietnam) inside the museum. We never figure out or find out why.

Outside the streets are snarled with traffic. Motorcycles find faster routes on the sidewalks!

Now we visit the post office designed by Gustav Eiffel. It reminds me of Grand Central Station in NYC. We ride back to the hotel and kick back.

I invite the group to come taste my Zinfandel at 6:30. I brought a bottle with me that I made last year with the intent to share it with our travel group. Rich and Esther show up. We enjoy fun travel conversations and the wine.

Then, in lieu of finding a restaurant, we eat at our hotels top floor outdoor restaurant. We order filet mignon. The meat is flavorful but certainly not filet mignon! Not that we are surprised. But the photos are fun and I get to play with some long exposures of the city below. Going to spend some time editing them before bed.

Back to the room for the night. See you all tomorrow!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 10 (Part 2)

After returning from My Son, we go back to the Garden Palace Hotel and switch out camera batteries and go to the hotel restaurant to get lunch. After, we go to the lobby to join our next adventure! Our travel companion Hannah, has arranged for 7 of us to go on an unplanned excursion. So we board a small bus with a new guide Hwan (Juan). A truck loaded with ducks catches my cameras attention and one must wonder which restaurants they are going to!

An hour and a half later we arrive at Sun World in the Ba Na Hills, part of Da Nang, and we begin a journey into a building and up a series of 8 escalators, not one of them less than 2 stories! Some 3!

We eventually come to a cable car system. We board the cable car with 8 people (our group and guide). As we go up the mountain, we realize that there is a car every 100 feet or so. Then we look around and see there’s at least 6 cable car systems going up this mountain! There are cable cars as far as the eye can see! We move rapidly up through fog and mist. We disembark at the top after a 20 minute ride (and the car moved fast!). We are now at 1414 meters (approximately 4639 feet) above sea level.

We navigate throngs of people and shortly arrive at the main attraction, the Golden Hand Bridge! This is a marvel of engineering at its finest! Our cameras are feeling like royalty! This bridge connects Marseille Station and the Heavenly Garden and is 150 meters long.

We spend most of an hour on the bridge and our cameras finally relinquish control to us. But we have been teased again! Off in the fog, we have spotted a tall Budda statue and we are off in search of more camera entertainment. Another mile of path brings us to the Budda statue after trekking through displays and the Heavenly Garden that would make Walt Disney proud! Everything is a bit surreal in the fog!

Our cameras satiated, we make our way back to the Bridge and decide to walk across it one more time. We meet up with Hwan, our guide, and head out, thinking we are going down. We board a different cable car and, in the fog, go to a different mountain top. Here we discover a medieval town, replete will castles and turrets galore!

Hwan leads us up and up and tells us to keep going up. We go up the path and find pagodas and views to excite our cameras again. It seems odd to be in the top of a Chinese building looking down on medieval Europe! This is an amusement park built amongst a (fake) French Village on top of a mountain reached by one of the longest cable car’s in the world. Keeping it’s original theme of when the hill station was a resort for French tourists back in the Colonial days. It’s a hugely popular destination for families – a Medieval castle, cobblestone paths, a Neo-Classical cathedral, manicured gardens and (for the parents) a beer garden. There’s a wax museum, an “Alpine Coaster” ride, an underground amusement park with rides and shows, countless restaurants and food stalls.

Hwan leads us on to a German Beer Garden where we will eat dinner. The sound volume is deafening! We are given coupons good for 2 beers each and dinner. The room is huge and we find a slightly quieter corner where we can at least shout to each other. Outside, we even come across a bride and wedding party!

The food is buffet style and I fill my plate with duck and other meats and toss on some noodles for good measure. Then I queue up at the bar for a beer and there is only one bartender. So I wait in line, plate of food in hand when they open a second line. So I take whatever beer she hands me. It is a 1 liter mug (more than a quart)! And I am allowed 2 of these?

I never order a second beer. We leave and are glad to be out of the din. We pass through revelers partying around a bonfire! We make our way to the correct cable car to go down the mountain. After about 10 minutes, we board the ride down. The fog has set in and it is quite dark, being after 8 PM. The cable car appears to fly off into a white wall and starts to descend. It is very eerie and we all make jokes about the Twilight Zone. 20 or so minutes later, we arrive at the bottom. Or at least the building at the bottom. Then we start descending the escalators, all 8 of them.

Finaly outside, we walk to the van and wearily climb aboard for the hour plus ride back to the hotel. The van is very quiet as we are all exhausted. So I type this Blog on the ride. I have over 16,000 steps in today, an exhausting amount! I don’t even know the elevation gain!

It’s time for bed. See you all tomorrow! Goodnight!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 09

Day 9, Friday, 3/21/25, Hoi An

After another delicious buffet breakfast, I get some more shots in and around the hotel after a morning rain.

Today we will tour Hoi An, formerly known as Faifo, back in its early days. It was also an important port for the Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and other merchant vessels from the Far East. I call Hoi An the city of mannequins. As you will see in the photos, there is no shortage of tailors with dozens of mannequins each! Our first stop is the Chaya Merchant House.

The guide today is a gentleman named Ti. Very funny guy. We go to Hoi An Ancient Town, as it is called. We visit stores and temples, all to our camera’s liking! A lot of Chinese and Japanese influence here. From that stinky fruit, Durian, to colorful store displays and more mannequins, even child size mannequins with adult faces! An origami wall catches my camera’s attention and views of the streets below from an upstairs museum room. And, as usual, there is another photo shoot with a model, this time with a pink umbrella!

We even see the Sa Huynh Museum, which is located near the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge. The museum contains exhibitions from the earliest period of Hoi An’s history. This city has a rich and fascinating past. The Japanese Covered Bridge is so famous they put it’s picture on their 20,000 Dong note (equivalent of our one dollar bill).

We visit 41LeLoi, a silk fabric factory where they breed and raise silkworms. They weave cloth and sew silk designs into them.

We visit the Phuoc Kien Hoi Quan, also known as the Fukian Chinese Assembly Hall. The architecture of the temple is filled with intricate details and vibrant decorations. The hall is known for its association with the six families that came to Hoi An in the 17th century. The large courtyard with koi ponds add to the overall peaceful atmosphere.

Walking by the markets, one of our group is handed a pair of baskets attached to a cross bar to pose for photos with! Looking good Leo!

Then we board a small boat on the Thu Bon River to the island of Cam Kim. Here we visit Kim Bong Village, a carpentry village officially recognized by Vietnam . We watch skilled woodworkers and shipbuilders that have been practicing their craft for generations.

Most of the group engages in a carving activity where they carve their name into a piece of wood using the rustic tools that the native woodcarvers use. Many of them get to see how difficult this is!

I don’t choose to do this, I prefer to walk around the village with my camera. Fun place according to my camera. In a crude shipyard, they were even rebuilding a boats damaged timbers.

After the group finishes carving their names, the entire group takes a brief tour and the village block and we all marvel at the quality and enormity of some of the wood carving skills of these people! There are weavers here also. Elee checks out a one piece rocking chair!

We then return across the river to Ancient Town for a traditional Vietnam lunch. Yes, it seems, we have done all this before lunch! I order Vietnamese Soup and a form of Bruschetta on Wontons.

We walk around for another half hour or so. I see some street food that looks delicious but I just finished lunch! Ti Then bids the group goodbye. He takes a couple of us back to the hotel. It’s a leisurely afternoon. Elee chooses to walk around town for a while longer. I kick back at the hotel and take a few more garden shots.

At 5, we go to the garden bar and have a glass of wine and a mojito. John and Dusty from the group join us. Some of the group are getting massages.

Later we take a walk for dinner and find a restaurant, Orivy, that serves local Hoi An food and enjoy a delicious meal with dumplings and pork dishes.

After dinner, we walk back to the hotel, but decide to stop for a glass of wine at a French Bistro on the way! And of course there are more mannequins on the way!

The walk back to the hotel is pleasant. One note about sidewalks in Vietnam, they are clearly not for walking on. They are for parking your motorcycle and placing your business signs. Additionally, they are used for stacking your wares and doing business from your street cart!

So we have to walk in the streets very often amid the zooming motorists and vehicles. Fun stuff! Livin’ large!

See you all tomorrow!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 08

Day 8, Thursday, 3/20/25, Ha Long to Hoi An

We arise at 6:30 and have a buffet breakfast on the boat. Very good Vietnamese food. The boat has pulled it’s anchor and is under way. There is an early morning Thai Chi class on deck that Elee joins. The bay is very calm as we start to move.

We go to Dao Titop Island with a beach! (see pics) to hike. The small tenders that our boat tows along take us in. Some people climb to the top. I choose to go about halfway. Fun place. There aren’t many islands with beaches in Ha Long Bay. This one even has a couple of bars. It is too early to drink but it sure is tempting!

We hang out on Titop for a couple hours, then get back on the Junk for the ride back to Ha Long City and have brunch on the Junk. I try a Ha Long Classic Beer that is a typical Pilsner but it is cold. On the way back to Ha Long, we hang out on deck for the most part and watch Junks and other ships traveling and working. There is a large freighter unloading cargo barges in the middle of the bay!

It’s time to check out and leave the Junk boat. We board the bus for the 3 hour ride back to Hanoi (sometimes spelled Ha Noi). At a rest stop, I find some Lays Pringles cans called “Stax” with interesting flavors! I also spy a tour company’s van that my Brit friends will find interesting! And back in Hanoi, I spot a sign on the first restaurant we ate at announcing it is a Michelin Selected location!

We pick up our luggage and wait at the TK123 hotel for an hour and a half for our ride to the airport. We check in our luggage and get a meal. We get 2 entrees and 2 drinks (in an airport) and it costs us less than $12 USD! We are traveling to Da Nang with a group of 9 people who we have been getting to know for the last few days. It’s a great group!

We land in Da Nang and there is a van waiting for us. The guide tells us he is just with us to the hotel. We are actually traveling to Hoi An which is next to Da Nang. There will be a lady guide tomorrow. An hour ride in light traffic to the hotel. Nothing like the traffic in Hanoi. We will be staying at the Garden Palace Hotel & Spa. This is, by far, the best hotel yet!

We arrive at the hotel after 9:30 PM. Restaurants here are closed. A fellow traveler says he found a small store a hundred yards away that has snacks. Okay so it’s prawn flavored potato chips and dried fruit that includes durian!

Good night all!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 07

Day 7, Wednesday, 3/19/25, Ha Long Bay

The Breakfast Buffet today is very good again. After we eat, we go up to our room and pack up our bags. We also pack a day bag for our next adventure. The hotel will store our bags for us. We board the bus at 9:00 AM and drive off towards the next part of the tour. It will be a 3 hour bus ride. The sights are interesting on the drive through rice paddies with sights of what appears to be antennas that crudely look like fake trees and graveyards and memorials in the rice paddies!

Duon keeps us informed as we drive along towards Ha Long Bay. For example, Hanoi has 7 million motorcycles! 8.6 million people live here, including children. Police sometimes ‘make noise on street’ (sirens). There are a lot of houses built in Ha Long that are empty.

On the highway to Ha Long Bay. Motorcycles are not allowed on the highway! At a rest stop in Hai Phong, I buy Jackfruit to share on the bus. Very banana and mango flavor. Everyone likes it. Esther shares Pumelo with Chili Powder.

We make a stop to visit a pearl factory where pearls are harvested from oysters and sorted for size and color. Then they are made into jewelry of all kinds. We get to watch workers removing the pearls and sort them.

We board a small boat that takes us to an authentic Chinese Junk (boat) that will be our home for the next 24 hours, the “Mila Cruises”. We have an orientation meeting and then have a fabulous buffet lunch on board. After, we go up to the top of the boat and entertain our cameras with the marvels of Ha Long Bay.

Our cabin is comfortable. More comfortable that the hotel room in Hanoi!

I meet Constantino, a pediatrician on board from Romania and chat with him about his Sony camera. There are hundreds of islands and the same amount of boats cruising through them! We spot some interesting architecture but never find out what it is.

Now it’s time to get on the small boat again and go kayaking through an oyster farm! Both Elee and I want our own kayak, but there are limited numbers so we share one. We kayak around the farm and over to the shore. There are many ‘caves’ that we attempt to explore but most are illusionary or filled with floating debris.

The plastic pollution is disheartening to say the least. The thoughtlessness of humans is evident everywhere.

The kayak excursion is short and we are the last to return. We get back on the ship just in time for the next activity, hiking up one of the islands to a cave. I am feeling quite mellow and decide not to go. Elee does not go either and chooses to get a massage on board instead. A fuel tanker sidles up to us and hooks up.

I go up on top and get started with Happy Hour early. A glass of wine in hand, my camera in the other, I watch the world go by! At least I watch Ha Long Bay go by. I even spot a large cruise ship in the distance.

A small boat vendor rows up but rows away when there isn’t a crowd to greet him. Another vendor comes along in a motor powered boat but also goes away when there is no crowd to greet him. But he is an entrepreneur and comes around again. He spots me and my camera and heads for me. I step back out of sight and he floats around looking for me or anyone else. I don’t want to lead him on as I don’t want to buy his trinkets.

So I walk around and meet a new friend Nathan (with wife Faye) from the UK and we chat amicably for a while.

Elee’s massage is over and the hikers have returned. It’s Happy Hour. Turns out wine is not on Happy Hour unless you buy a bottle. So beer nuts and chicharones are all we get free. Sai la vie!

Waiting for a little more darkness for photos of boats lighting up for the night. My camera has fun shooting after dark.

Night photos are fun. Dinnertime comes around and the waiters put on a little candlelit show of their own!

Even though being tired, my camera drags me back up on deck for some more night photo fun. A couple of the boats in the bay put on light shows for all to enjoy!