We travel, you work

We did not do much in Hoi An apart wondering around this magnificent town, it's the jewel of Vietnam. Most of the houses are from the 17 th century, in a Chinese style and handed over from generation to generation. The atmosphere is very relaxed, habitants are calm and welcoming.



We visited as well Marble Mountain, a Buddhist monk sanctuary built on and in a mountain. The prominent thing we see it's a tall pagoda but what we did not know is that the whole rock is full of them, even a big cave with a massive Buddha and other pagodas in it. We have rented a motorbike to get there as it is 20k from Hoi An, I have to drive very carefully as Emma is rigid like a piece of steel, remembering the bad adventure we had in Cambodia. On a national road just outside Sihanoukville a truck overpassed another one and was coming directly in toward us. I just had the time to go in the ditch to not have a collision, Emma was shaking and insulted the driver in all the bad French words she could remember.



On our way to Hanoi we will stop the day in Hué to visit the Old citatel, were all the Emperor of the last 300 years lived. The citadel is spectacular and never ending. The whole royal family used to lived there and each of them had their palace. We could not see all of them as the Americans bombed the citadel, but what we saw was worth stopping for the day.

Location:Lorong Love,George Town,Malaysia

We embark on an overnight bus in the aim to be in the morning in Saigon. Yes we call it Saigon as well all the people living in this city, only the Viet congs call it HCM city. The north south division it still present as the southerner says that the Viet congs invaded the south but the northerner says they delivered the south.
Saigon is a busy city dominated by the millions of motorbike finding their way in an over congested traffic honking like if they were sending Morse code. The outskirts of the town are quite traditional with some shanty town but the centre is the opposite, big buildings, new glass towers been built and all the luxury brands starting to open boutiques. Saigon is the heart of the Vietnamese new economy, and we can see the rapid evolution since Clinton removed the embargo in 1996. What is shocking is the omnipresence of communist flags and the posters of propaganda, it fells like being in an Soviet state in the 80's.



The town got a few charming buildings, like the post office. Built at the beginning of 1900 by the French it's a magnificent colonial building. It's still used as the main post office and the inside still unchanged since it's built. The opera looks like a mini replica of the Opera Garnier in Paris.
We have planned 2 tours around Saigon and the south, as well as spending the new year here. On the first day we visited the Lao Cai temple, it's an amalgamate of religions: Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism an Taoism. Some followers believe in a few religions, some only in one, and they all prey in the same temple, only their robe colour is changing depending their belief.



After one of the most disgusting food we ate in Asia so far we are going to visit the Cu Ci tunnels. These are the tunnels were the Viet congs were hiding during the Vietnam war, there were living there full time, even some babies were born in these tunnels. They were 20k long, with3 different levels, kitchens, command centres. Very narrow, around 60 x60cm, no chances for the Americans to fit in it! Our guide fought the war, but proudly he says " I was a radio/translator for the Americans, not a viet cong". After demonstrations of guerrilla tactics and a few guys felling the need to fire some Ak47, M16, M60 and some heavy machine gun we finally enter in the tunnels. They are pretty stuffy and going lower and lower, so narrow and stuffy that only 3 of us managed to get to the end of the tunnel.
The second part of the trip is a 2 day visit of the Mekong delta. Using small boats we are visiting 3 different Islands and there people who have not change that much their way of life since centuries.
On the left a woman on one of the little boat we took. And above a man playing some folkloric music.

After having done the Apero, consisting in drinking some rice wine in a big jar full of Royal Cobras and other snakes and scorpions we will have lunch, a beautiful 1.5 kg snake.
01 You choose the snake, the nastier the better.
02 The snake is weighted, handled with care to have is head chopped off and it's blood emptied in a glass.
03 The stomach is open to grab the heart and intestine, then place in a glass of rice wine.
04 Snake is skinned off and grilled.
The ritual to eat the snake is to swallow the heart and intestine with the rice wine, drink the blood, then wait for your grilled snake.






We will spend the night in Can Tho, one of the biggest island in the delta. They have a nice tradition, when you order something grilled at a restaurant, they bring you the stuff to grill as well as the barbecue. So you can grill it as you want. In the morning we visit a rice noodle "factory", it looks more like a home run shop than a factory. We know now how it's made...

We visited as well the biggest floating market from the south of Vietnam, boats selling anything to other boats, tourist and to the land market. Most of the sellers live on their boat, they bring the goods from another part of the country using the Mekong.
Tonight is the new year and we are back in Saigon, it's madness! There is people everywhere, on the main park it's so crowded that we did not even try to go. We are treating ourselves tonight, we ordered a 2 set meal instead of the usual 1 meal for each.

Location:Rongheabaoy 1 Rd,Ban Tai,Thailand