Tan Loc/Back in HCMC

I should tell you that the Very Long Drive I had talked about was long because we drove down to Can Tho (4.5 hours) then continued on to Tan Loc which is a little island - we took one ferry to get to Can Tho and one more to get to Tan Loc - which was 2.5 hours away from Can Tho. And then we pretty much turn around and drove right back.. to Can Tho, thank goodness, not HCMC.

The next day, I headed back to HCMC by myself. This was a pretty rushed trip for me since I had to get back to work the next day :( I took a local bus back to HCMC, which dropped me at a terminal about 10 miles outside the city, then I had RUN RUN RUN! to get on an even-more-local bus - the sort of rickety bus that literally did not even stop for passengers to get on. It would just kind of slow down and good luck getting on!

I really only managed by the kindness of strangers who spoke a smattering of English and could understand my mangling of Vietnamese place names.

Back in HCMC, I had time to spare so I visited the Reunification Palace, which was awesome. A real trip. Think: Get Smart meets Austin Powers... except, I guess, if you think about the historical context, not very funny. The whole place is frozen in the swinging 70s, with upstairs meeting rooms filled with Chinoiserie, a game room (a game room!), and crazy basement military intelligence rooms. And the phones. The place was filled with retro phones. Loved it.

Hangin' out in the Mekong Delta

OK, I really shouldn't just post unflattering pictures of Vietnam, so here is a picture of my lovely drip coffee and me relaxing on a hammock. Vietnamese <3 hammocks too! Not just the Cambodians!

Can Tho

The next day, we took a drive down to the Mekong Delta, and it was a Very Long Drive. (And, my camera battery had died, so for my entire trip in Vietnam I could only take photos with my iphone. Sob, sob.)

Once out of HCMC, we were really starting to get into the countryside. We stopped by a roadside cafe and had a great cup of Vietnamese coffee and then - this is the exciting part - we had to use the bathroom. I was led into a tin shack, and quickly sussed out that I had to pee on the concrete floor, which was conveniently slanted on one end towards a little hole that opened out into the nearby stream. There was a tub of water you could scoop to "flush". I wanted to cry.



When I was done, I found out that the cafe proprietors had kindly let us "out-of-towners" use the SHOWER to pee in, cos it was properly covered. THIS was the real toilet. I didn't want to cry anymore.

HCMC

I went to Vietnam and I forgot to blog afterward! It's been too long since I've travelled...

Let me start with an ode to the traffic to Vietnam:

Motorcycles swarm.
Cars lurch, powered by their horns.
Traffic lights are
Confounding - and only a suggestion anyway.
Zebra crossings are decorative. So pretty.
Just go.

Below is the view from our hotel room.



I loved it - straight into some weird airwell right out of Brazil. Mind you, the hotel itself was a not-very-inexpensive hotel that was perfectly nice and clean on the inside. But the view! Ha. I figured I hadn't come to HCMC to sit in my room and look out the window, so I could live with it.