On our way from the Ho Chi Minh City’s airport to the tourist part of the centre where we had booked some accommodation the sky opened, but by the time we reached our destination the raining had stopped. After the beauty of Phu Quoc island and especially after the peace and the very nice accommodation there, everything in Ho Chi Minh City appeared significantly worse than it probably was, so I felt quite disappointed. Still, after we left our things in the room, we went right away to a nearby agency and there we booked two trips – the first one was a visit to the Mekong river delta, while the other one was a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels. We had only that much time left anyway.
Visiting the south parts of Vietnam
In the meantime, the night fell and we went for a walk in a large circle around the area in which we were staying and on that occasion I hit seriously hard with one of my big toes against a metal wedge protruding from the asphalt (left there from the times it was used to adhere something to the base). I really, really, hate the sloppy people who do their job in such a careless manner. Still, I know this is not specialty of Vietnam or Ho Chi Minh City for that matter. Many years ago I ruined brand new shoes on a similar thing in the middle of Belgrade. Anyway, I bent my toe to see if it hurt more with the pressure, but it didn’t, so I concluded nothing was broken. Still, it continued to hurt badly over the following days.
Evening lights of Ho Chi Minh City
On our way back to the hotel, we passed by a rather shabby looking restaurant that was packed with Vietnamese and foreigners, so we decided on the spot to have our dinner there. It turned out the specialty of the place were different versions of soups, but always with lots of noodles, so we ate quite well there.
Soup with rice noodles and meat balls
We walked for a while yet and it turned out that the section of the street in which we were staying was closed off for traffic, but not for the extremely loud music coming from all over the place. Luckily, our room was sufficiently far away that this did not bother us during the night.
Morning in Ho Chi Minh City
The following morning we got up early in order to go with a group for a one-day excursion around the Mekong delta. Both Sneza and I imagined more boat ride on the river, but as it turned out it was just a very ordinary touristy thing. As it was not expensive, we were not too sorry.
Crowds in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City
First we were on the bus for quite a while, because we needed time to get out of the city, and then almost endless rice paddies started, with occasional maize fields or plantations of coconut palms, bananas, sugarcane and other cultures I could not recognize from the coach. Like in other places around Vietnam, here, too, we could often see family tombs sometimes in the middle of a field. A walled-up tomb elevated on an earth platform with a field around it. I found it additionally interesting seeing rice paddies in different phases of vegetation. There were densely covered fresh green paddies, then paddies that have started to turn yellowish and finally fields in which the rice had already been harvested. Although I’m no expert for rice, I presume that this was precisely what we had read about – there are three harvests a year in the Mekong delta.
Rice paddies
On our way, we stopped at a place where they organized a presentation and possible purchase of products made of threads obtained from coconuts and bamboo. It is really fascinating how soft materials can be obtained from such a seemingly rough plant as bamboo.
Then we got to one of the shores of the Mekong where we embarked on a boat. Still, that boat basically served only to transfer us to a couple of nearby islands where we made a few stops.
One of the main branches of the Mekong
A typical tourist boat
The stops were made in order for us to try and/or buy honey and souvenirs, then we tried some fruits that were not spectacular, we listened to live performance of some song that was sung as if doing some boring job, and then we were briefly taken along a canal that flows into one of the main branches of the Mekong.
Place for getting into the small dinghies
Sailing along a canal on the Mekong river
Sailing along a canal on the Mekong river
From the dinghy, we transferred back onto the tourist boat and after a short while we got to the other side of the same island where we had a lunch break.
Cargo ship on the Mekong
Sneza and I were in the same group with a very nice couple from Ukraine whom we had already met back in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang NP, so we had lunch together and ordered some local fish.
It may look quirky, but it was a very tasty fish
On our return to Ho Chi Minh City, we also stopped at a Buddhist temple and that was it as far as the trip to the Mekong river delta was concerned. I can’t say what exactly we expected, but we were not impressed.
Upon our return to the city, we first went to our room to refresh a little and then because of my big toe we gave up any significant walking and took a taxi in order to get to the business centre of the city, with expensive shops, high category hotels, tall buildings, etc.
More modern and better off part of Ho Chi Minh City
First we went to see the Opera building and then we walked to the People's Committee Hall or the City Hall which faces a spacious plateau at which there is a monument of Ho Chi Minh. By the way, in the past this city was called Saigon, but in 1976 its name was changed into Ho Chi Minh City, although many of its residents still prefer the original name.
Monument to Ho Chi Minh, with the People's Committee Hall in the background
We walked a little bit more around this part of the city and then we briefly went to see the Main Post Office building. The reason was that this building was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who was obviously a very prolific architect/civil engineer working all over the world (see: https://www.svudapodji.com/en/titicaca-bolivia-and-la-paz-peru-and-bolivia-summer-2005-part-3/). Next to the Main Post Office which was, like the other buildings we visited, very nicely lit, there is also the Notre Dame cathedral, but it was too late to be able to visit it.
At this point we decided to stop with the sightseeing so we transferred to the Ben Thanh Market which was actually closed, but around the market there were numerous stands where we could buy a few more gifts, as well as have a delicious dinner. Then the time came to call it a day.
The following day, which was also the last day on our journey, we went on a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Namely, already during the war with the French, the skilful and entrepreneurial fighters from this part of the country (at less than 50 km north from the then Saigon) started to dig underground tunnels which they used in order to hide in them and for logistical purposes. This proved to be very good and efficient, and unfortunately they had yet another war, so they brought the tunnels almost to perfection as far as guerrilla war is concerned. In the middle of the rainforest, the Cu Chi guerrilla managed to dig out around 250 kilometres (!!!) of underground tunnels, right in front of the nose of the Americans whose headquarters were precisely in Saigon. The Americans kept bombing this area and even today there are numerous visible craters made by bombs thrown from B52 planes. In addition, the Americans also tried to achieve certain military success here by using tanks and infantry, but it all proved futile in the end.
One of the many safety entrances into the Cu Chi tunnels
Today, it is possible to see here what kinds of traps the Vietnamese were using, how they made mines and other explosive devices using scrap metal from American exploded bombs, as well as using unexploded bombs in order to get to the explosive.
The tunnels were made on three levels, at the depths of 3 metres, 6 metres and 8-10 metres. The soil here is full clay and when it is dry it is very difficult to dig it, but the guerrilla fighters dug when it was rainy. In addition to the tunnels used as passages, there were also safety entrances/exits, ventilation shafts and a number of different underground premises – meeting rooms, rooms for resting, kitchens (with a special system for removing smoke which would appear in the morning, when the cooking was done, as a mist dragging itself across the ground), medical rooms, workshops, water wells, a special system for channelling rainwater that would get into the system directly to the river Saigon, etc., so that the guerrilla could practically live underground.
The tunnels themselves are incredibly narrow, primarily because the Vietnamese have slender build, which constituted an additional problem even when the Americans managed to locate an entrance. Underground it is not only unbelievably constricted and dark, but also very hot.
Another entrance into the Cu Chi tunnels
Nowadays, tourists may try out venturing into a safety entrance/exit in order to see how easy (if you are a slender and thin Vietnamese) they could squeeze into a hole which they would then cover by a lid coated with leaves and there is also a possibility to go through a tunnel on the first level. The tunnel for tourists is 100 metres long, but luckily there is a possibility to get out every 20 metres. Although I felt rather inadequate, being significantly taller than the Vietnamese average, with my big toe still hurting and carrying a small backpack that was rather in my way, I did get down into the tunnel and it was really tight. The backpack was really troubling me, so I took it off my back and kept putting it at my arm’s length in front of me, after which half-squatting I would barely manage to squeeze through to it. And then I gave up, keeping the system with my backpack the same, but I started crawling through the tunnel on all fours. Although this proved to be much more comfortable than expected, it was with joy that I got out already after the first 20 metres. At one point, the tunnel made a turn at such an angle that there was no light coming from the entrance/exit and it was pitch black. I am not claustrophobic and occasionally I would start giggling at my own expense, but when I got out to the light of the day I was happy to have all the space for my arms and legs, and the rest of the body. Brave Sneza continued for another 20 metres.
Happy to leave the tunnel
Also, within the area for tourists, if somebody wants to, they may buy ammunition and try shooting at a test site using different rifles up to the level of Kalashnikov or AK-47. The two of us did not find this interesting, so we just had an ice-cream and cooled down in a shade.
The return from our trip was prolonged to the level at which I was getting very cranky and unsatisfied on account of the artificially extended return time (in some places, where there was even no traffic jam, only the pedestrians were slower than us), which seemed very unprofessional, but there was nothing we could do about it and we simply endured watching the unending traffic in Ho Chi Minh City.
Traffic jam in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City
As for the Cu Chi Tunnels, they are certainly absolutely worth seeing, but in order to spend an hour and a half there, first the tourists are collected for an hour, then it takes two and a half hours to get to the tunnels (in order to include a break next to a workshop/shop) and that could have been bearable if we hadn’t dawdled so much on the way back. It seemed as if they had sold the excursion to some tourists telling them the return would be later in the afternoon (an hour after the time we were given), so they procrastinated the return to prevent anybody from complaining. Pointless waste of time in the transportation, which means that the overall impression in the end was quite unfavourable.
We also got an impression that the people working in tourism in the north of the country were significantly better organized, as well as much more cordial.
When we finally did return to Ho Chi Minh City, we just had the time to grab a quick lunch and then covered in sweat on account of the high temperature and even higher humidity, we packed our luggage into a taxi and went to the airport. We were a bit worried about the time, since it was exceptionally crowded in the traffic, which seems to be the usual occurrence, but eventually we got to the airport with sufficient time to be able even to change our clothes.
In the end, a little tired with all the moving around, I was still very pleased not only by the fact that I visited a beautiful and far-away country rather well, but also that I was finally in the southeast of Asia. Vietnam is an exotic country that has in my mind been mostly associated with the stories about Vietnam (American) War, but this is primarily a picturesque country, with rich history, incredible diversity and beauty of landscapes and natural phenomena, fantastic food and full of exceptionally diligent and hardworking people which unstoppably speeds towards its better future.