Cu Chi tunnels and NYE

The one thing I really wanted to see while we were in Ho Chi Minh was the Cu Chi tunnels so I signed us up for the half day trip. I was able to get a ridiculously cheap price of $84,000 dong which was about $4USD. We were picked up by the van at 8:15am. There were about 15 other tourists in our group which wasn't too bad as far as tours go. It was a few hours drive out there during which our guide tried to provide us with information about the war and the history of the tunnels. Unfortunately his English was pretty hard to understand so some of the information went over our heads. It was fine though because once we arrived at the tunnels, the first thing we did was watch an informational video about Vietnam's involvement in the war and what the Cu Chi tunnels were used for. It is very different to hear an account of the war where the Americans are the enemy and people are being celebrated for the number of Americans they killed. Admittedly, I found it hard to watch at times because it became so personal.
The tunnels were dug with simple tools and bare hands during the French occupation in the 1940s, and further expanded during the Vietnam War in the 1960s to provide refuge and a defensive advantage over the American soldiers. Despite all the bombings in their town, the Cu Chi people were able to continue their lives beneath the soil, where they slept, ate, planned attacks and lived their day to day lives. Over 10,000 Vietnamese lost their lives there during the war.

The first thing we checked out were the tunnel entrances themselves. These were extremely small holes in the ground which they would close up with a piece of wood and cover with leaves. You really couldn't see it unless you knew it was there. I thought it was insane that adults could fit into such a small space but I guess most Vietnamese people are much smaller than I am.

We got to go down and check out the tunnels through a much larger, American sized entrance.

We learned about all of the traps and weapons the local people used to defend their land. Many of the things they did seemed a little primitive (and were previously used for hunting animals) but proved extremely effective since the Americans were traipsing through unfamiliar jungle. There were lots of traps where you would step on a trap door and fall into a pit of steel spikes or have a steel trap take off your leg.

There were 250 kilometers of tunnels and at times, thousands of people living in them. They constructed breathing holes that looked like termite mounds so that they could get air without the Americans suspecting anything although air, food and water was usually scarce.

The trees in the area are all young saplings because all of the trees that had been there during the war had been destroyed. The Americans aerially sprayed the area with chemical defoliants ("Agent Orange") and a few months later ignited the tinder-dry vegetation with gasoline and napalm. There were many areas we stopped at as we drove through Vietnam that sold items to benefit the victims of Agent Orange. Clearly there were so many people effected by Agent Orange but we had a hard time distinguishing between which places were legitimate charities and which people were trying to use American guilt as a sales tool.

There was only one American tank left after the war (the rest had been sold by the local people for parts). It was so strange to see it and be in a place where so many Americans had died. When some young kids on our tour were in the tunnels, they would pop their heads out and scream "die Americans!" and pretend to shoot us which was just surreal.

At one point, we went through a large section of the tunnel to get a feel for how it would be to live down there for a long time. I had to crawl of course because I was far too tall to even just bend over. I can't imagine being down there in the dark for so long, it would have been incredibly claustrophobic although I guess better than being killed.

We sampled some tapioca root which is what they ate a lot of during the war. They were able to maintain a lot of their farming efforts while fighting which is the only reason they were able to endure.

The tunnel tour was definitely very interesting and I was glad to learn a little more about the Vietnam War (the Vietnamese call it the American War). We headed back to the hostel and took showers so we could be ready for the New Years celebration our hostel was throwing at 6:30pm. Since we didn't know what the hostel party would entail, we were still planning to go out for a nice dinner and got dressed up. Downstairs, we found that the hostel had cooked tons of food and gave everyone a free beer which was really nice of them. All the travelers staying there congregated for the first time since we'd been there and we got to know everyone. We immediately became friends with a guy named Simon who was traveling by himself. Since we were no longer going out to a fancy dinner after eating so much at the hostel, he joined us for drinks at a restaurant around the corner from our place.

We then headed into the main street where there are ordinarily tons of shops and restaurants. The entire street was filled with people and motorcycles. Bars were spilling over into the streets and chairs had been set up everywhere.

We hung out and danced in front of one bar for a while but the music was getting too loud for Jessica, so we moved down the street. There we sat down at a bar along on the sidewalk. This bar had no music and we were just sitting on the street watching people try to pass through the crowd. I was bored so I decided not to drink anymore. There's not much point to getting a hangover for no reason. Alyssa did not feel the same way and ordered a giant fishbowl drink just for herself. We were hanging out very peacefully until the cops showed up. All of a sudden, the people who worked at our bar were telling us we had to sit inside. We said no, we wanted to stay on the street. No one else at any of the other places was being asked to move so it didn't make any sense. They kept arguing with us so everyone but me relented and got up. I of course refused since there was still an entire group of guys sitting right next to me that weren't being asked to go anywhere. Some old woman who worked there came up behind me and ripped the chair out from under me, throwing me to the ground. This was outrageous enough but then she went over to Jessica and was trying to force her to put her drink into a different glass. She trying to wrestle it out of her hand so I went over and grabbed onto it as well. Of course the lady went nuts and flung the drink all over me. She was fucking crazy. New Years was over for me at that point. We went back to the bar that had music and though I didn't wanted ruin the party for my sisters, I couldn't have been having less fun. Jessica and I went back to the room shortly after midnight and left Alyssa and Simon to party the night away.

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Ho Chi Minh

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh at 6:00am. I had slept the entire train ride but Alyssa hadn't slept at all and was pretty miserable. Jessica had taken a sleeping pill and had gotten a few hours of rest which she seemed happy with. We disembarked from the train and headed out in front of the station to get a taxi. There was some unknown system to getting a taxi that we couldn't figure out. You had to get one of the cab company attendants to summon one for you but they wouldn't talk to us. People kept getting cabs all around us but they would never take us. We walked further and further down the side walk, hoping to find someone who would help us. Finally one of the cab attendants agreed to put us in a cab. We still have no clue what we were doing wrong but we were happy to be on our way. It was a bit of a drive to the hostel from the train station, mostly because of the traffic. We were at a dead stop for a while because there were just so many cars, motorbikes and pedestrians all trying to get through these tiny streets. When we finally made it to the address, we found our hostel down a narrow alley. This hostel didn't allow you to wear shoes inside of it, which annoyed me every time we came in or out because we had to leave our shoes outside. The hostel was pretty small, only housing maybe 25 people with no real common space, but it made sense since the city as a whole was pretty compact. We decided to head out immediately in search of breakfast. The restaurant the hostel recommended looked awful, so we ventured down a different side street where we found a little cafe where we could get yogurt, pancakes and soup. We even got real coffee with our own drip filters.

After breakfast, we decided to head to the West Ben Thanh market. It was a huge local market set up in what looked like a warehouse. You could get any good imaginable there. We shopped around for a few hours before Jessica and I purchased some awesome Vietnamese lanterns and Alyssa got a new purse. We are shrewd bargainers when we want to be and compared the same products at as many stalls as possible before settling on a price.

You can also get food and drinks in the market so we stopped at one of the juice stalls to get some fresh blended juice which was nice and refreshing. Alyssa loves orange/carrot juice while I prefer coconut/pineapple.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town, getting our bearings on where things were located. Ho Chi Minh is a huge city but it is pretty walkable if you're staying in the right area. We were able to walk to the palace and the post office (Jessica was very excited to see the post office which was a old colonial building that had been transformed into a post office) as well as check out a lot of the shopping districts. There were tons of great shops and restaurants and no end to the street vendors.

Alyssa and Jessica had developed a love for the Bahn Mi sandwiches and though I didn't love them, they were perfectly edible and definitely cheap. The ones that we got came with pâté as well as four other kinds of sliced meat, tons of fresh veggies and four different sauces, but I requested that my sandwhich only have ham and chicken since I was wary of the other meats.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the huge evening markets that were set up for the New Years Eve celebrations. They had tons of booths set up where you could sample different food and drink options. Jessica bought some instant coffee packs because she loves the Vietnamese coffee and we bought some pop up cards that were so adorable and unique. We headed to the large restaurant street near our hostel to peruse the restaurant options and shop for clothes. We ended up choosing an Indian restaurant that a had a little bit of a wait, but we took that to be a sign of good food. The food was delicious and we left very satisfied. We headed back to the osteoporosis afterwards to relax and get ready for our tour the following morning.

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Biking through Nha Trang

We were excited to check out some of the outer city of Nha Trang by bike. We were able to rent bikes from our hostel for $3/day which was an awesome deal. Nha Trang has less motorbikes than Hanoi but is by no means a calm driving environment. We were driving through traffic just as though we were a car or motorbike (there were other locals on bikes doing the same) and the diciest parts of the journey were the roundabouts when you are merging through cars to try to make a turn. I didn't really mind the traffic, I figure people will all move out of the way one way or another but Jessica and Alyssa thought it was pretty crazy.

Our first stop was the cathedral. It was pretty plain though it did have a nice nativity set out front. We walked through it but didn't stay long. I think that the Catholic churches in Asia are less impressive to us than the temples and pagodas since we are more accustomed to seeing them. Our next stop was the Long Son Pagoda. When we arrived, they wanted to charge us to park our bikes at the pagoda so we went and locked them up around the corner for free. At the pagoda they had a giant sitting Buddha and a giant sleeping Buddha which were both impressive to see. It was a large pagoda with nice views of the city, so we hung out for a while taking it in.

We then headed out toward Chong Rock which had been recommended to us by our hostel as a beautiful viewpoint. It was a bit of a ride to get there so on the way I tried to take take in the local culture and lifestyle. I love that people in Vietnam really wear those cone shaped rice hats and still do traditional farming and fishing. It's nice to see that people can still do things the old way.

When we arrived at Chung Rock, there was absolutely nothing to see and we couldn't figure out why it had been recommended. We stopped to briefly look out over the water and then head back into town in search of lunch.

After some searching, we found some street food that looked amazing. You could basically make your own to-go box of food that they had prepared for only a $1. It was a little confusing to order at first since they spoke no English and local people kept yellng orders and cutting in front of us, but eventually one of the women who worked there took pity on us and helped us using sign language and pointing at things. The food was really delicious and we were happy to get to try so many delicious dishes for such a great price. Street food is always the way to go.

After lunch, we headed to Ponagar Tower which was conveniently right across the street from where we ate lunch. This was a temple with a few different house of worship within it. The temples do not allow you to enter wearing shorts, sleeveless shirts or shoes so we needed to wear some robes since we weren't properly dressed. Thankfully, this temple provides the robes to you free of charge although the temple itself does have an entrance fee. The temple was very nice and we enjoyed walking around it and checking out the different shrines.

After leaving the Ponagar Tower, we headed to the Hot Spring Spa and Mud Bath for a relaxing spa afternoon. We sprung for the four person private bath which would have heated mud instead of the cold communal mud bath. The mud wasn't exactly hot, more luke warm but I was still glad it wasn't cold. The texture of the mud was more watery than I'm used to but it was supposed to have therapeutic minerals that are good for your skin.

Following our soak in the mud, we got to have our own spa bath. It also wasn't hot but definitely warm, so it was nice to lounge in for a while. When we were done there, we headed down to the pool area where they had a couple of pools, cabanas and waterfalls. Had it been a sunnier day, it would have been a great place to lounge and get a tan but since it was cloudy and a bit cold, we didn't stay long.

Once back into town, we decided to try "Sakura Sushi" which had been recommended to us by our hostel. The sushi was good and I always think its funny to see different country's interpretations of standard rolls. We hung out there for a bit to kill some time since we were taking the night train to Ho Chi Minh that evening at 10:00pm.

We got a cab to take us to the train station and ironically there was another couple there from our hostel. They had taken the train before so I followed their lead as far as where to go/what to do since it was definitely a little confusing in the station. When our train arrived, we walked down to our car and found our room. We had booked a four bed sleeper which meant that we had one other person in the room with us. He was a young Vietnamese businessman who didn't speak English and kept to himself, which was actually nice since we were all tired. We piled all of our bags into the room and were just barely able to find spots for everything to go. The room was very basic but not bad and although I had been planning to watch a movie or something since it was only 10:00pm, as soon as we started moving I felt tired and went right to sleep. The rocking of the train totally knocked me out and I slept the entire ride which was not what I had been expecting.

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Scuba Nha Trang

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Nha Trang was because I had read that it had the best diving in Vietnam. And it would be cheap! Jessica is also certified but hasn't dove since her certification, so I thought it would be good for her to get some diving in as well. After some extensive research, I signed us up with Rainbow Divers because they also allowed snorkelers to come on the boat and Alyssa did not want to try to beginners diving again. We had to be up at 5:45am so that we could get ready and walk down to the main office. On the way, we stopped to get some coffee. All of the main cafes and restaurants were closed but a local directed us to sit in front of a laundromat where the lady working there brought us three black coffees. Their coffee tastes much more chocolatey than our in the states so I don't even really need to add sugar.
We made it to the dive shop right on time which always makes me happy. We paid for our dives (3 dives each) and hung out for a bit, getting to know our fellow divers. Once everyone had arrived, we piled into the van and headed to the dock. Our boat was a slow moving, one deck boat but it looked like every dive company had the exact same boat- and there were TONS of othe companies all loading up to go to the same dive sites...not a great sign. As we made our way out towards the islands we could see the local amusement park "Vinpearl" out in the distance. I'd never seen a cable car go so far across water before and I almost wanted to visit just to try tht.

During the two hour boat ride out, we were assigned dive groups and gear. Jessica and I were in the same group along with one other guy we had already made friends with. Alyssa was with the other snorkelers so we would be in the water at different times. When they assigned us wetsuits, I had to laugh because they gave me an extra small. I don't know in what world that would fit me but I could barely get it past my legs. By the time they found one in my size, all of the good quality ones had been taken so I had a shitty, thin one with holes in it. I knew I would get cold so I asked for a different one. They didn't have any better ones so I ended up putting one on top of the other and making a thicker double wetsuit. I told Jessica she should do the same but she thought she'd be ok with one.

Our guide tried to do a pre-dive briefing but his English was impossible to understand. The guy who was diving with us hadn't dove in over a year and since it was Jessica's fourth dive ever, I made sure to review some of the basics with them in proper English. They use bar instead of psi for measuring oxygen which still confuses me sometimes because I'm so used to things being a certain way.

One we arrived at the island, we grabbed all of our gear (I travel with my own mask and snorkel because rental gear is usually crap) and hopped into the water. The water was pretty cold even with my double wetsuit so I knew Jessica had to be freezing (which was confirmed because I could see her shaking and holding her arms). The visibility was about 2ft which is horrendous. There wasn't even much to see, just a few fish and some coral. We did see a lot of trash and broken coral because they let the snorkelers get out of the boat and stand on the coral. It was clear that scuba diving here wasn't done very professionally. The instructor also noticed that Jessica was shaking and asked if she wanted to get out. She said she was ok and finished out the dive. Once we were back on the boat, she couldn't warm up so a very nice Norwegian guy lent her his fleece and we covered her in towels. She had also kicked a sea urchin while she was diving and some of the spines had broken off into her calf. We poured some hot water on them to try to bring them to the surface but they were so deep that she was just going to need to wait a few weeks until they surfaced on their own.
For the second dive Jessica and the other guy had both decided they weren't getting back into the water and since we were staying at the same shitty dive site, I declined to do the second one as well. We spent the hour chatting with all of the other divers, many of whom were getting their dive certification and were interested in information on other good dive locations. We were supposed to move to a different spot for the third dive but they decided to stay in the same damn spot! I was really displeased but there was nothing my guide could do. The guy we were diving with convinced me to do it with him while Jessica stayed on the boat because she was still too cold. Once under water, the visibility was even poorer. To make matters worse, there were tons of lion fish lurking everywhere. Lion fish have venomous fin rays which can cause systemic reactions in humans that may be fatal if not treated. Both the dive instructor and other diver kept bumping into me because you couldn't see anything until you were right on top of it and I was really worried they were going to push me into a lion fish. Then, all of the other boats in the area decided to leave the island. It was a very shallow dive and since you couldn't see anything, there wasn't any way to tell where the propellers were. I spent a harrowing 5 minutes trying to stay low enough to not get chopped to bits by propellers but high enough to avoid the lion fish on the reef and all the while the sound of the propellers in the water was deafening. I have never before been scared while scuba diving but there were so many bad variables going on that I was really uncomfortable and relieved that Jessica was on the boat. Thankfully the dive was soon over and once back on board, we made the three hour journey back to Nha Trang. I felt terrible for signing us up for the day at sea because it was such a bust but the reviews made it seem like it would be so different. I was very disappointed. The only silver lining was that the dive shop refunded Jessica and I for the dives we didn't do, which was really nice and unexpected.
We were so cold when we got back to shore that we wasted no time in getting a hot coffee to warm us up. Since it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, we decided to try a Banh Mi, which is basically a sandwich with all sorts of different meats, vegetables and sauces for super cheap. We found a vegetarian one that I was more into trying (their meat is always so fatty) that had sesame tofu. It was pretty good!
After showering and relaxing for a while, we headed out to dinner. I had read great reviews about "Truc Linh" which had a couple of locations in town. Although it was a little more expensive, I got a shrimp risotto that was delicious and didn't regret it. Alyssa and Jessica also really like their dishes so it was a success.

We decided since it was still early we would head to a bar for a drink. There was a bar where the people practically begged us to come in every time we walked by which had music, so we decided to try it out and sit at a table along the street. As soon as we sat down we were barraged by men who seemed determine to talk to us. Most of them were nice but their one friend was a drunken mess. He clearly needed a lot of attention and would pour his beer over his head and continually try to take our drinks. We ignored him and eventually the really drunk people moved on to another bar, leaving their more normal friends to chat. We didn't want to have more than two drinks though so after we were done we packed up and headed home. It was a great place for people watching but definitely crazier than we had expected.

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Windy beach day

The forecast showed that it might be cloudy later in the week, so we decided a beach day was in order. First, we grabbed some breakfast at a cafe that had been recommended by our hostel for its Western breakfasts. We absolutely love Vietnamese coffee but most of the touristy places try to massively overcharge you so we were happy when this place charged a completely resonable $10,000 dong ($0.50 USD). Their coffee tastes chocolatey and delicious- like nothing we've had in the states before. We all ordered the pancakes with honey (which is basically a crepe) and split a fruit plate. They really like serving dragon fruit here which I am still getting used to.

After eating, we walked down to the beach. Although it was beautiful and sunny, it was incredibly windy. We purchased sun chairs with umbrellas to try and avoid the pelting sand that would hit you if you were laying just on a towel but we still had to shield our faces when a big gust came through. It was pretty hilarious because our stuff would blow everywhere and we would be hiding from the wind behind our books- it was not overly relaxing. Alyssa and Jessica did take a brief swim in the water, but the waves were enormous and constant and the water was so cold that you couldn't stay in for long. After toughing it out for a few hours, we decided to call it a day.

I had read reviews about a Greek food place that was supposed to be amazing, so we went there for lunch. We got three chicken gyros which were cheap and delicious. They even came with french fries inside of them which apparently is very common. Strangely, Nha Trang has an enormous Russian population so all of the menus and signs are also in Russian. Someone told us that there are really cheap flights from Russia to Vietnam which is why so many people come vacation there.
After wandering the city of a while, we decided to get happy hour at "Louisianne's" which was a nice bar/restaurant/brewery right on the water. We tried one of their special craft beers which was mixed with hibiscus. It was really delicious!

We wanted to kill some time before dinner so we headed down to the night market. It is an entire street which opens from 6:00-10:00pm and sells tourist items. I really wanted to buy a few things but had to keep reminding myself that I have no way of transporting anything. It's always fun to look though regardless.

Alyssa had never had hotpot before and since one of the restaurants in town was famous for it, we thought we'd give it a shot. It was much different than the hotpot I have had in LA and they barely gave us any meat or vegetables and we ran out of broth after one round. It seemed pretty stingy and the broth was barely flavored so it was basically just boiled seafood and vegetables. None of us loved it but I assured Alyssa that I've had better and she should try it again in the states.

We headed back to the hostel early to get some sleep as we were planning to go diving the following morning and would need to be up early to catch our shuttle to the boat.

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