BootsnAll Travel Network
Add this blog to: MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, RSS


Archive for the 'Ho Chi Minh City' Category

« Home

Lin Phuong

Friday, March 13th, 2009

I am running behind on my blog entries for Ho Chi Minh, so you will have to excuse this post being in the India section of our blog. We have been helped so often by folks that have recommended tours or accomodation on their blogs, so I am adding this post so others might also enjoy the wonderful place we stayed in, in Ho Chi Minh.

 I love our guest house! It is a little oasis tucked into a back lane one street back from the bustling Pham Ngu Lao street and in the centre of the back packer district! It is suprisingly quiet for its location.

The building is 4 floors high but that is the norm here and we are getting quite used to scaling stairs. We stayed on the 3 floor in a room for 3 but the manager gave us a mattress for the floor so we could all fit.

We paid $US28 per night for the four of us and that included eggs and coffee and baguettes (with real butter!) for breakfast, free internet, and the most wonderful hosts. The linen was changed daily and the room cleaned. The whole place is spotless and the whole family is involved in the business. We chatted to the kids, the parents and even the grandparents during our time there, although not all of them spoke English so we all just nodded and giggled at each other.

 The address for travellers that are interested is: 283/29 Pham Ngu Lao St, District 1, Ho chi Minh City. Ph: (84-8) 38377709  Email: linphuonghotelvn@yahoo.com . It is near the Canada hotel, down a small driveway/lane. Good luck finding it – Just ask one of the locals they can show you the lane.

Posted in Accomodation, Guesthouse, Ho chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh City, Hostel, Pham Ngu Lau St, Travel, Vietnam | No Comments »

“Blasted to Oblivion”

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

A perspective from David’s eyes…. 

In the lead up to America (and Australia) entering the Vietnam War (known as the American war in Vietnam and surrounding countries) the the then US Secretary of state publicly stated that (in his words) that if North Vietnam  ‘did not step back’ that America would ‘Blast them into Oblivion’!

 The rest is history so they say but being in Vietnam you certainly get a different version of history than the one I’ve heard all of my life.

 Up front I need to say that it would be hard to convince me of any good reason to go to war and I find the attitude even today of the militarily ‘stronger’ nations of the world including America (with Australia sadly as its back-up), Britain and Israel as standouts to be arrogant and destructive to world peace (irrespective of what they say) and the effects of this live on in Vietnam 24 years after the war ended.

 Part one of our war history lesson started on our first day in Vietnam when we did a walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City. Especially interesting was the war remnants museum (Originally called “The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government of South Vietnam”) which consisted largely of photo’s of the war itself as well as the media’s reflection of the war from around the world. It’s fair to say that the museum was strongly angled from the Communist Vietnamese Government perspective but a picture tells a thousand words so hundreds of pictures of torture, burned villages, maimed and destroyed bodies (more civilians than soldiers) plus more stories about the atrocities and results of the war on the Vietnamese people left me shocked and bemused that any nation could impose such brutality on another…..sadly when reading about the Vietnam war there were too many similarities to the present Iraq war so not only have we done it once, but now again and again!

The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides (about three quarters civilians), 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians (all civilians), and 58,159 U.S. soldiers (plus 500 Australians).

Our war re-education wasn’t complete there however and the next day we headed towards the Cambodian border to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Cu Chi district is located 50km from Ho Chi Minh City and is now considered a heroic district for its role in the anti-American war. It is legendary for its tunnels system of approx 250km which was once a ‘Free Target Zone’ (anything that moves is considered enemy and can be killed).

At the Tunnels site we were able to walk around (and through) the original tunnels (40 cm wide by 100cm high) which were built in three layers and operated often right below American troops stationed in the area.

Here are a couple of photo’s from our Visit to Cu Chi:

Luke heads down the tunnel

JM inside the tunnel Viet Cong

While America had the military dominance over the North Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese Army and Navy carried out a somewhat conventional war whilst the Viet Cong waged Guerrilla war using anything at their disposal to protect their land and their nation. They built crude but effective ‘traps’ to catch out roaming American units, they dismantled unexploded bombs and ‘re-made’ them into smaller grenades and bombs to use and they recruited everyone they could (they even had women in the tunnels who sewed uniforms). We saw the ability of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese to defend themselves and their values and in doing that to unite Vietnam into one nation (rather than North and South) and while not everyone may agree with the communist ideology, their dedication to the cause was clear and the result was that in April 1975, North Vietnam captured Saigon. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.

Vietnam is a different place….people have a different outlook on life, maybe from knowing and experiencing that it can all be blasted to oblivion so easily but it is clear that the ‘American’ war is still and probably always will be an indelible scar and yet also a badge of honour on the psyche and spirit of the Vietnamese.

Posted in Ho Chi Minh City, Travel, Vietnam | 1 Comment »

Is there an electrician in the house?

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

One of the things we’re always fascinated by in our travels are the electrical power lines in different places. We’ve seen the ones in Bangkok a few times and wondered how it is that they keep working but Ho Chi Minh City tops even Bangkok with hundreds of power lines mingled together and strung from one pole to the next and to the next.

It’s a strange thing to take photo’s of power lines while you’re on holidays but we couldn’t pass these ones up so click on the links below to take a look and if you’re a keen electrician then we’ll call you next time there’s a fault on ‘the’ line!!

Looking along the line: Click here -> Down the (Power) line

Here’s the junction at the power pole: Click here -> Which wire do I cut?

If you’re in the mood for some other tricky power lines then take a look at these other ones, some which I’ve seen and some I haven’t…Now, which wire do I cut???

http://www.molsci.csiro.au/library/gifs/powerlines.png

http://thugtooth.net/images/india_phone_1.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/4/3932148_53b3f2e173_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2632655563_4b340049ff.jpg?v=0

Posted in Ho Chi Minh City, Strange & Bizzare, Vietnam | No Comments »

Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

We arrived in Ho chi Minh City tonight just before dinner. The Lonely Planet guide assured us that we would be able to take the local bus for the price of 3,500 Dong ($AU3.50). We asked and searched and walked and walked however we were told over and over again that they stop running after 5pm.

Having been warned about such scams we didn’t believe a thing they said. We went on searching for our bus and along the way collected a little group of other foreigners that were also searching for the elusive bus. Eventually, after asking several more nationals and receiving the same answer (that the buses don’t run this late in the day), we decided that a taxi was the best option.

We all crammed into a 8 seater taxi and shared the fare of 200,000 Dong, a price increase of approx ten times what we had planned to pay. Then to add insult to injury, I over tipped the driver in my confusion about all the zeros in this new currency. I meant to pay him 6,000 Dong and accidentally paid him 60,000 (I’m sure he was very happy but I felt very foolish).

 It was quite fun to be crammed into the back of the van, all full of excitement and sharing our travel stories. The traffic kept us laughing (and gasping/squealing) all the way into the city.

 We had read about the traffic in Vietnam in guidebooks and blogs, but nothing had really conveyed just how bizarre it is here. Cars, bikes and buses literally weave in around each other, constantly honking their horns. To turn across the traffic at the lights, it is like an orchestrated dancing horse parade, as the cars and bikes just drive straight for each other and vie for position to get in front of each other.

Once we found our hostel (Lin-Phung Guesthouse – Pham Ngu Lao St, a fantastic little place 5 stories high, run by a family that keep plying us with crispy Vietnamese snacks – yum), we went out to dinner and sat chuckling at the traffic some more. We saw little old granny’s riding bikes and giving other women rides on the back (one was so tiny it was hard to believe she was riding at all). We also saw men riding bikes and calling out to offer us a massage, as well as one woman pushing a scale and encouraging folks to weigh themselves for a fee.

 All and all it has been quite an adventurous day full of surprises.

Posted in Ho Chi Minh City, Hostel, Travel, Vietnam | No Comments »