Approaching Vinh Long

Approaching Vinh Long
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

The nice thing about taking a guided tour is that you don't have to think about anything at all. Everything is taken care of for you. We paid $25/person for this three-day tour of the Mekong. This included transportation costs and hotel accommodations. The only thing it didn't include was food.
If you're going to visit Vietnam (or Thailand, Cambodia, or Laos for that matter), don't book the tours from home. Book them when you get here because you will pay about a quarter of the price, and it's easy to sign on to multiday package tours once you arrive.
If you don't want to sign up for a tour, you can easily get around Vietnam on "open tour buses" which are offered by several companies on the tourist route. It's cheap and more convenient than the public bus system which would take longer in the long run. When we had gone from Saigon to Nha Trang, it only cost $8 and allowed us to get off in Mui Ne. You can take a bus all the way from Saigon to Hanoi like this.

Catholic church at Cai Ba

Catholic church at Cai Ba
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

The Mekong is dotted with small islands connected by boats and small footbridges. We stopped here for lunch and rode bikes around on the island for an hour.

Mekong river traffic and tv antennae

Mekong river traffic and tv antennae
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

A boat this size serves as a barge as well as a home for the workers on it.
The skyline is filled with antennae which is seen all over Vietnam. I guess everyone is plugged into the boob tube these days.

Drying rice pasta

Drying rice pasta
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

This is how they make rice noodles. They start with a gooey paste made from boiling rice. They pour this paste out and let it dry on bamboo racks. Later, they cut this into strips to make the vermiccilli used to make pho noodles.

A visit to a candy factory

A visit to a candy factory
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

On the first day of our tour of the Mekong Delta, we visited a candy factory. Here they puffed rice over a fire-heated wok with black sand. They sifted out the sand using the sieve, and used the husks to fire the wok. They later led us to a room where they made rice krispy treats, and we sat to sample their wares and enjoyed some tea. I didn't mind this commericial visit as there was no hard sell and we got to enjoy some snacks.

Bombproof hangers

Bombproof hangers
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

These concrete bunkers used to protect fighter jets.

Danang International Airport

Danang International Airport
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

We flew into and out of Danang, about 30 km from Hoi An. Danang was about 150 km from the DMZ separating north and south Vietnam, and the sight of the largest US military base in Vietnam. This is where thousands of American GI's entered Vietnam.

Rickety bamboo bridge

Rickety bamboo bridge
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

Shaping clay pots

Shaping clay pots
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

The old lady shaping clay invited us to try our hands with the mud, but we both declined.

Giant kiln

Giant kiln
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

We came upon this enormous kiln for firing clay pots.

Ao dai!

Ao dai!
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

These school girls are wearing "ao dai", the traditional Vietnamese gown. All over Vietnam you see girls in these flowing dresses. They neatly tuck the back flap up when riding bikes so as not to get it stuck in wheel.

A nice place to take a break

A nice place to take a break
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

We took a break and had lunch at a restaurant deck with this view.

Palm-lined roads

Palm-lined roads
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

This was the stretch of road to the beach from Hoi An. We rented the motorbike for less than $3, but it came with hardly any gas as we soon found out. On our way back from the beach, we ran out of fuel. We pushed it to the first gas station (a old fashion handpumped tank) being manned by a young girl who said it was a standard 10,000 dong per Liter. As she approached the bike to fill it, her father yelled out something in Vietnamese. She looked at us embarrassingly, and said it was 12,000 dong/L. No way! We pushed on to another gas station (only 50 feet away) where we were told the same story. Someone even said it we would have to walk for 5 km until we found a large gas station for 10,000/L, but it was the fourth place that actually gave us the honest price of 10,000/L without question. We thanked them and bought a bottle of water from them in return. Robert and I are all for capitalism and profiteering, but we also have no problem in teaching folks that we can walk away at an unfair price.

Peeling stucco walls

Peeling stucco walls
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

Unlike the crumbling moldy colonial towns in Cambodia and Laos, Hoi An is actively preserving their buildings with a fresh coat of paint. As patches of it falls off however, you can imagine what this place would look like without the paint. We were supposed to buy tickets to enter the old city, but I think this was just to let you enter five "museum buildings" or something like that. Robert and I didn't bother to visit any of these sights.

Drinks with little umbrellas

Drinks with little umbrellas
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

Robert and I spent an hour enjoying the view from the Lighthouse Cafe and Restaurant looking at Hoi An from across the water. This was a cool-looking new building constructed in the Old French Colonial fashion with large shutters and patio doors to let the fresh air in.

Sun setting over Hoi An riverfront

Sun setting over Hoi An riverfront
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site with a preserved city center and a maze of narrow alleys. In the evenings, you feel like you've walked on to a soundstage for a kung fu movie.

An Hoi footbridge

An Hoi footbridge
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

This footbridge takes you from Hoi An to the An Hoi Peninsula. It is less touristy there, and you can see villagers making all the touristy items by hand.

Ooops!

Ooops!
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

An overweighted cyclo goes crash and dumps its heavy bags in the middle of an intersection in Hoi An. Robert and I went to lend a hand to these fellas.

Mekong Delta

Robert and I flew back to Saigon for a day, met up with Emily, and then we headed to the Mekong River Delta for a three day tour.
As you would expect, they grow a lot of rice in the Mekong Delta and catch a lot of fish. We toured the area in buses and on river boats, bicycles, and stand-up row boats. We visited a fish farm, a rice mill, a candy mill, a temple, and a Cham village. It was different sitting in a bus and being taken from place to place without having to think of where to eat or stay. We met some pretty cool folks on the tour too.
We're back in Saigon again. Robert was going to fly back a few days ago but with New Orleans' airport being closed, he had to change his flight. It sounds like they are getting some power back in Biloxi, but they are still boiling water. He has been re-routed to Jackson, Mississippi, three hours north of Biloxi. He'll be leaving tonight. It has been a blast travelling with him in Vietnam.

Bargaining and dodging scams

The food in Vietnam is great. A few day ago I noticed a kid eating a simple fresh spring roll that he wrapped himself. He took a piece of thin rice paper (it looked like waxed paper), then he placed a sheet of spring roll wrapper (like a wet sheet of lasagna pasta, but made of rice flour) on it, and then he placed on it a piece of barbecued meat from a bamboo skewer. He took this and rolled it up and dipped it in a sauce. It looked great. We asked at a tailor shop where we could get something like that, and we were taken to a small dive in an alley.
We were seated outside, and plates of raw vegetables, meats, and other stuff were brought to us, so we could wrap our our spring rolls. How much will this cost? The lady explained that it depended on how much we ate. Fine.
After much food, we asked for the bill which came out to be an outrageous 90,000 dongs. That's about $7, but way too much for a dive in an alley. We could tell they were trying to pull as fast one on us, as they explained that it was 80,000 for "two meals". We had them recalculate it, and they counted the sticks of barbecued meat (ten) and came up with 54,000 dongs, which seemed closer to reality. They were charging us 3,000 dongs per stick of meat (about 20 cents). Fine. When the tailor asked us how the meal went, we explained how much they tried to charge us, and how much we ended up paying. They were shocked, or at least feigned surprise. They said the sticks of meat should have cost 1,500 dong = 10 cents. Wow. Cheap food.
After a few days in Hoi An, Robert and I have bought several shirts and pants, and I've bought a couple suits. The suits (tailored) were $30 and $50 each. The tailored dress shirts were $7 each. This is a tip for anyone looking for lots of tailored clothing: come out to Hoi An and spend a week here. Bring whatever clothing you want copied and they can do that too. We're headed to Saigon tomorrow morning!