Dec 2006

We woke up and realized "it's Christmas and we are in Vietnam". It was a strange feeling. We also realized Santa didn't get our forwarding address. But, that's ok. We wanted to do something different for Christmas day so we booked a one day tour of the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is about 3 hours away from Saigon and is the largest rice producing area in Vietnam.

This time our bus left at 8:15 and we knew that someone one was going to come a little bit earlier. We planned for this and we actually finished our breakfast before we left. We went to the departure spot and realized that there were a lot more people on this tour than the tunnels. This time there were about 30 people and we had a full sized bus on this tour. We left and it took about 3 hours to get there.

Along the way made a bathroom stop and had to navigate our way through many different shops and past many people wanting us to buy stuff. I have a feeling all these stops are planned and there are probably commissions paid to the tour companies. We didn't buy anything this time. But, with a bigger group it was a lot harder and we had to wait for people at every stop.

We arrived in the Mekong Delta and we transferred to a boat to go on our cruise. All the boats have eyes painted on the front for good luck.

We left and went to a floating market. We were told that this was a pretty small market; there is a much larger market elsewhere in the Delta. Every boat has a pole on the front where they put an example of what they are selling. If they have melons, they hang a melon off this pole. This way everyone can tell what you are selling from a distance. We cruised through this market and continued on to a little village.

This boat had potatoes and was displaying potatoes on the pole.

Here are some pictures from our trip up the river.

In the village we saw a traditional Mekong Delta home. There are three or four rooms. In the front room there is a big table. This table is only used for greeting visitors. They don't eat on it. There is also a large armoire where they keep all of their valuables. They don't have many banks out here. Then the mother or father keeps the key to the armoire with them at all times. Also, in every house there is an altar to their ancestors and a picture of Ho Chi Minh ("Uncle" Ho).

We went into the back room and watched this woman make rice paper.

After touring this house we walked along a path between some huge plants, dogs and loose roosters to a workshop where they make coconut candy. We saw them flatten the candy, cut it into little squares and wrap it in rice paper to keep it fresh.

After the coconut candy we watched a woman make a rice wafer. Next one of the guys on the tour tried to make it, but it didn't turn out very well. But, when Court tried it turned out very nice and was quite tasty.

Finally we watched them make puffed rice. They would take grains of rice and heat them in a pot with sand (to attain a high enough temperature) and wait for them to pop. They popped surprisingly fast.

After we saw them make all of this then we got a chance to sample and buy it. Needless to say we left with a lot of coconut candy. They also had snake wine for sale here. We didn't sample any of it but in each bottle there were dead snakes. It was interesting to look at, but I don't know about the taste.

After we finished our tour we cruised back down the river for an hour or so to have lunch. We passed a lot of houses built on stilits in the river and lots of people working on boats.

When we arrived at the dock for lunch we had about a 10 minute bike ride to the restaurant. When we got there they served us "elephant ear" fish. It came propped up between two posts on a plate. We would take a piece of fish and wrap it in rice paper with some noodles, and vegetables. It was really tasty. Then they brought out some rice, spring rolls, vegetables and some soup. It was a great lunch and we finished it off with some fresh fruit for dessert. We sat at a table with two New Zealanders who are teaching English in Japan and a couple from Germany.

After lunch we had some time to wander around, but it was pretty hot so we relaxed and chatted with other people on the tour. We then hopped back on our bikes to head back to our boat.

We boarded our boat again and made our way to another market where our bus would meet us. On the way, Courtney noticed some stakes coming out of the water with nets hangin off them, and got really excited when she figured out thet they were using fishing weirs, the same type that are used in the Bay of Fundy herring fishery. She proceeded to take lots of photos of them (there were a lot of weirs; maybe a couple hundred just on our way back to the dock). Here are some samples.

We got dropped off and wandered through this market. There were lots of people selling fresh fruit for very cheap. Court bought 6 oranges and a big citrus thing for about $1. Some other people bought some rambutans which they were delighted to share with us because we had never had them before. They were tasty but had a strange texture, like a giant, ultra-sweet grape.

Eventually, our bus picked us up again. Except this bus also had people from the two day tour so we all had to crowd on. When we boarded the bus they were playing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titantic and then the music went down hill from there. It was entertaining beause the people behind us were rocking out a lot.

On our way back we crossed over the Australian bridge. It is a bridge that the Australian government gave 66% of the cost to build it. It is a large suspension bridge that makes road travel much easier through the Delta.

Other than the bad music it was an uneventful trip back to Saigon. The traffic was bad so it took longer than we thought it would. When we eventually made it back to our hotel we were told to wait because they were making our new beds. We just figured that they meant they were making our beds. But, nope. When we went up to our hotel later on we had new, bigger beds.

After supper we went and made our Christmas phone calls and then had a quite Christmas Day in our hotel. Overall, it was a very good Christmas.

After our adventure to the tunnels yesterday we decided to sleep in. We woke up around 9 today, showered and ate some breakfast. We decided to go back to the market and check it out again (it was a lot better the second time around). We poked around at all the souvenir shops and bought some chopsticks and a carved wooden box to put them in. Again, I managed to shave a couple bucks off our purchase.

By the time we got through the market we wandered around some more then realized it was lunch time. We stopped had a bite to eat. Then went to the Rex Hotel for dessert I think either reporters or American soldiers stayed at the Rex during the Vietnam War (it was in the 1000 places to see before you die book, so we thought we should go). Here are a few shots from the roof of the Rex.

Once we left the Rex we slowly made our way up to find the Jade Pagoda. It was on the walking tour, but we just didn't make it there the other day. On our way to the pagoda we passed in front of the French post office again. There were people on the sidewalk selling postcards and other things (as there are everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City). While we were waiting to cross the street we heard someone say something to someone else then next thing we know they all picked up there displays and started running down the street to hide the displays in a nearby alley. We had no idea what happened we just assumed it was the police.

It took us a while to walk up to the pagoda, but we eventually found it. We turned down one street and were looking lost when a random guy sitting on the street pointed in the direction we wanted to go. I figure a lot of people come up to find the pagoda. This afternoon was really hot. We were sweating pretty bad, and then we saw this guy. He knows how to beat the heat.

I also liked seeing the balloon vendors walking around with their wares.

We got to the pagoda and there was a ceremony happening, which was really interesting to see. Inside the pagoda there were a lot of carvings, sculptures and burning incense. They were all fascinating to see. It would have been better if we understood what everything was, but it was still great just to look at them.

This is the pagoda.

These are some shots from inside and the grounds.

We didn't stay long because all the incense started to get to us so we went back outside to find a cyclo to take us back to the hotel. Cyclos are bikes with a carriage on the front that you sit it and someone pedals you around. Unfourtunately, we saw a lot of cyclos earlier in the day but now that we wanted to take one, NONE. We started to walk back to our hotel and about half way to the hotel we saw some cyclo drivers, but we had walked a long way already so we didn't get a ride.

Along our way home we found this nice park to rest in. It was really hot out so we decided to sit in the shade for a little bit and people watch. There were a lot of runners with some pretty bad glamour.

We continued on our way, but decided we had to have some ice cream and sit in some air conditioning. We found a small cafe on our way to the hotel and filled our need. On our way back to the hotel Court wanted to stop at the market to get a skirt for church that evening (aside: it's Christmas Eve. You have to look somewhat presentable; the travel duds weren't going to cut it. ~CW). We got the skirt and returned to our hotel.

We showered, vegged and ate dinner. Then we headed back out to the cathedral for the church service.

By the time we got to the cathedral the courtyard out front was jammed packed with people and people on motorcycles. They didn't close the street to traffic, so people were still driving through. I'm not that good at estimating the amount of people, but I would guess there was probably 20,000 to 30,000 out front.

We went over to a cafe to grab something to drink and come up with a game plan. We decided we didn't know where we were going, but we had to make an effort to get into the cathedral. We paid for our drinks and entered the crowd.

We started to go through the crowd and make our way to the front doors. This took a long time and involved squeezing between many stopped motorcylces and past a lot of people. We got close enough to the front doors to realize that they were locked and we weren't getting in that way. Luckily, (or was it a Christmas miracle?) someone handed us a card. However it was written in Vietnamese. We stood there looking at this card for a while when two Veitnamese girls in front turned around and asked if they could help us. They read the card and explained it said Merry Christmas and was a pass to get in to the church. They also pointed us in the direction of the door. It was on the side of the church. We thanked and wished them a Merry Christmas then started to push through the crowd again.

Christmas Eve in Saigon was a huge party. There were vendors selling confetti and balloons. Everyone bought confetti and threw it. By the time we made it through the crowd we were covered in confetti, silly string and shaving cream. I think every Vietnamese person saw us thought "Hey, they're not from here. Let's throw confetti on them." And they did. At least they wished us a Merry Christmas afterwards. It was a little frustrating, but it was fun. This is Court in the church and this is my back after we got back to our hotel. We were picking confetti out of everywhere for a few days afterwards. It's kind of like going to the beach or haying. Sand and hay chaff gets places you didn't think anything could and then won't come out.

We made it to the door on the side of the church and entered. We managed to ask if it was ok to go in covered in confetti and they said it was. Maybe the Wise Men threw confetti too.

We entered the church and scoped out some seats near the back of the church. By this time it was 9:30 and the service started at 10. We sat through the prayer vigil in Vietnamese and watched the church fill up. By 9:50 the pews were full. Then at 9:55 they opened the front doors and people just poured in. They kept the center aisle open but the aisles and neon alcoves on the sides were full all the way to the front and were about 4 or 5 people deep, with some people sitting on the shoulders of others so they could see. I figure there was 4,000 to 5,000 people at the service. They also left the front doors open, so we could hear the big party and horns happening outside the cathedral, but not much of the service.

Here is a video from the start of the service. If you listen closely you can here "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" being sung in Vietnamese. Also look at all the people. And also note the man in the foreground who attended Christmas Mass in his PJs and slippers.

Once the opening procession finished I realized that Roman Catholic services are a little long and dry for my liking (I prefer our 40 minute re-enactment of the Nativity Scene). Then when you do the service in Vietnamese it's even worse. We snuck out of the church around 10:30 to brave the crowd outside and get a good nights sleep for our tour the next day.