On the third day of our trip we went on a day tour to the Mekong Delta.

For me, even though I enjoyed all the tours, this one was the standout.

The day started off with a bus ride to the Mekong; from there we boarded a boat to one of the islands and paid a visit to the coconut candy factory. Coconut candy is very addictive, I bought a few packs and brought them back with me…. like pringles, you can’t have just one!

After the coconut candy factory, we boarded a scooter and took a ride through the villages.

This leg of the tour was for me the most memorable. We went through 3 different villages and was given the chance to visit someone’s home. Seeing people’s homes from the air conditioned comfort of the bus is one thing, but riding through the village on a scooter and walking into someone’s home gave us a chance to really experience how the locals live. Life is tough, the people are poor and have few luxuries; despite this, they still look happy and are grateful for what they have. We really are very fortunate here in Australia….

We then went to a tourist location, listened to some Vietnamese music and tried some local tropical fruit (Jackfruit was my favourite); followed by a paddle boat ride down a smaller Mekong stream to the lunch location where we had another awesome meal.

On day two of our stay in Vietnam, we took a day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are located about 2 hours North West of HCMC. In short, they are about 200km of tunnels, some three layers deep built over a period of 20 years from 1949. The tunnels formed a base for military operations of the VietCong and at housed up to 150,000 people. The vast network of tunnels were built by hand using small hoes and woven baskets (See! I was listening to the tour guide… I didn’t google this info, I promise!)

The tunnels are extremely narrow and short; the VietCong of those days were a fair bit shorter and skinnier than our modern (fat!) bodies so us going inside required squatting and crawling. It really is amazing that it was built by hand and contained so many people.

When inside, the guide asked if we wanted to do 30, 50, or 100 metres; Pat and I thought we would be macho and said “we’ll do 100!”…. lets just say, at the first junction when the guide said “this is 30 metres”, we jumped out quick smart! we were exhausted!

At the tunnels we also got to try Tapioca root, one of the foods they ate at the time.

The final two stops for the day trip was a multi denominational temple (sorry, I wasn’t paying attention this time so can’t provide any more infomation). We also stopped by at a village where we had a home cooked meal at someone’s home; the food was delicious

The tree in the 8th image is part of a rubber tree plantation. The trees are planted in a line and grooves cut into the trunk. The rubber flows down the grooves and goes into the dish at the bottom.

I recently had a short holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)… What a place! Its just so different to any other place I have been to before… So different, yet so charming. Due to time constraints we weren’t able to go north as I would have liked; so ended up doing day trips and spent the time based in HCMC’s district 1.

There was a heat wave during the few days I was there, and at first I had problems adjusting to the high humidity, high 30 degree celcius days. Coming out of the air conditioned comfort of the hotel, the heat would hit you like a wall… even at 6 in the morning!

There is a population of around 7 million in HCMC, and there are about 2 million scooters. Its peak hour all day in the city, and there are always scooters everywhere! We often wondered where everyone was scootering to?? it looked like people just rode around all day!

It looks like there are few if any at all road rules, and people ride and drive how they like, its amazing there aren’t more accidents!… Sydney drivers don’t have half the skill of these people! I never saw any road rage either!

Crossing the road is an act of bravery in HCMC… Before I left Sydney, a friend said to me “look out for the cars, but ignore the scooters and just cross”… I didn’t believe him at first, but after watching the locals do it a few times, I gathered up the courage and did it myself…

The trick to crossing the road is to just walk slowly and at a constant pace.. even if scooters are ripping down the street at speed, just keep to your pace and keep on walking… they will avoid you! Perhaps closing your eyes might help Do not ever try to avoid them, cos you might instead jump into their path and get run over. If you stood at the side of the road and waited for an opening, you would probably be standing there forever, as the flow of traffic never ceases!

In the gallery below, I have some pictures taken in and around HCMC. Take a look at the telegraph pole in the 19th image.. One day we were walking down the street and was wondering why all the shops were either dark or were running on generators… there was apparently a power outage.. Look at the poor guy working on the junction box… those black cables are power lines! imagine trying to trace one particular line!

Also in the images, I managed to find a BreadTalk shop that looks very similar to the Breadtop shops here in Sydney. And towards the end of the set there are some pictures taken of the temple and laquerware factory that were part of the city tour we went on the first day.