Flash the Vigilante

Popped into the Warkworth New World the other day to pick up a few groceries (mid afternoon of course... the joys of being self-employed!). As we pulled in we couldn't help notice a rather scruffy guy trying to enter a brand new AMG Mercedes Benz with the assistance of a screwdriver. Luckily the screwdriver was miles too big and the guy gave up before making a complete mess of the door. Being a new and very expensive car it would have had a car alarm from Nam ;-) so he wasn't likely to achieve anything more than extinguishing the owner's no-claims bonus.
We watched the guy for quite a while before managing to catch his eye (this was mid-afternoon in a busy-ish carpark and he wasn't being too discreet). He then hurried away to his car and drove off (hatch-back boot still open) so I called the police and gave them his Rego. number.
I'd imagine he'll get a visit from them, and will be told to stop being such a moron.
Some people!!

...I blame P!

Baked Beans for breakfast :-)

Back in Godzone :-)
Finally have had a decent nights sleep. Still coughing like mad but I've been taking sudafed and strepsils 'dry cough' liquid... Mmmmmmm :-)
The flight home was pure hell, travelling when you're sick is not good. Flight from Vietnam to Bangkok was fine, and I was rather glad to have escaped Vietnam without suspicion of SARS. I managed to get all the way through the HCMC airport without coughing!! That took some doing.
Had a 4 hour wait at Bangkok, I was feeling ok at this stage and so spent the time chatting to Todd online. I contemplated getting a day room but thought there wasnt much point as I was only a few hours into the journey. That was probably a mistake.
The flight from Bangkok to Sydney was an over-nighter, so they dropped the temperature in the plane to help everyone sleep... I spent 9 hours coughing... 3 coughs every 30 seconds.... it was a long flight! By the time we got to Sydney I had no voice and was feeling quite giddy. Managed to transfer through Sydney airport without saying anything (had absolutely no voice at this stage) but couldn't find a chemists in the airport. Luckily only had to wait half an hour before reboarding the plane, and the flight to NZ wasn't too bad.
Filling in the arrivals card for NZ was a laugh... I had to tick pretty much every red box there was. Have you got any plant matter with you? Yes. Have you got any animal matter with you? Yes. Have you got any food with you? Yes. Have you been tramping overseas? Yes.
In the SARS section there was a question, have you been in a SARS affected country? I put no, coz' the next lot of questions were: have you been to a medical facility in this country in the last 10 days? Are you experiencing a cough or difficulty breathing? (followed by instructions on how to be quarantined by the cabin crew if you ticked yes to these). I decided to tick no for the first question and bypass all that...
Going through MAF was pretty straight forward, they inspected my boots and washed them with disinfectant for me, but everything else was fine.
Todd was waiting outside for me. Big parts of the trip home I can't remember. I know we stopped for water (and cough syrup!) at the BP just north of Auckland, and I remember the roadworks just north of Orewa.
It's good to be home :-)
Boris seemed happy to see me, "feed me!".
Managed to get a full night's sleep last nite. I woke every 3 or 4 hours, but took another sudafed and teaspoon of cough syrup (Yum :-)
I think I'll spend today sleeping too, apart from the compulsary meals so I can have my plethora of tablets, apparently we're flying to Nelson tomorrow lunch time... we'll see how that goes :-S

Last day - filling in the gaps

Ok, now that I'm in Bangkok, here is the run-down of my last day in Saigon.
After 2 nights not sleeping beacuse of coughing I decided to go to an emergency centre to have a check-up. I had a mild concern that I may have had bronchitus, but more of a concern were the thermal imagers at the airport (looking for sars and avian flu) which I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to sneak past. I had quite a temperature and so was going to light up all red as soon as I walked in front of the camera...
I wasn't too keen on the idea of having a medical at the airport (and missing my flight) so we took a couple of cyclo's (Dalat and friend) to the medical emergency centre.
Turns out this is what they call hospitals. They don't really have GP's (most locals will either go to a Chemist for medication that we require a script for, and for anything more serious than that it's off to the hospital...)The place was everything you'd expect from a communist hospital. Not particulary clean or organised, with huge queues of people looking really sick waiting to be seen (yaa... not the kind of place I usually choose to hang out).
One of the shocking things was that I was rushed through, had my own orderly, and once I'd paid my $20 I seemed to jump every queue. In about half an hour I had been eamined, had an x-ray (on a very old russian machine that went "bzzzzzz... Clunk!") and had a blood test (I paid special attention when she got the new syringe out of the sterile pack!!).
I have to say I was quite glad to get out of there quite quickly, but is was really concerning to see comatose patients being delivered on Hondas, and hallways full of very ill looking people. Just goes to show the power of the American dollar... :-S
My doctor checked my blood test and apparently I have a mild infection (white cell count is high) and so she has prescribed some Augmentin and a few other anti-biotics.
So now I chase down breakfast with 5 tablets each morning... :-S
It's a shame, Saigon looked like a really cool city, much more vibrant than Hanoi, but I didn't get to see much of it. Still, the bits I saw were very cool.
An hour and a half until I board my next flight, home at lunch time tomorrow :-)

Flash.

Saigon the last - Vietnam the last

Quick breakfast (strangest french toast I ever had :-) this morning in time to meet Dalat for the final day of rush tourism. Flash decided to pass on most of today's itinerary, citing not enough sleep from keeping himself awake coughing most of the night. I am happy to report that, although tired, he seems to be much better later today.

So it was time for me to take a second round of Ben Tranh market. Without my trusty chaperone, I was free to spend lots more money. Of course, it's difficult to spend a LOT of money (and still be able to lift my pack to get it home), but I did my best. ;-) Various clothing and shoes to show for my efforts. And a fan... it's still blazing hot

From here is was back to the hotel for a quick shower and a spot of lunch. And then I was off for a cyclo tour to the Jade Emperor Pagoda. That was all very pretty, as was the second pagoda/temple Dalat took me to (multi storied chinese roof style job). Obviously I didn't pick the festival day my sister must have on her tour, the incense smoke was bearable. Or perhaps it's my exposure to lots of smokey casinos! I didn't see any Buddhas with neon halos, but there were a few statues with flashing LED lights for halos. And what's with all the swastikas? I know it's an older symbol, with a more positive meaning... but really, if they're going to rename the War Crimes museum to appease international sentiments, you'd think they might tone down their use of the four branched symbols too. ;-) I AM joking... please note that I did tell Dalat to take me to the war crimes museum later in the day... he didn't bat an eyelid, and I got to the right place.

But now it was time to meet Flash at the Reunification Palace. He arrived with a Honda Om, cheeky bugger. The palace was all very blah blah. One or two interesting points noted: chiefly that it was not really a political HQ as much as a military one for the war with the North. I never did find the dungeons. This energetic and tiresome (pun?) event was enough for Flash who promptly retired back to the hotel. Shame really because the next stop was the War REMNANTS Musuem, which was probably the better of the 'attractions' to see. I know enough of the history that I only lerned one new bit from the displays (the Tet Offensive, which 'turned' the war, was aimed at the USA troops and was intended to ruin morale and get America to withdraw from the war... it succeeded, or at least that's what the caption told me ;-) I wasn't really surprised by any of the pictures I saw, but I was interested to see how the communist government would present their conquest. One tends to associcate propaganda with stretched truth or outright lies. I guss in this case the real truth was awful enugh not to need to stretch it. Of course they never tell you how the Viet Cong treated their prisoners and such... But it at least emphasised that whatever they may have done, it can't have been any worse than the Viet Minh, USA and their allies dished out. In fact, the displays struck me as rather tempered and fairly presented. They showed pictures of the stuff at the beginning of US involvement, when there was little opposition to it (Nixon meeting troups, parades, pictures of officers, tanks etc.) It thn showed pictures of lots of GIs and had cases with some of the weaponry, etc. I was given a photo opportunity as I never expected one. One of the fellow museum goers was a vietnamese man with one leg missing... The photo of him looking at photos of USA airmen and such... is apt. Then on to the outdoor display of USA tanks, aircraft and bomb shells. They presented this well I thought; telling what the capability was of each item, how many people were needed to operate it, how many of them America brought to Vietnam, etc. The bomb shell told what area the impact affected, etc. But at no time did they ever say "this is how many people were killed by this type of item". It's for you to infer, depending upon your view of the right and wrong of the events. Then on to the display of civilian casualties and ecological impact, along with the pickled babies the Mad Hatter mentioned previously. Of course, the photos of next generation birth defects, napalm burns, operating tables with shrapnel victims being deburred, they were all ghastly, but expected. The pictures that offended me most were ones of American driven tanks dragging bodies of Viet Cong behind them, some GI holding a couple of severed heads by the hair and laughing in the photo (I have visions of Abu Ghraib... some people are animals, the military brings the worst out in some of them, and apparently we haven't yet learned from our mistakes of the past! 'scuse me for verbalising a little corner of my anti-military sentiment). But the one photo that really got me was among this part of the display. There's a picture of a couple of women and several fightened looking children, it's probably famous given the story! I guess it caught my eye because it was a colour still, where most are black and white. Anyway, it was one of the ones I stopped and read the caption. Roughly paraphrased it is a quote from the photographer saying "some GIs were about to shoot these people but I yelled "hold it" and took this picture before turning away. The M16s fired and I saw bodies falling but didn't look back"..... They were women and kids. Even if the women were Viet Cong spies and accomplices, the kids?!!! I'm still getting upset about it, several hours later. Anyway, back to the tour, the next display seemed to be current day HCMC, tourists in cyclos, happy people on motorbikes. I was being hustled out of the museum because it was closing time, but I got the impression that this was The People's Democreatic Republic of Vietnam saying "there, we didn't make it so bad by winning now did we. Look at all the happy successful people now... even if we are commies". The final display was a bunch of posters and such showing a combination of support for north vietnam, from various quarters (notably Cuba), intenational objection to America's involvement in the Vietnam civil war (notably Germany) and America's turning against their own involvement. Anyway, I was being pushed out the door... but I saw all I needed to to get the idea both of the reality (tempered by some knowledge of the other side of the story) and of the offical presentation within Vietnam (which was more moderate than I expected it to be). Worth the visit, even for me - about the most anti-miltary person in the universe. I won't even watch Saving Private Ryan, on principle, becuase I don't support any movie that glorifes war. Any any movie America ever made makes the America GI out to be God's Chosen Man! Grrrrr (oops, that corner is showing again).

So then it was cyclo back to the hotel... oops no, there was another accidental stop at a market for more purchasing... Well you see, the thing is, the first ao dai that caugt my attention was my favourite design of all the ones I saw over several days. And I realised by watching the crowds in the street that the ones I have already bought are not proper traditional ao dai. The design is slightly different, and not one of the Vietnamese women wearing them was wearing what I'd bought. But they were wearing ones like that first one I saw... so I just had to go back and get it (had to be altered on the spot to fit me... too big would you believe?). And THEN back to the hotel. A quick negotiation with Dalat regarding payment (he refused to state a price... which was awkward for me because I had nothing from which to tip upwards). In the end I counted up the hours he and his friends had worked for us and gave then $1 an hour for it, plus an extra 50,000D coz I'd rather be generous than mistaken. I think it was Ok. And I wrote some very complimentary things on the first page of his new guest book. Anyone reading this blog, that goes to Saigon... it is your sworn duty to find Dalat and support his excellent service, by using it! He hangs around on the other side of the street from the alley at around number 26 Buu Vien Street. It's right across the road from the new Four Seasons restaurant (but based on our experience there, that place may not last long). If you get to the post office, you're on the wrong side of the street and you've gone too far. :-)

Since departing from Dalat, I've gone as far as my third shower, paid the bill at the hotel, booked the cab at 4AM for myself, and 9:30AM for Flash. And then had dinner at the Original Bodhi Tree Vegetarian restaurant. This was better than the previous night, and it's all very worthy employing ex-street kids and all that, but anywhere that has pages of the menu dedicated to "backpacker menu" which includes spaghetti and meatballs..... shrug! It was Ok food, even if they didn't have any more of the dragon fruit shake left (that's a fruit I never did get to try). I guess I was spoilled by the floating seafood restaurant in Cat Ba, and Highway 4 in Hanoi, and being fed lunch with hand-and-foot service in the Mekong Delta. Sigh, I'm never going to recover from that!

Anyway, It's time for me to go to sleep. It's 10PM, and I have to wake up at 3:30AM to catch my flight home. Mmmmm home, with low humidity, and comfy bed. But no where near as much FUN! Just one more day and I'd have had a chance to get to the Chinese Markets (and An Dong). But really, what more do I need?!

Big Hugs
GBFSB

Saigon 3

It's still hot!

This morning Flash was not feeling too well when we woke up. So the first order of the day was another trip to the pharmacy in search of LemSip or similar. What he came back with was a dubious drug with 4 active ingredients, at least one of which I believe to be illegal in both of our home countries. I don't think he'll try and bring the unused capsules home with him. ;-) But seems to have worked, because he had perked up when we went out later in the day.

So, instead of dragging him around being miserable, I took off after breakfast for a quick tour of the markets. There are three within walking distance of the hotel, or so I thought. First stop the electronics/electrical/industrial market. That place was cool. Switches, dials, bolts, hand tools... Watched a small, pretty vietnamese woman cradling a power drill she was buying. It was almost as big as she was. Of course there was also a bunch of stalls selling clothes, boltts of fabric and other stuff. I'm rather captivated by a lovely ao dai, that I might go back and buy tomorrow. There were also a bunch of guys working with sewing machines and canvas (making the awnings that protect shops from the sun). I realised they would be able to fix the broken strap on my backpack for me, so I trapsed back to the hotel to get the missing strap.

I almost expired walking to the market and back! It was probably about 35 degrees and 80% humidity or more! Decided that all further forrays will be on motorbikes to capture the breeze and spend minimal time in the sun. So of course, the ever present Honda Oms weren't around when I started back to the market. I got all the way back to that market and on to the next one before I fianlly found the ride who brought me back to the hotel again.

After a cold shower I went back and had my backpack repaired for the princely sum of $2 (I paid a bit over $3, because I can). I waited on a plastic stool in the shade on the sidewalk and conversed, via sign language, with a small boy playing with a broken piece of motorbike fascia. :-)

Walked on to the old market, no Honda Om :-( That market was much smaller that I thought it would be. Mostly food stalls and regular street shops. I may have missed the proper market, but I did walk all around the block. Went into a 'grocery store' and was amazed to find that it had all brand I recognised. This must be aimed at expats and tourists who want to avoid "having their experience" in vietnam. Or maybe at vietnamese that want the taste of something exotic (cheetos for example, similar to twistees for those of you antipodean) For me it's, when in Rome... I say! And, yes I had ice in my drink again tonight. ;-)

Made my way 'home' via Honda Om, at last. And finally met Dalat!!!! Read the Mad Hatter's entry in his guest book. My sister's suggestion to describe her as the fat woman from Australia worked perfectly. ;-) He was as sweet as she suggests! Arranged to meet him and a friend cyclo at 4PM for a trip to Ben Tranh market and Dong Khoi (which is supposed to be where vietnamese 'it' people go to be seen). It had cooled down considerably after my next cool shower and waiting in the air con until 4PM. This was to be Flash's first forray beyond the pharmacy, breakfast and bed. The Ben Tranh market was pretty good. Quite big, plenty of invitations to buy. Some of which we accepted. Can't tell you good stuff we bought, or it would give away the nature of gifts we're bringing home. :-)

Found our waiting cyclos again and made our way to the Saigon River. Stopping along the way in "shoe street" to check out the merchadise. Falsh hasn't yet found the cheap imitation brand-name shoes he's after, but I ordered the most fab black "nikes" with bright orange trim. They didn't have my size but offered to make them for me while I went for dinner. :-D I'm wearing them now, along with a dress I brought at Ben Tranh. They clash, but what the hell, they're new!

Dong Khoi was boring. Pardon my asessment, but we're here to see Vietnamese culture. Prada stores and Sheraton Hotels don't interest me here. This seems to be where the rich vietnamese come to shop and be seen. Imitating European and American style... I was a bit concerned about being toured around all the non-cyclo streets. I suppose they figure that we'll feel sorry for them and pay their fine if they get stopped. Which we would, of course! Learned about Dalat's kids (5 and 8) and wife in the Mekong area. He sends money home to them. Only work in Mekong is rice (I know about that!) and he said he can't do that. He said that in another 2-3 months he'll go home. Didn't discover if this would be to visit of for good...

When asked how long Flash and I had been married I responded with "oh, forever". lol. We had agreed before travelling that we were married, if it ever came to questions. Culturally easier. In fact I asked for it because when I asked Dalat to organise another cyclo for Flash, I said "for my husband". So the answer to do I have kids was "not yet". :-D

We asked Dalat and his friend (pronounced hue, I think) to recommend a place for dinner. It became apparent that they were going to take us back to the "new open today" restaurant that the girl in the post office told us about yesterday also. This is a place right outside the hotel, on Buu Vien street, so I guess it was better for our cyclos if they could drop us 'home' and go home for the night themselves. Of course, Dalat refused to let us pay... it's a clever strategy they have for making sure they get your business again the next day. We're meeting them at 9AM :-)

We duly had dinner at the new restaurant, Four Seasons, and it was pretty shocking. The waitresses spoke vey little English, which is not so good in the center of the tourist district. They didn't have half the drinks listed on the menu. I could find barely two or three entries on the menu (translated in French and English) without a spelling error of some kind. I assume the French verison was as full of holes. I ordered a dish which must have been their intended 'signature'. It was expensive by the standards here, and HUGE. They should have advertised it as enough for two people. It's not bad value for money for two people, but not for one. It also wasn't particularly to my liking. Neither was Flash's meal to his. And they kept trying to turn on the hotpot for my food, which I kept turning off because the heat was killing us! We gave up in amusement. I recommend anyone going to Saigon waits until they have been open for a few months before trying them again. Maybe they'll get the bugs ironed out after a while. :-)

So, then I realised that I hadn't picked up the shoes I'd ordered. So Flash took off for the pharmacy (slightly illegal night time medication this time) and I grabbed the Mad Hatter's Honda Om (yes, he said she was the fat woman too. Well, he probably weighs about 40kg, what do you expect?). We raced round to pick up fab shoes (shoes!) and back in no time flat. He tried not to charge me for the fare, "friend of Dalat" and all that. So he ended up with 20,000D instead of 15,000D. That seems to have also been a successful strategy. ;-)

And now we swelter and pass time before sleeping through until tomorrows mayhem. The plan is The Imperial Palace, The War Remnants Museum, a quick tour of Pagodas, the markets in Chinatown (Dalat insists!) . On a cyclo I doubt we have time for it all. The Pagodas are in exactly the opposite direction from Cholon (Chinatown), and it's about 3km each way. Cyclos are slow, if nothing else. We shall see. We need more custard anyway...

Anyway, there is no air con in the lobby of the hotel where the internet terminal sits, and the badly dubbed chinese movies are always playing on TV... So I'm going to skulk back to the room and snuggle up in front of the refrigeration unit. :-)

It's all nearly over... :-(
Love and Hugs
GBFSB

Saigon 1&2

You're reading this, so we survived.....

Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City without noteworthy event. Picked up instantly by taxi at the airport. Along the way he extolled the virtues of his hotel. We gathered from the business card that it was close to the Cam minihotel we had booked from Hanoi, so no great complaints. With unswerving certainty we arrived at their hotel! Rather than insist and get them to drive around (one way street and the Cam was behind us), we walked. This was a small challange because the street numbering threw us for a few moments. Nonetheless, we found the Cam, they were expecting us, the room was fine, they knew about the cycle tour pick up in the morning (meaning that the tour knew where to come and get us) and all's well... except when we woke up at 1:30AM to find that the power was out to our room and the 30 degree stiffling humidity was ebbing it's way into the room past the non-functioning air conditioning unit! Luckily they were already on to it, and it was less than half an hour before we had power and cold air again. Phew, it was a close one.

I need to add, at this stage, that Flash has been suffering a sore throat and such for a day or two, so we were already battling between not-to-cold to give him a chill, and the Saigon native condition, which is close to (but not quite) unbearable without the aid of electric refrigeration. You will find out why "but not quite" in a few moments as you read below. :-)

Breakfast on Friday morning was the best yet. One of the restaurants aimed at the million billion tourists around here was serving pancakes (crepes to those of you accustomed to USA style breakfast foods) with chocolate and fruit. I ate too much. And the guide came earlier than promised.

We picked up a Spanish couple (Jose and Laura) to join us on the two day tour. They seemed very sweet, and proved to be over the next day and a half. The guide, Hoc (pronounced Howk) was a sweetie. I would highly recommend the Sinhbalo tours and Hoc as guide. He's four months away from finishing his tourism degree, so look out for him running a tourism outfit. If he employs people like himself, it will be a great success. I know more useless information (WWAKTOS) about the Mekong Delta region, HCMC and Vietnam in general than ever needed or expected to. :-)

A quick trip out to the delta, via the restaurant with a veritable zoo in cages scattered about the property (monkeys. snakes, porcupine, the works) and we picked up our first boat ride of the day. Not before learning about the traditional long silk dress (ao dai, pronounced ow yay) worn by high school girls, which was most lovely to watch as they cycled home from school in their hats (some conical), tucking the dresses up to keep them out of the spokes.

The first boat ride took us first through the floating market. This was not what I expected: I was thinking of small boats rafted together to let people move between them. In fact, it's lots of medium sized boats carrying goods for sale (marked by hanging a couple of examples from a pole on the roof) that you can take your small boat up to the one you want and trade. We moved out onto the wide part of the delta, past the barges that were dredging up sand from the bed of the river, to be used in construction and the making of bricks, which is a big industry on the Mekong along with rice growing (more about that later) tropical fruit growing (more about that later also) and the making of "Mekong Water" (brief mention about that later). One sight that fascinated and impressed me was watching an empty barge move itself away from the bank of the river by swinging the digging jaws back and forth in a rowing motion, to row away from the bank. The first boat ride ended with the four of us and Hoc being deposited for an hour of riding before lunch.

The cycling was fabulous! The area is almost tropical. The heat was painful. The humidity was stiffling. The layers of DEET, sunblock and sweat were disgusting. The scenery was beautiful. The locals were totally excited to see us (and we only saw locals, two days with not one other foreigner in sight, heaven). The number of times I have heard and said "hello", to kids and adults alike, in the past two days is beyond counting. Late on the first day we had the guide teach us how to properly say hello in Vietnamese (Xin Chau, pronounced seen chow). So some of them got hello back in their own language, but I had the impression that they liked the English version better. More fun for them. I was absolutely charmed to be the object of their attention and amusement. After all, it's only fair that we take a turn, after gawping at everyone around us for a week solid. Of particular noteworthiness was the school we stopped to photograph. At first the kids wouldn't come off the porch, and then some got brave (to break the rules) and came half way towards us, and finally we had them pressing at the fence right up to where we stood. I even got a chance to show them pictures of themselves, that a few seemed to recognise.

Did I mention the scenery? And the heat.

At the end of our first hour of cycling we stopped at an orchard/restaurant for lunch. We were served by two immaculately presented girls who waited on us hand and foot. And I mean it! If we even slightly looked like we'd like some of the fish, suddenly there was a girl pulling meat off the fish and preparing a bowl for us. The hand-made rolls, were hand made FOR us, instead of BY us as in the past. It was divine. I don't suppose it will ever happen to me again in my life. And any thought we had that $100 per peson (they returned $40 to us on the bus ride out there, apparently it cost less with 4 than with 2 so we got a refund. Way too honest if you ask me ;-) was a lot for a two day tour in this country... dissolved. No Flash, I never fed you grapes, but I made sure that someone did! I'm sure it is unnecessary to add that the food was wonderful. At the end of lunch we discovered the hammocks that seem to hang between every tree on the delta. One of the selling points of this tour for me was that it promised a hammock siesta after lunch of the second day. Why wait for the second day, I say!

After lunch we caught another boat ride up the river (down, along, accross, somewhere). There was another drop point for a further hour of riding (including a wrong turn and smelling some fruit that no one knows an English name for but they won't allow it in the hotels because some people hate the smell. I thought it was OK from the outside). Followed by a final boat ride for a couple of hours to our home stay place. During these boat rides the boat owner strung hammocks across the deck and I lay and watch and read a book in paradise (a different one from the paradise I live in at home. This one is more green and has more water).

The home stay started out as something of a shock (to all of us I think, but no one would admit it :-). No walls. So definitely no air con, sorry Flash. They had canvas fold out bads in the style of massgae tables, in an outdoor "room". Complete with mosquito nets (that put my one to shame!) The showers had no hot water, of course. But who needed it!!! When you have no choice, everything is an adventure! I dubbed the room Camelot, because the mosquito nets gave it a medieval four poster canopy bed look (there were fringes on the top and everything).

I had a headache from too much sun and the throbbing of the boat for hours on end. But not enough to stop me enjoying dinner (with elephant ear fish again, and Mekong Water, the local rice wine, of which Flash approved) followed at the end by a group of local folk musicians who played and sang for us for about half an hour. It reminded me of Maori woman singing for powhiris. It was beautiful. I thought the main singer was striking and somehow dignified looking. It felt like proper folk music, even if we don't know the culture... that is, until they broke into their musical rendition of Auld Lang Syne. lol.

Being outdoors, the temperature was comfortable for the night. The interesting sound I kept hearing, Flash promised me, was made by a gecko he has previously encountered in Vanuatu. The rooster sounds that began at 5:30AM, before the sun was even up, those I recognised myself! It was not the first time this particular species has awoken me on this holiday.

Breakfast was bread rolls with the vietnamese version of cream cheese and jam. After which we embarked on the cycling day from... Nam (can't resist that joke, no matter how many times I've used it). I had a bruised butt from the previous day. Not bad bikes, but not good seats. Bumpy dirt pathways most of the way too (watch for motorbikes!). We rode a couple of hours before we stopped for "fruit". And what fruit! I had half a dozen different species of fruit I've never tasted, and some I've never heard of. First we tried custard (custer?) apples that Laura bought from a street stall. Those were good, but big seeds everywhere. I like Jack fruit and the other almost orange looking thing, but Vietnamese rock melom (the green flesh one) is not good. There is watermelon everywhere here, and we had papaya and fabulous fresh mangos. This was all presented to us cut up and around a big ring of crushed ice topped with a raspberry syrup. So after uncooked vegetables for lunch and dinner the previous day, we had melon and fruit from street stalls, with ice. If we're going to get Delhi Belly, we'll have earned it (BTW did I mention that the reason I have so much time to type this blog is because Flash is trying to sleep off the cold and upset stomach that have been bothering him rather much today!).

So, more cycling, including past a rice milling "factory" (using that word loosely). Where we learned all sorts of good stuff from our guide like the difference in yeild per acre in Hanoi versus the Mekong, and for different crops and duration of cultivation. We learned how they cut the harvest, how they dry it, remove the chaff, move it (you should have seen the rice boats!), what they use the chaff for (burn it to keep brick firing kilns going), and more... We even stopped to take pictures of rice paper drying before it's cut up into noodles. :-) I am so full of rice agricultural knowledge I could burst like a kernel of 2-day dried, 4-month grown, Mekong Delta sticky rice!

:Lunch was typically good, all the way up a small side brach of the river, like a boat ride up the amazon. Followed by the promised hammock siesta! I've read more of the book I brought with me than I expected to.

We rode through quite a lot of built up area. Interesting traffic crossing a few intersections. The period of time spent on the wrong side of the road was my favourite, although not the closest to an accident. In fact, the closest to an accident was the prang we witnessed on the road back into Saigon. No great speed involved so no one hurt. Bikes and people everywhere though.

Did I ever mention that our guide told us the distinction betwen Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City. He said district 1 (the central business and toursit district) is called Saigon, the whole city is called HCMC. I think it's a very nice tidy way to allow people to stick with the old name without looking like political rebels. Imagine dinner at Little Saigon, if it had to change to being Little Ho Chi Minh City restaurant. ;-)

Anyway, back to the story. We finally took a small boat back across the Ben Tre area and did one final short ride back to our pick-up point. It was the second time we rode through that town and over the great wooden plank bridge (traffic mayhem, no rules as usual). It was in this town I finally got my picture of a ridiculously overladen bicycle. Nothing will diminish my impression of the first motorbikes on the way from Hanoi airport to the city at 11PM, but I needed a picture!

We dashed past a coconut candy making factory, which was, alas, not in operation due to a power failure. Didn't stop me buying the candy at $0.40 per box. I felt like a criminal paying so little for it! Onto a car ferry and then back to HCMC and Saigon. ;-)

Since our return (and a richly deserved shower!) we have discovered that everything you could possibly need (batteries, cough syrup, burning digital photos to CD, stamps, dinner and an internet portal) are within half a mile of our hotel. And yes, we're still staying at the Cam, because the peace on th first morning proved that the Mad Hatter is a good judge of an acceptable hotel! We have not yet tracked down Dalat the cyclo, but we have scoped his street corner and know where to look out for him tomorrow. I can't wait!!

We're having such a fab time. Flash's "custard" has been turning up everywhere, and of course we'd never have it any other way. What's the fun of planning if you can't have everything shot all to hell? And what's the fun of showing up aimlessly if you can have a plan to disrupt. :-D

I only wish we could stay for longer. I've gotten the hang of crossing the street. I've truly met some locals. The food is fab! I, at least, don't seem to be having trouble with upset tummy (the Malarone does give us an hour or so in the morning where we're nervous about the tightness turning into something worse, but nothing so far). I've broken almost all the rules I was told about. And I'm having SO MUCH FUN!

More tomorrow, I'm off to bed to recover from days of cycling in the blazing humid heat. And eating far too much god food!
Love and Hugs
GBFSB