Saigon part 2

US Citizens need a visa to enter Vietnam. Please see the link at the bottom for more information.

Monday morning we were off to another cooking class. This one was far less luxurious than the last, but much more interesting. Chef Woo met us at our hotel, then we caught the city bus. This was quite the experience; there were people headed to the market with goods to sell. One of them was a lady with a huge bundle of long chicken feather dusters, the kind used for cleaning the ceiling. They were in the floor taking up the back half of the bus so you had to step over them to get to your seat. In the seat with her, and spilling onto the floor in the first half of the bus where smaller dusters. These were also chicken feathers but some were dyed bright colors. It was really interesting because all of these items were clearly homemade but they looked like very good quality. Woo told us they recycle and reuse as much as they can. We wondered how she was going to get all of her stuff off the bus and watched as her stop came close, ready to help if needed. She stood and gathered the short feather dusters into a pile around her. I had no idea she had that many, the pile all but buried her. Somehow she managed to get herself and her products out the door with one trip. Woo maneuvered her long poles out the door and handed them to her. Of course in her wake she left brightly dyed chicken feathers.

A few stops later, the bus stopped as usual and a passenger got off. Another man jumped up from his seat a second too late and ran to the door, but the driver had already started pulling away. No matter, the man ran down the stairs and jumped off the accelerating bus. For some reason this struck Caron and I as quite hysterical and we wondered if we were going to have to tuck and roll when it came our turn to get off. We were already the center of attention being the only western girls on the bus. Us laughing till we had tears rolling down our face really didn't help matters. Luckily our stop was the final destination and we didn't have to jump. Along the way we saw some interesting sites from the window. The most amazing thing were the local rest stops. Of course we've all seen rest stops along the highway, but these had hammocks. Basically you had a string of 10 to 20 with a chair next to it. The traveler would pull over, generally on a motorcycle, and take a little snooze. They looked quite busy and I thought it was a great idea, sadly I doubted the bus would stop for us.

Traffic was much lighter as we headed out of the city, but just as interesting. In the city you have thousands and thousands of motorcycles. You'll see an entire family of four or 5 people riding on one bike. These are not big motorcycles, rather something barely bigger than a Vespa. I'm not sure how they even physically hold so many people but they do. I took one picture of an entire family - mother, father, and three children. Mom was loading a week's worth of groceries in and around the father's feet. Once she got everything organized, she climbed on behind her two small children while another sat in front of dad, and off they went. You also see people carrying huge amounts of cargo; firewood, produce, suitcases, we even saw a corrugated roof. Boxes stacked twice as high as the driver, actually duct taped to the bike.

Once we left the congestion of the city, it was a pretty decent bus ride. There were many roadside stands selling food and produce, and we saw water buffalo, cows, and goats tied alongside the road grazing. The landscape was dotted with small fields growing a wide variety of crops. Eventually the bus ride came to an end and Woo was met by a friend with two motor bikes, so Caron and I said a quick prayer and climbed aboard. I felt pretty safe riding behind our hosts as there was far less traffic out in the country. We passed houses that ranged from dilapidated shacks to some really nice homes. We passed a man on a scooter with two dogs in a small wooden crate. I didn't even have to ask, but my driver explained this was the local dog catcher. During the day, people would relinquish their dogs. At night, he stole them. I'll just say, these dogs were not going to the animal shelter. Eventually we arrived at Woo's friend's home and went to the garden, where we picked fresh herbs to go in our meal. We met some young men fishing in a small pond with a casting net. They looked pretty successful, their bucket was overflowing with flopping fish. Our guide proudly showed us his homemade boat. His description of a kayak seemed pretty ambitious, it looked more like a styrofoam float, but he was quite proud, so we oohed and aahed over it.

We made our way back to the house where we found the cooking class set up outside, under a veranda. This was quite the setup. It had a homemade sink which was basically a pipe bringing water to a wooden trough. The long tables looked handmade, and of very good quality. The veranda was well constructed and had a thatched roof. Apparently our host had built everything himself. Chef Woo taught us how to make a few traditional dishes such as summer rolls, bitter melon soup, stir fried morning glory, short ribs and a fried meat pancake. We also learned to make 2 decorations from tomatoes and cucumbers. The rose from the tomato peel was very simple and both of ours came out reasonable well. The swan was a bit more difficult. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and got to visit with the family a bit as we ate.

We hopped back on the scooters and headed to the Coo Chi tunnels. These are the tunnels the Vietcong used in the Vietnam war. We started off with a documentary that explained the war from the Vietnamese point of view. I will say it was extremely brutal language about the Americans, such as how we came and viciously slaughtered innocent women and children. It went through the history of the guerrilla tactics used by the Vietcong, including many women who were hailed as heroes for killing so many Americans. After the video we wandered around in the woods where we saw hidden entrances to the tunnels. They used a tiny trap door covered with leaves. It's the perfect setting as it's heavily wooded with a thick carpet of leaves that made the doors impossible to find. We also got to go down into the tunnels, which had been greatly widened to accommodate western tourists. Even though they were double the size of the original tunnel, it was extremely difficult to walk through. We saw a sickening array of booby traps that were in the tunnels, they were really too vicious to describe. I came away with a new found respect for any surviving tunnel rat, as the soldiers who were small enough to go into the tunnels in the war were commonly referred to.

Much like Bangkok, there are street food vendors everywhere, but here we saw carts selling all kind of goods. The city streets looked much like pictures I had seen from various documentaries of the Vietnam War, and friends who saw my pictures on FB said little had changed in the past 45 years. Many many people still wore the pointy straw hat, called leaf hat or coolie hat. It's a conical hat that forms a circular cone that is pointy on top and wide on the bottom. They offer protection against the sun and rain, and I'm told they can be dipped in water to keep you cool as well.

I am being eaten alive by some sort of bug. Who knew I was so tasty! It's definitely not mosquitoes and I have seen no other insects that could be the culprit. They itch like mad and I seem to acquire more both day and night. My first though was bed bugs, but Caron was adamant that they weren't. I didn't care what they were, I just wanted it to stop! We checked my bed and no sign of anything moving.

Our flight from Saigon to Hoi An was delayed a bit and we found ourselves with plenty of time in the airport. We were sitting amongst the crowd, across from a group of 4 older ladies, maybe in their 60's. I noticed they were sharing a bag of rice, but didn't pay any attention to them. After a few moments, one of the women got my attention and offered me some. I thought, how odd, but smiled and shook my head no. She seemed quite disappointed. A few minutes went by and she offered me an orange. I didn't want that either, but she looked insistent. I took it and smiled at her. She then made Caron take one too. Now what, neither of us wanted the orange and weren't sure if she expected us to eat it. As we were whispering to each other, she held up her camera, in the unspoken way of asking if she could take our picture. We both held up our orange and smiled. Next thing we knew, she sat between us with her arms around us and grinned like we were famous celebrities. Well, that was weird!