11-14 June: Weekend Fun and Goodbye Vietnam

With the bike trip over we arrived back in Ho Chi Min City for a weekend of fun before heading to Koh Samui on Monday. We were all a little gutted that the bike trip was over, but it was great to be back in the city we had enjoyed so much the weekend before. It was also really good to see Anne Marie again. Stephen and I had not seen her since 2001 when she left University to move to Kuwait and teach. Meeting up with Anne Marie really did show what power and value that social media has in today’s world. We had both kept in contact with Anne Marie through Facebook, and when I mean contact, I mean by being friends we kept half an eye and what she was up to and she us. It is a great way of following what old friends in far flung places have been up to and it was Facebook that informed us that she was in Ho Chi Min City. A quick Facebook message and we were back in touch and due to meet up after close to a decade!



It was also extremely nice of her to lend us her flat for the weekend, which she had recently moved out of to live with her boyfriend. The flat was the perfect place to stay as it was right in the centre of the city and close to everything we needed.

Saturday morning we got up early, had some breakfast and with Anne Marie as our guide we set off to Ban Than market. Ban Than market is famous in the city and a must see for all visitors. It is a large closed market made up of rows and rows of stalls selling everything you would expect from a market in South East Asia. There were stalls of fresh fruit of every colour and type from the very smelly Durian that we had encountered on the first day of our bike trip, to the beautiful red dragon fruit. Fresh meat and cold produce lined up next to the fruit stalls and people bustled about buying their weekly shop as if it were a Tesco. There were also numerous cafes and cooked food stands where the usual Vietnamese food could be bought including the lovely Pho and the smells filled the bustling walkways between the stalls. There was also stand after stand of clothes from local and handmade traditional Vietnamese to well know western labels such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, however, I wasn’t too sure of how authentic some these were. Rob was convinced as he bought several polo t-shirts and they looked and felt pretty good. Collectables were also on sale including tribal face masks, hand carved wooden animals, stone chess sets and paintings, again some of the authenticity of these products looked questionable.

We moved through the market and as we passed every vendor called out to us to try and get us to look at their wares. However, the main feature of these market is not the products, or at least to me it wasn’t, it was the bartering and haggling of the price! The rule for the shopper was never pay full price and for the vendor it was ‘squeeze them for every penny!’. I loved it! Bartering was the highlight of my visit to the market. The first thing that caught my eye was a lovely chess set with the pieces carved out of stone, or so I was told, and it did look pretty good. I asked how much and the Vendor replied 500,000 dong or £17.80 in UK money. “No way, no way,” I replied, “100,000 dong?” She laughed and offered me 400,000. I played along and countered with 200,000. No laughing this time, but she did lower her offer to 300,000. I made my last offer 250,000 (about £9). She declined, so I played my final card and decided to leave the shop saying it was too much. It worked, she ran after me saying she accepted. It was great. I loved the process, the banter, the haggling. It was really exciting and at this point I cared nothing for my purchase, it could have been worth a tenth of what I actually I paid I was thrilled that I had bartered my way down to half her original price! I went round loads of stalls buying bits and pieces including presents and gifts and most of the fun was in the haggling not the picking. I could have stayed there all day, but after a couple of hours we were all pretty tired and stopped for lemonade.

After the market Anne Marie took us to a local Pho restaurant where we had another gorgeous sample of local Vietnamese cooking. Pho really is one of the tastiest dishes I have ever had. I really hope when we get home we can recreate it in some form.

After lunch Anne Marie left us to it, as went to see the American war Museum. This was perhaps the most sobering part of my trip to Vietnam. We read about the invasion, we saw old abandoned US military hardware and then learnt about the effects that chemicals used in US bombing runs had had on the people of this country. Many children, some born as little as four or five years ago, have been born with massive disfigurements and disabilities as result of these chemicals. A number of these children were at the museum that day selling their handmade crafts or playing music for donations to the charity that supported them to live fulfilling and normal lives.

I have to admit it made me really upset and angry. It is simply not fair that these children, most of them born 25 years after the war that had ended, were suffering at its hands, the most innocent victims I have ever seen. A war that, to me, seems to have served so little purpose, but has caused so much hurt to the Vietnamese people. I know very few countries are free of history and the atrocities of war that come with the past, so this isn’t a judgement on others, but merely a reflection of the pain and suffering that we as a species seem all to easily to inflict on each other. It should serve as a reminder to us all that despite our technological advancements and pretence to intelligence, we still have far to go before we can truly be considered to be a peaceful race above the brutal world of nature.

It made me think even more widely about some of the sufferings the people of Vietnam have endured, being a part of colonial France, then fighting for independence, before the American War and then several wars with their neighbours, as a people they have simply been attacked and attacked for most of the last hundred years. Tung, our tour guide, had told us that every Vietmanese family today had usually lost someone to war. It was quite a striking statistic. I find it hard to believe that the people of this country, in the face of all this war, suffering and violence are some of the most friendly, welcoming and happy people that I have ever met. They must have a soul that runs far deeper and far more at peace than many other people, as I believe that faced with so much conflict I would not be as pleased to see foreign people visiting my land. However, as Tung said, it is always better to look forward than back, a great attitude for a people and one that many others should consider, perhaps the attitude that will lead us away from a world of violence and suffering.


The three of us left somewhat sombre after that and returned to the flat. Stephen and I nipped downstairs to the local cafe for a couple of beers and to relax, while Rob, being a rugby fan, went to see a local ex-pat rugby team. Anne Marie was involved with the ladies touch team and her boyfriend played for the men’s team. She had invited us to watch and Rob snapped up the opportunity.
 

We met up again later that evening for a meal and drinks. After several quiet nights we decided that we needed a bit of a blow out and with the football on that evening there was no better excuse. We went to a local sport’s bar called Phatties, a typical sports bar that you would find the world over, mainly filled with western ex-pats (most of them from Anne Marie’s rugby club) and a few locals. It wasn’t quite the local experience that we had strived to find as a rule, but we were more than happy with the mango dackaries, yeigmiesters, beers and gin tonics that we consumed throughout the evening. After a rather disappointing football result we headed home. This time we chose the standard taxi option, rather than a random motorbike. It had been a good night. Again it was good to catch up some more with Anne Marie and we had a chance to speak to some of the other ex pats there and ask them about their lives and experiences of living in Vietnam. Everyone seems to love it, which didn’t surprise me one bit!

We had to be up very early Sunday, as we were being measured for our hand made suits that we were getting made for my cousin’s wedding next week in Thailand. We had gone for an initial sizing and picking of style and material on Saturday morning before the market, but we had to go back to make sure the suits fitted and have any alterations made. We were still a little tipsy as we arrived at the tailors at 7.30am. We were also a little early so we went to a nearby cafe for breakfast. Whilst tucking into some rather delicious eggs and coffee a street peddler came over selling plastic nodding horses! We had seen one in a taxi the other day and it had made us laugh. With the alcohol still clouding my head I beckoned the man over and asked how much he was selling his horses for. He replied $4 (about 72,000 dong, they use both currencies freely). I decided to get haggling. After all I had done so well yesterday at the market. I thought that less than $2 would be a fair price, but instead of offering him it in US I decided to offer it him in dong, that was all I had on me. I made a quick calculation and offered him 300,000 dong. He gladly accepted and quickly handed over a horse before taking my money and disappearing down the street. I played with the horse for a bit and then returned to my eggs. It was only then I realised that I had made a fundamental error in my US to dong calculations! Instead of offering him 30,000 dong, less than $2, as I had planned to, I had inadvertently offered and paid him 300,000 dong – close to $17!! I had haggled massively in the wrong direction!! When I pointed this out to Rob we both laughed so much that the waiters began laughing at us for laughing. It took 5 minutes for us to calm down. Ah well, hopefully my $17 horse will sit nicely and nod away on the dashboard of my car when I get home!!

Sunday afternoon was a bit of a chill out day. We had lunch in the cafe close to the flat and in the afternoon Stephen and I had power naps in the flat watching Thai boxing and ESPEN on TV, while Rob managed to discover an inner-strength and energy to go shopping around town.
 In the evening we spent our final night eating at a lovely Vietnamese restaurant with Anne Marie, her boyfriend Dave and a colleague of hers, Tracy, who we had met the previous night. The restaurant was another culinary revelation. We ordered loads and loads of dishes that were placed in the middle of our massive table, where we took bits from each to try. We had mud fish, grilled squid, spring rolls, sautéed beef, prawns and pates. It was quite the banquet and so tasty. A great way to end our dining experiences of Vietnam. After the restaurant we went to a very local CasBar, tucked away in a side street and with a roof top terrace bar offering us a lovely night time view, where we enjoyed gin and tonics and long Island Ice Teas and reflected on the awesome time we had enjoyed in Vietnam.



Monday morning brought an end to our Vietnamese adventure. I have to admit, that I have totally fallen in love with Vietnam. We all did. It is a country that is so beautiful, a wash with tropical colours, textures and sound. It is a country that is engrossing and intoxicating with so much to see and experience that it draws you in and leaves you wanting not to leave. The food and drink was as rich in taste and smell as the countryside from which it came, but most incredibly and above all else, the people are some of the friendliest, most welcoming and hospitable I have ever had the joy of meeting. I hope that I have the chance to go back again one day and see some more of this wonderful place and for anyone who is reading this with an urge to travel I would wholeheartedly suggest you go. Book your flights today.