It has been a while since I have taken you on an adventure. Today we are going to get out of Africa and head to South East Asia. The destination is Vietnam, Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City.
Other than India and parts of Turkey I have never been to Asia so this was a first for me and a new experience. Last year in February right before lock down I had a meeting in Vietnam and made a quick trip there. I did not have a lot of time or budget so the trip was not as long as I would have liked. I really enjoyed it and I hope to get back again and spend more time also perhaps visit Jake one of the founder of Blurt and Dig up north because we were not able to connect on this trip.
I was traveling with my Ghanaian business partner Festus. We arrived after a long trip in the early afternoon. Our trip took us from Accra to Nairobi Kenya, then to Bangkok, Thailand. We had to spend one night in Thailand before getting a connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC from now). We first went to our apartment hotel which was only a few minutes from the airport in District 12. It was a tall building and afforded some views of the area.
From there we hit the street to wonder around a little and find something to eat. I was looking forward to some Pho. The main street in the area soon met a park that divided the road. Let me tell you crossing the street is really something here with all the motorbikes and cars. Someone told us it is actually better to almost close your eyes and go as the bikes will go around you it is when you start second guessing and moving erratically there could be a problem.
We found a very local Pho spot and did our best with the ordering. I am used to Pho from my time back in Denver where we had a little Vietnam and lots of Pho joints. This one was almost like a garage, cars can pull in and it is open from the dinning room to the parking spots.
It was Festus first time taking Pho but he did well and I think he actually liked it too, as you can see he is left with almost nothing left but the broth.
A little later on we found a craft brewery with a vintage car out front. In Ghana we only have a few different types of beer and all are a lager. So this looked like a great opportunity to me.
I ended up getting a nice dark beer and enjoyed my surroundings for it.
By that time it was evening and time to turn in to the comfortable apartment suite at the hotel.
The next morning we went down to District 1 for some sight seeing. One of the main attractions was the Bitexco Tower. This is the second tallest building in city and is 68 floors 262 Meters tall. It is the 5th tallest in Vietnam and the 263rd tallest in the world.
The views from the top were amazing. The viewing floor was a floor just below the heli pad floor. There was a restaurant a gift shop and a little museum on fashion.
A picture of Festus trying on the local hat in front of a rickshaw.
We walked along the river a bit which had a nice walkway to wonder on.
Here is another large sky scrapper in District 1.
I love the street presentations of food which are everywhere.
For the rest of the day we booked a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels which is a half day experience that we booked on Viadar for $34 for the both of us, what an amazing value. We were picked up from a historic hotel at 12 and the bus headed out of the city. The tour guide was really good and gave us a good history of the war and how the Vietnamese people have coped after the war and have found forgiveness for Americans, even though their lives are still very much effected by the war and things like Agent Orange used during it.
Our next stop in the country side outside of Saigon hit on this heavier note. It is a commune setup for people living with the physical effects of Agent Orange. If you are not familiar with it the US troops were not very adapt at fighting in jungle warfare so they came up with a chemical defoliant that they could release from airplanes that killed the jungle. But it also created birth defects for generations afterwards. This commune teaches art skills to these people and they have a chance to sell their art to tourists. I really hope that it helps their betterment not just a shop owner or some few individuals. The art pieces as you can see use egg shells and mother of pearl to create some awesome pieces.
In the above pictures Festus helps us demonstrate how the VC (Viet Cong, now a bit of derogatory term for the communist fighters) used tunnels to fight the Americans and even the french before that in the Indo France wars. My hips would not even fit into the hole so you can see how effective this would be against a big corn fed american boy like myself.
Can you even see the same hole here?
We had a chance to crawl through a series of these tunnels and these were even the larger ones and I tell you it was so claustrophobic inducing.
We then got to see how many of the booby traps work, very morbidly effective.
The machines of war were of little use in the jungle against a very organized resistance with the home field advantage.
Before topping off our tour we were given the chance to shoot any of a wide range of guns american, VC, Chinese, and Russian. This was sold by the bullet so you can imagine how fast you would smoke some money shooting a fully automatic gun. After viewing a couple of exhibits about how people lived, and a VC propaganda film we got on our way back to the city.
Before long we were back in the city in the middle of rush hour and ti was like scooter Armageddon.
We found a nice vermacili spot for dinner, with some tasty summer rolls.
Having tried some of my favorite Viet dishes already I was on a role that night and had to take some Bahn Me sandwiches back to the room. These were also some of my favorites back in Denver being an amazing value at $3 there, here it was so much cheaper and so tasty. There are carts like this on corners everywhere.
That night I needed a good swim in the pool and there is nothing like a grown man looking sexy in a a flower night robe so I had to snap it knowing I would share it all with you at some point.
The next day I was in meetings and visiting my partners in Vietnam. Her are some of the art works on the walls at the office. We work with digital marketing solutions for hotels and travel companies and it was great to finally meet some of the people we have worked with online for years.
What can I say there is some amazing food in this country. Let me rattle off some picture in appreciation of the food.
I believe this is chicken feet and snails to the right.
A whole chicken and I put a pepper on its head for a hat.
Prawns
Shrimp and mango salad
A seafood boil.
Duck tongue
Clams
Mushrooms and clams
Clams and peanuts.
One night we went out for some beers on the backpackers street. This is where all the clubs and light life is. I found some good IPA beer also at another brewery. I as pleasantly surprised to find some good beer. I got a few shots of these interesting food carts. I think they were selling dried paper thin octopus and squid. Not something you see everyday.
The next day we were due to fly back but for some reason the first leg of our flight was canceled. The airline had to get us a hotel room for the night and another flight the next day. This new hotel room interestingly had a window from the shower into the room. It allowed me to do some interesting art work on the steamy window with my backside during the shower.
This extra day gave us a chance to do some more exploring and hit the War Remnants Museum.
I have been in such aww of the development and seemingly good standard of life of people here compared to Ghana. It is amazing the transformation of the country in basically one generation since the war without any funding or help from the western world. It seems to have found a good mix between commerce and taking care of the people. I hope we can find balance like this in Africa. This additional day of exploring really helped to put that in perspective from the pain of the war museum to some of the sites we came across wondering around.
I think that a very interesting part of this museum a whole section dedicated to the American resistance to the war and particularly the soldiers resistance to the war and the whistle blowing that american troops did in contrast to the vast war crimes and atrocities. There was a lot about war journalism also. There was also an exhibit about the world wide backlash and resistance to the war including a famous speech made by the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah which probably helped to solidity the need for the CIA and MI6 to help overthrow him.
I also loved the resistance and protesting art work. And the american machines of war was an amazing contrast to the VC machines of war that we saw at Co Chi.
We then walked along the river and eventually crossed over into a residential area.
I found the density of living in this area interesting and a little bit of African like ciaos with the power lines. Every balcony had some plants growing on it though and that was amazing.
The last stop was a shop that focused on tea and rice spirits. The walls of the shop with lined with infusions for different things. Some fruits and herbs for some ailments and even one with a small cobra inside.
That night we flew out and made our long trip back to Ghana.
Photos shot with an Infinix Smart 3 Plus Phone.
