Hello there,
I've opted to try a different blogging method cause we have a packed day ahead of us. Sorry if you don't like it. It's what felt right for me this morning.
8:30am A Tour Bus, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
8:40am Same Tour Bus, Same city
Pau's English is better than Khanh's
9:23 same tour bus, city: unknown
I think our tour bus just hit a scooter carrying an umbrella. Not your average it's raining umbrella. No, the type of umbrella you put on your back patio. Hope whomever was driving that scooter is okay...
9:30 a city in Vietnam
We stopped at another Handicapped Handicrafts workshop. The victims of Agent Orange work to create beautiful artifacts to sell to tourists. Agent Orange was a toxic chemical dropped by the U.S. Army at the end of the Vietnam War that has caused generational deformities in Vietnamese people. It's devastating to see how people here are still suffering from the aftermath of the war.
9:40am Handicappped Handicrafts
Two things. First, Calling something Handicapped Handicrafts here is normal and acceptable apparently. In Canada I'm convinced it would be incredibly politically incorrect. Second, the water in the toilets was brown. Alicia washed her hands and they were covered in gunk. I opted to not wash my hands.
10:03 Long Road, Somewhere in Vietnam
I need to google what's up with the Vietnamese and ceramic German Shepherds. They're everywhere. Also we passed a field of ceramic elephants and zebras and giraffes. All life size.
11:30 Cao Dai
We've been driving for two hours. The landscape here is incredibly flat. We're far out of the city now. We've passed acres of farm lands spotted by the occasional cow meandering on the road side. Palm trees ripe with coconuts dot the horizon. We've arrived at Cao Dai temple which was built in 1935. Cao Dai is also the religion. Founded in 1926, it is a blend of Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucius.
12:17 Cao Dai Temple
It's very hot. My sweat lines the grounds of Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh to Cao Dai. We watch part of the Cao Dai prayer ritual and then walked around the temple. There are many rules at the temple. I've managed to accidentally break most of them. I don't speak Vietnamese so I'm assuming the monks are just telling me to have a good day with aggressive hand gestures. The delicate decor and detailed architecture are brightly painted in an arrangement of colours. The gardens surrounding the temple are immaculately kept. It's also very hot.
12:23 A Tour Bus, Cao Dai Temple
We are back on the tour bus. We are thankful for air conditioning.
1:30 The Bus (as it will now be called)
We just had lunch. I opted for steamed veggies. There's one mountain to be seen, the Black Lady Mountain, everything else is flat. The mountain looks very out of place off in the distance against the starkly flat land.
3:15 Cu Chi
We have arrived in the Cu Chi region and stopped at the Cu Chi tunnels for a tour. The Tunnels were designed during the war to protect the Vietnamese people from the Americans. Their lives exists solely within the confines of these tunnels and the tiny bunkers they inhabited. The soil here is unique. It's so hard that they dug it out to make the tunnels and required no supporting structures. It's like rock it's so hard.
3:30 Cu Chi Tunnels
Pau is funny. I have high hopes for his future with Alicia.
4:00 Cu Chi Tunnels
I would not have survived the Vietnam war had I been alive during it and a Vietnamese person. I'm apparently a lot more claustrophobic than I even knew I was. Tunnels are not my home. It's sad to think people were forced to live their lives in this beautiful country completely underground just to stay safe from American bombs. I cannot fathom the immense fear they lived in during those devastating times
5:23 The Bus, Ho Chi Minh City
We drove back to HCMC beneath a stunning sunset (no photos unfortunately). The sun was a blood orange spectacle amidst a pastel pink and yellow sky that shone radiantly over the vast expanse of luscious green farmland. Vietnam's beauty runs deep into its countrysides.
5:35 The Bus, HCMC
Pau's name is actually Thangh Phong. Somewhere early in the day we were confused.
6:30 An alley way, HCMC
Pau and The Bus dropped us off beside an alley way and told us to walk down it to get to our hotel. Alleyways aren't actually creepy in Vietnam they're just narrow streets with less scooters
7:00 Gotcha
We sat down and ate dinner at our favourite restaurant "Gotcha". They sell great cheeseburgers with fries and a Coke for 85,000 dong ($5USD). Vietnamese food isn't bad but a person, such as myself, with an intolerance to rice can only eat rice so many times before they want North American food and only North American food. Gotcha was full tonight but the sweet ladies who run it set us up our own table outside and eagerly accommodated us. Vietnamese people are incredibly giving.
8:48 Elegant Inn Hotel, HCMC
Showered up and in bed. Cool shower never felt so good. Also fun fact, it's so hot here that the tap water doesn't get cold. We estimate that it was about 35-37 degrees today. Humidity was about 2,754 percent.
As always, thanks for following along! Prayers for health and safety always appreciated!
-mo
Total day hits by scooter: 0
Trip total hits by scooter: 1
I might actually try to drive one of these things at some point.
