January 26th - Excursions, Excursions, Excursions

One thing missing from yesterday's blog is the fact that our boat is a shoe free zone and we have to go barefoot around the decks. In less than 24 hours this has started to feel totally natural.

We wake as the boat's engine kicks in at around 05.45. It is still dark so we lie in bed watching through the panoramic window as it becomes light. The boat is cruising along one of the lesser channels, close to the habitations that line this stretch of water. The breakfast call is at 07.00 and the day's activities start at 08.00.  No rest for the wicked. Breakfast is a buffet with eggs cooked to order, plenty of fresh fruit and best of all, a young man to cook toast for us. Elsewhere we have had to hang around the toaster, feeding slices through several times and defending them from predators. The Mekong Eyes Explorer glides along serenely as we polish off said toast.

At eight prompt a 30 seater 'tourist boat' pulls up alongside and we climb aboard for the short trip to the mouth of a creek. A fleet of long rowing boats appears and each couple is allocated to one. The rowers stand at the stern and appear to apply themselves very languidly but we keep making progress. We hear birds twittering in the trees above but apart from a couple of brief sightings of Coucals we fail to get an ID on anything. On the mudflats there are plenty of small mudskippers but they refuse to hang around for photos. Eventually the creek becomes so shallow and narrow that punting with the oars becomes necessary. Suddenly we emerge into the main channel next to the tourist boat and our jaunt is over.

Our next dose of fun is a visit to a large riverside shack in a town called Cai Be. The small boat crosses the main channel and then turns up a branch waterway that is basically the high street of the town. We pass a floating market with boats selling fruit & veg. Dien tells us that the markets have drastically reduced in size over recent years as bridges have been built and roads improved. These days the locals prefer to go shopping on a two wheeler rather than in a boat. There are still plenty of businesses that front onto the river including convenience stores, chicken sellers and even a couple of shops selling coffins.

The place we tie up at is some kind of tourist orientated food factory cum gift shop. We are given a demonstration of how coconuts are processed that ultimately ends in a rather chewy toffee as well as coir matting, fuel for stoves and dessicated coconut. Next up is the chance to watch rice paper being hand made by an extraordinarily skilled lady.  After this we are shown how to pop rice using a cauldron on a fire, some sand and a garden sieve. The tour winds up with a cup of tea and samples of various products before we are let loose in the showroom.

This bout of retail frenzy is brought to an end by the call to embark. This time we sail out of the town and land near a small village where the choice is walk and visit an ancient house or take a cycle ride. The caveat is that the roads are narrow, full of two wheelers and the island we are visiting tomorrow is a much better place to do it. The bikes are stacked at the back of the boat and when eleven hardy souls opt in the crew lift enough bikes onshore. We opt for the walk which takes us by some rather grand houses and some colorful gardens. Dien calls a halt at one place where two ladies are wrapping rice and black beans into banana leaves. These are then cooked and stored for a couple of weeks to be eaten as part of the New Year celebration meal. The ladies cut one of the parcels that has already been cooked open for us to try. The rice has a green colour and is exceptionally sticky even by local standards. For a special meal it lags well behind turkey.

The ancient house turns out to have been built around 1825 and is one of several in this village. It was the home of a family who had adopted Chinese culture and is still furnished and decorated in that style. Lots of dark wood and inlaid mother of pearl. The gardens are very pleasant with some lotus plants and a pond full of enormous catfish. When we return to the boat it is clear that we have had a better deal than the cyclists. 

Back at the mother ship there is barely time for a refreshment before lunch is called. Soup, grilled prawns, huge fillets of unidentified fish in honey and lemon sauce and crunchy green beans keep us busy for a while. An hour on our balcony is the perfect aid to digestion as we sit and watch the various types of vessel pass by. There are barges carrying huge loads of sand dredged from the river. These are so low in the water that disaster appears imminent. There are boats with loads of logs as well as cut bamboo, decorative trees, a special boat designed to carry live fish and enormous rice carriers. 

Over lunch and after our cruiser has moved westward towards the town of Sa Dec where we have a visit scheduled for this afternoon. Dien gives us a briefing about what to expect and tells us that the locals consider rats to be a delicacy. We are not sure if he is having us on but it may explain why 10 out of 30 of the group opt out this afternoon. We visit a Chinese merchant's house that became the childhood home of the woman who wrote the story that was filmed as L'Amant. French and apparently a bit spicy. After a quick stop at a Chinese temple we get to the market,  the biggest that we have seen yet. It is the usual kaleidoscope of colour and noise with extra two wheelers. We treat ourselves to a custard apple for later. All too soon it is time to get back for complimentary sundown cocktails. It's a hard life.

Dinner is served promptly at 7.00 pm. It is the first meal on board that is slightly disappointing. If you are ever offered Mekong Fish Cakes don't set your hopes too high. The highlight was the pea flower salad, colourful and tasty. After supper we retire to our suite and to watch the river. There are dots of light everywhere, some of them moving quite quickly. The river doesn't sleep.

January 25th - To the Mekong

Our alarm goes off at 06.15 and reminds us that we are working to somebody else's schedule again. Shower, finish packing, quick breakfast, checkout and on parade with luggage at 07.45. Nobody has absconded but the total pile of luggage appears to have grown. Yesterday must have been a good day for traders at the Bhen Tahn market. Once again one item of our luggage stays on the pavement until everything else has been loaded. Nobody is willing to get on the coach until they see their bags onboard so D is last to get on.

The drive out of Saigon is a crawl between the motorbikes, punctuated by traffic lights and badly parked trucks. After about forty five minutes we reach the edge of the city and the start of the Expressway that leads out to the Mekong Delta. This benefits from a two wheeler ban and we make good progress. R has taken travel sickness pills and is totally zonked out, D gets the blog posts up to date. After twelve days 1.6 Gb of the 20 Gb of data purchased has been used. We will have to start streaming movies to make sure that we don't waste it.

There is a brief pause at a service area where the sound system is playing dodgy cover versions of the Shadows greatest hits. D reckons that he could make a better job of Apache. Back on the road we have run out of Expressway and are back on the regular highway with its continuous ribbon development. Lumbering trucks and motorcyclists with a death wish make progress tortuous. Our driver moves his head from side to side continuously trying to make sure that he misses nothing in his mirrors.  We pass over a large suspension bridge that crosses one of the larger arms of the Mekong River. We are told that it was built by Australians. Half an hour later we cross an even bigger bridge built by the Japanese. From the span we can see the city of Can Tho which is our immediate destination.

The  bus pulls up in some kind of function/entertainment complex by the river. A squad of young men clad in grey tee shirts watch our coach eagerly. We are asked to check that our bags are unloaded from the coach and then move to the boat. For once ours appears quickly and we follow the guide onto a rather smart looking cruiser called the Mekong Eyes Explorer, and up onto the foredeck where we are invited to take a seat and a welcome drink. One of the crew gives us a briefing and then starts to hand out room keys as the boat gets under way. R gets in quickly to bag a double rather than the twin bedded rooms that we have had so far. This turns out to be an inspired move as we are allocated what is described as a suite, with a spacious bedroom incorporating a window seat, a good sized bathroom and a private balcony.  A total winner for the next three nights.

Rivers and creeks are clearly a key part of the transport system around here. There are other cruisers including some built in an older style. Our crew tell us the boat we are on has better facilities. Every mile or so there seems to be a small ferry, large enough for foot passengers and two wheelers, that connects the two banks. The local boats traditionally have two eyes painted on the bow and there are lots of less traditional vessels such as dredgers and large barges laden high with shipping containers.

The grey army deliver our luggage and then it is time for lunch. This involves more do it yourself spring rolls followed by chicken cooked in honey. We need a short snooze to recover from this and prepare ourselves for the afternoon's activity which is a village walk. The boat goes nose in to the bank of the river and the crew then rig up a rather shoogly gangplank above the murky Mekong. Much hilarity ensues as we cross onto terra firma. We start by visiting a small local market. Business is almost done for the day but a few traders are still in situ. The less well travelled of our fellow passengers recoil from one of the stalls with its bowls of live fish and move quickly past the man selling dried fish.

If they thought that looked pretty revolting there is more to come. Dien shows us a bucket full of squirming grubs, about the thickness of a finger. These are a pest that bores into coconut trees with fatal consequences for the tree. Somewhere along the line the locals have developed a taste for these, eating them live and raw in a special sauce. Our walk continues along a narrow track by the riverside, passing various dwellings from bamboo shacks to a brickbuilt mansion. We see all sorts of fruit trees including banana, papaya, rose apple, coconut, kumquat and pomelo. The big earner in these parts is rice and we see a big field, just starting to turn yellow which will be ready to harvest in a week's time.

Back on the boat it is time for a rice wine cocktail before getting ready for dinner. Tonight is Burns Night but there is no haggis. Instead we get spring rolls and delicious sea bass followed by chocolate cake. The bar prices are a bit eye watering so we retire to our suite for a nightcap.

January 24th - It's a Small World

Today we get a lie in as we have opted out of the tour of the Viet Cong tunnels at Cu Chi, an hour's coach ride out of the city. The weather looks a bit iffy with fairly low cloud, and the forecast is the pits with the BBC promising 30°C and thunderstorms for most of the day. We breakfast at leisure and then walk a rather sweaty mile to the Botanic Gardens. The two wheelers are a total curse. Not only do they jump the lights and ignore marked pedestrian crossings but they ride on the pavements as well.

The Botanic Gardens not only exhibit plants but they contain a zoo and a fairly minor amusement park. Lots of preparatory activity for the forthcoming Lunar New Year is happening with metal frames strung with fairy lights everywhere. There is a nice display of orchids just inside the entrance and few parakeets in the trees. R is in her element even if she has forgotten her binoculars today. There are various plants that we recognise as houseplants at home that are growing vigorously in outdoor beds here.

The zoo section is a bit depressing, with small, closely barred cages and bare enclosures for some of the larger beasts. There is an aviary full of miserable looking lesser adjutant storks that seems to be just cruel. On a brighter note there is a small lake containing an island that is home to painted storks, ibis, pond herons and purple swamp hens, R's all time favourite. We walk around for a couple of hours until the lure of refreshments wins and we set off back towards the city centre.

We take a different route back along a broad boulevard that is reminiscent of the city's French heritage, as is the occasional pungent whiff of drains. We pause at a cafe opposite the former British Embassy that now houses the British Council. On the next block is the site of the former US Embassy, now demolished, which was the site of the dramatic rooftop rescues at the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Our perambulations take us past the cathedral and Post Office again before our curiosity takes us into an enormous shopping centre owned by the previously mentioned richest man in Vietnam. For a Communist State naked capitalism seems to be more than tolerated. God knows how many floors this place has but it has three full basement floors full of smart shops and Marks & Spencers. We have a quick look round but there is nothing very remarkable to see. One of main shopping streets is being dug up so a metro line can be built.

We have a light lunch in the street food market we found last night and then retreat to the a/c luxury of the hotel where R gets a foot massage. It is time to start planning for tomorrow onwards. We break the back of the packing and D ventures out for mixers and wine in case we go thirsty sailing up the Mekong. An anonymous comment contributor to this blog has urged us to sample the high life on the roof of the Caravelle Hotel, notorious from the 1960s as the home of the international press corps and their Five O'clock Follies.

We take a spin round the market en route and get stuck in to some bargaining. The shopping list is fulfilled and we step out for the Caravelle. The Saigon Saigon bar on the roof of the older part of the building is very smart and is in the middle of Happy Hour which knocks 50% of all drinks except Champagne. R settles for G&T while D has a Larue beer. We settle in with the complimentary peanuts to watch the sun go down. A bit of a damp squib really as the cloud has moved in but we do get a good view of the city as the lights go on. We return home via the laundry who have done the usual neat job. Back at the hotel we take our third showers of the day before the day's main event. We are meeting R's cousin David and his Malaysian wife, Angela who are on a short holiday in Saigon. R has not seen David since they watched 'A Hard Day's Night' together 54 years ago. 

After meeting in the lobby we cross the street to the East West brewpub, a vast upstairs hall. It's a bit noisy so after one beer we decide to move on. David has the app for Grab, the local version of Uber. The first car doesn't arrive and has to be cancelled but the second one gets to us quite quickly and delivers us promptly to the Heart of Darkness where we can hear ourselves think. This place does a very passable British style IPA and we have some food to share while we chat the evening away. The weather has cooled down a lot and some of the humidity has dissipated. Because of the one way system it makes sense for us to walk home. We take our leave of David and Angela who have a further block to walk and turn in.

23rd January - Football Crazy

Train SE1 arrives on time at 04.40.  We are whisked straight out of the station and onto a bus, without even having time to admire the steam loco plinthed outside the terminal. Ho Chi Minh City, as it is officially called, is just starting to stir and even at this time feels warm and humid to us. Those of us who were brought up watching the TV news in the 60s and 70s think of it as Saigon and it appears that most people here take that view. Because of the utterly heathen hour of our arrival we are too early for breakfast or check in at our hotel so Dien has arranged for us to visit city's flower market. Folks here have been up and about long enough to have prepared all of their displays, have lunch with a couple of beers and be playing cards or other games. It is very colourful but somehow lacks the spontaneity that we have seen in Indian flower markets.

We arrive at the hotel just before six and are allocated rooms straight away. The Golden Central Hotel certainly is central but is a bit older than the hotels that we have had so far. The room is quite small and the electrical sockets hidden behind the furniture but there is a fridge and the a/c works so we should get by. After dropping the bags we head straight up to breakfast on the 17th floor, where we get a window table and watch night turn into another slightly grey day.  Our next duty call is 12.30 for lunch so we lose no time in catching up on our rather interrupted sleep. When we do start our day proper we have time to take some laundry to a place round the corner, working up a fair sweat on the 200 yard stroll. Exiting the hotel is like walking into a sauna. Crossing the road here is much more difficult as the traffic is relentless. On the way back to the hotel we spot a laundry that is even closer. 

Just to be different lunch is at a Vietnamese Heritage Restaurant although it is not obvious to us what the difference is. The food is just fine and as usual there is far too much of it. The afternoon programme is a city tour with stops at some of the highlights. The first of these is the Palace of Reconciliation which was originally the headquarters of the President of South Vietnam. Dien gives a long rambling commentary about events in the 1960s as we stand sweating outside the front of the building. We stare longingly at it in the hope that it is air conditioned when we finally get in there. There are a couple of tanks to examine before we get inside. Given what we have heard about the various Presidents of South Vietnam the interior is furnished rather tastefully, although there is a snooker table on the top floor, as well as a rooftop helipad complete with captured US helicopter. Our tour lasts about an hour during which the rain hammers down outside. We finish up in the basement bunker which is a set of airless rooms connected by narrow corridors. By the time we get out the rain has finished and the humidity has dropped a bit.

The coach takes us on to see the Notre Dame Cathedral which is not open for visits as it is being renovated. It stands opposite the rather grand French built Post Office. At home this would undoubtedly have been transformed into a Wetherspoons by now. We move on to visit the Continental Hotel which was where Graham Greene stayed in his 'Quiet American' days. There is a small crowd on the pavement outside peering through one of the windows. They are watching the Vietnam v Qatar football match on a television which explains the shouts of joy and groans of anguish we have been hearing over the last hour. With twenty minutes left Vietnam have just scored to make it one all. We walk over to the hotel de Ville at the end of a traffic free street lined with frangipani trees in full flower. There is misery, then jubilation all around. Qatar score with three minutes to go but Vietnam equalise again a minute later. Extra time!

The last stop on the tour is the Central Market, only a block away from our hotel. Most of the group decide to skip this and stay on the bus but we are up for it. Having assured Dien that we are capable of making it back to the hotel under our own steam we enter. There is a subdued murmur and a noticeable lack of customers. Most stall holders are glued to their smartphones watching the last few minutes of extra time. We wander round without being badgered to make purchases and without seeing anything that we would want to buy. Extra time ends and the tension ratchets up as the Penalty shoot out begins. From the wails and shrieks that go up it sounds as though Vietnam have missed their first penalty. We start moving back to the hotel looking for beers and tonic waters on the way. We see a place at the front of a street food market and stock up. Across the road a crowd watching a TV in a shop roar triumphantly several times. We add a draught beer to our order and sit down to watch the fun and realise that the traffic has virtually disappeared. A few more roars and Vietnam have won. The street is full of happy smiling people and a bar up the road turns the sound system up full to celebrate.

Back at the hotel we have just enough time to shower and change before our dinner call. The bus takes us to a restaurant near the Cathedral just in time to see the hordes of two wheelers with passengers waving huge national flags start to gather. The meal is a very plain western style three course of soup, chicken kebabs with chips and salad, and chocolate torte. We are amazed to hear most of our fellow travellers welcome this and say how much they prefer it to spring rolls, noodles and rice. Why come somewhere different if you don't want different food. The wine here is extremely pricey but they do have the craft beers that we saw in Hoi An. D has IPA and R goes for Passion Fruit Beer. As we eat the crowd outside grows and grows and the firecrackers start. It is bedlam.  As we leave the restaurant and nearing the hotel we see the road is blocked by flag waving revellers. The last 200 yards is done on foot. All this fuss and it is only an Under 23 match.