Good Night Vietnam

We are back in Saigon after a quick trip to the Mekong Delta. Tomorrow we head to Thailand, then off to Cambodia and then back to Thailand to meet Marc's sisters and their respective spouses. We have booked a ticket home on May 18!!

The last couple of days have been spent wandering around Saigon, seeing a few of the sights we didn't see before. We went to the reunification palace, which was the presidential headquarters during the Vietnam War and the site of the official end of the war in 1975.

The palace grounds

The basement served as a communication centre during the war, here I am looking conspiratory.

Marc's excitation level is down, here he is trying to remedy that.

Later that evening we headed for a walk in the park and found a large group doing hip thrusting, mainly upper body aerobics to very loud dance music.

We were actually quite happy to be back in Saigon after our trip to the Mekong Delta, primarily because it is familiar but also because were not having to contend with EXTREMELY large meals being served to us. We organized a homestay on Unicorn Island with a very nice family who really thought that all westerners like to eat all the time.

This was our host Choo, visiting after one of the many meals we were served.

Our dinner the first night there. We ate most of it (and it was quite good! Including the frog. I did not try it, I am just taking Marc's word for it) but we left a little frog and some calamari. We were very proud of ourselves for consuming most of it but as our host came to pick it up he exclaimed that his mother would be so sad because we did not like her food and we must not be very hungry and the food musn't be very good etc..etc.. We assured him that we liked it, it was just a lot for us to eat but I think in order to satisfy a Vietnamese cook you must eat all their food and then ask for more! We also happened to be here at the same time as two Quebecois who really like to eat, so we were constantly being compared to the "other" Canadians who like their food. All in all an intersting experience, one that opened our eyes a bit to Vietnamese culture and definitely filled our bellies!

This is some weird fruit drink, tasted a little like pear but was as gooey and gushy as it looks. I saw a few people eating them in Hoi An and I mentioned to Marc that I was very happy not to be consuming one. I do not like food with thick consistency (ie yogurt, pudding) but I did manage to choke this drink down.

After a breakfast of beef noodle soup (with pork balls and shrimp) which we could not really stomach, we headed out for a bike ride around the island.

The first day of our trip was spent on the Mekong Delta. The Mekong is a large delta that encompasses a large part of southern Vietnam. We booked what we thought was a boat tour but it turned out to be a shopping tour of the area with a few boat rides in between.

On a traditional river boat, which is basically a canoe. Marc was exclaiming that he doesn't know why Canadians feel like we own canoes when there are canoes everywhere, including rural Vietnam. Maybe we can just claim the word canoe!

Here are the pictures in no particular order, a traditional song and dance, honey shop, candy shop and a few pictures of the Mekong Delta in between. Just like our tour - lots of shops, not much Mekong!

We have not yet posted any pictures of the clothes we had tailored in HoiAn, so here are a few of the highlights. Marc's got a dragon embroidered on his two courdoroy jackets, here is one of them up close. We are also posing in our new matching black North Face jackets we got for cheap cheap. Please ignore (or notice) the constant sheen on my face, it is hot here and I also apologize for the white washed walls in our hotel room behind us. But I think you get the picture. ;)




Lastly, one of our first impressions of Vietnam was all the women wearing masks. They are mainly worn on motorbikes (we think it is for dust and pollution but were also told it is to keep their faces white and beautiful). It is a bit disconcerting to see them everywhere as they make me think of disease, and it is weird not to see people's faces. But this will definitely be one of our main impressions of Vietnam-women wearing printed fabrics of different colours and logos. You can also get kids ones too with little bears and flowers.


We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and will always have fond memories of this beautiful country.

Good Night Vietnam, Good Night!