Day 9 - The accident

We're up at 7am, and out the door by 8:30am. The plan was to find the first restaurant we see and grab breakfast there before heading to the Notre Dame church. Unfortunately, theres nothing open, and the few places I did find open, the 2 girls didn't think their bowels could take the risk. So there goes my idea of squatting on the street and eating.

We get to the Notre Dame church and take a few photos:



We head back to the hotel, in order to find food. Thankfully we walk past a Pho24 before we pass out from hunger.

Pho Duc Biet - Combination Beef Noodle soup

Ice soya bean and avocado shake

We get back to the hotel and relax a bit before we realise that we never ate the watermelon my sister bought. So she whips out her trusty chopping board and knife and starts hacking away. So imagine 3 chicks crowded around a bathroom sink, shoving a whole watermelon down their throat, 15mins before checkout.

Completely stuffed, we grab our bags and head off to the hotel.

The flight back wasn't too bad. We get home around 6pm and we're starving. After a quick shower, we all head off to a local hawker centre for dinner. The hawker centre is next to a playground. So whilst we let the kids run wild, the adults start ordering the food:

Sugar cane and lime juice

Hainese Chicken Rice

Boneless chicken feet

Chicken congee

Rojak

Satay chicken sticks

Laksa

After dinner, we go to the local bakery and load up on freshly made bread and buns for breakfast tomorrow. The traffic is atrocious and at a complete standstill. We wait at a park around the corner whilst my brother in law gets the car.

The kids are having great fun on the monkey bars whilst I stand there chatting with my sister, when next thing you know, my niece is on the floor. She had leaped up to try and grab the monkey bars and missed. She basically landed hands first onto the ground. She's screaming and crying like I've never seen before. My sister tries to calm her down as my brother in law pulls up. We jump into the car, and my niece is still screaming and crying the whole way back. I know she can sometimes be a drama queen, but we've never seen her behave this way before.

We get my brother in law to drop us off at the local medical centre and get her checked out by the doctor. The doctor suspects she's got a fracture in her wrist and probably sprained her other wrist and both elbows. He recommends that we go to a hospital and get it x-rayed. Meanwhile, my niece is in incredible pain. The doctor tried to find a sling to put her arm in, but would you believe that a medical centre doesn't have a sling? I ended up using my cardigan and turning it into a makeshift sling for my niece.

We drive straight to the hospital where it was a massive wait. It took us close to 2 hours before they would even see my niece (Even though 15people who arrived AFTER us got attended to first). And only because one of the other mothers saw my niece in so much pain that she went and begged one of the nurses for us. We finally get to see the doctor, and it took him less than 5 mins to send us to the x-ray department. And it was only then that they gave her any pain killers.

We get the x-ray done and then its another 30min wait for the doctor to check the x-ray. Unfortunately, she does have a fracture in her wrist. Luckily, its only a hairline fracture and won't require putting her arm in a cast. We go out and wait another 15mins to get her arm bandaged up and put into a sling before we're sent home. The whole process took over 3hrs and we didn't get home until about midnight. The bad thing is, its her first day back at school tomorrow. :(

Day 8 - The shopping spree and night river cruise

Oh the painnnnnnnnnnn! I wake up and find bruises on my arms and thighs from that damn massage last night. UGH. We open our safe and take all our money out. Today its all about retail therapy, I'm sure I'll feel better soon. We walk outside the hotel and found a shop close by for breakfast:

Steamed prawn rice paper

Steamed pork rice paper (My all time favourite!)

Mass amounts of herbs and veggies to go with the rice paper

My mud river crab noodle soup (I think its soft shell crab?)

Asking a local tour company where the lacquer factories were, they told us to go to the war remnants museum, and its just down the road from there. We cab it to the museum where we duck in for a quick tour.

To be honest, 5mins into there, it was just too shocking and depressing for us.

Landmines

Hand grenades

We left in search for the lacquer factory, where we were hoping to pick up a bargain or two. We ask for directions and end up going in circles for 20mins when we spot a tourist information centre. We go in to ask for directions, and they basically told us the closest lacquer factory was in Hanoi?? Excuse me??? They managed to find 3 lacquer shops and gave us the address, so we thought we'd hunt them down incase its a language barrier thing.

We get into a cab and find ourselves about 5mins walk from our hotel. And the address she gave us was to a major shopping centre, almost like Myers. My sister was about to hit someone. I thought the best thing to do in this situation is to drag her to Ben Thanh Markets for some retail therapy.

Along the way, we pick up a huge range of tshirts for the kids. I also stopped my sister paying 4 times the amount for a hammock. Why did she need a hammock.....thats another story. We get to Ben Thanh Market, and 5secs into the markets, I'm bargaining again. I taught my sister the code I use with Moishii. "I think BLAH would like that", which is my sign to start bargaining.

I picked up a really nice embroidered bag for 100,000 dong, which is around $6.50AUD. I spotted a similar bag at a different store, with a much more detailed and elaborate embroidery. I offered them 10,000 dong and was dead set on the price. 5 mins of bargaining and I walk away from the shop, only to have the woman come chasing me down. And still, I would only offer 100,000 dong. That is until she said "Miss, please, could you give me just another 10,000 dong so I can make a profit?". That's when it occurred to me, that she was asking me to give her another 65c. Of course I gave it to her, but when you're dealing in hundreds of thousands, you forget how much it actually costs you when you convert it.

We continue through the market, going nuts buying triples if not quadruples of everything. After awhile, we had to run across the street to an air conditioned cafe to have a break before we could continue:

Iced ginger tea

After we had a few drinks, it was back into the market for the rest of our shopping. We ended up buying about 4kgs of Vietnamese coffee between the 3 of us. We started going a bit nuts and just bought random crap. Chopsticks, coasters, paintings, magnets and anything else we could bargain down, we bought. I even got the Thai fisherman's pants??? Why?????

We're eventually so loaded up with goods, we could not physically walk through the narrow walkways of the market. It was a sign to go grab lunch.

My workmate highly highly HIGHLY recommended Pho 2000 to me. And that she had 3 meals a day there one day because she loved the food that much. We walk into Pho 2000, and its just as she described, Bill Clinton's photos all over the wall. And the pho? It was REALLY REALLY good:

We're exhausted by this stage, so we hop into a cab back to the hotel where we collapse into a heap. I quickly grab a shower and get ready for tonight. We had booked a night river cruise tour which takes you to a cultural centre with a traditional Vietnamese wedding demo.

Only me and my sister would be going on the tour, and they pick us up and take us to the local pier. We get out and next thing you know, my sister is shoving me infront of the boat taking photos:

Looks good aye?

Then the tour guide pointed out to us that we're at the wrong boat..... THIS was our boat:


It was a 1.5hr boat ride to the cultural centre, and along the way, all you can see are the various shacks that people live in. Its quite shocking for me, to see the most developed city in Vietnam to look like this.




We get to the cultural centre, and not without drama. My sister has a phobia of water at night, particularly dark water (Long story). So as it got later, she starts freaking out and I end up sitting on the floor of the boat with her.

We pull up the pier, and she practically shoves me off the boat. Meanwhile, she's got her eyes closed and both her hands on my shoulder so I could guide her. Except she kept stepping on me, and we're walking on this rickety pier that is about 1m wide. I almost fell in and took her with me!

We walk into the cultural centre and we see a massive outdoor grilling area. There was also many wok tossing stations etc. We thought we were in for a treat with all you can eat:


Unfortunately, we get ushered passed the stalls and into a hut where we sit for 30mins drinking tea. Only then did we get to go into the theatre to watch a reenactment of a Vietnamese wedding.

Opening dance

Picking up the bride

"Consummating" the marriage

After the show, we get shown our table where we get a "traditional" Vietnamese meal...we'll see about that.

Green salad?

Mushroom and white fungus seafood soup

Crumbed fried tofu

Fresh and fried spring rolls

Fish.....and chips....

Fried cheese stuff beef and glutinous rice balls

Steamed lotus leaf fried rice

It was fried rice, wrapped in lotus leaf and steamed. Errrrr....yeah....

Cauliflower and prawn stir fry

Fresh fruit

Luckily, it was only a 20min bus ride back to the hotel, rather than the 1.5hr boat ride. I'm sure my sister would've laid face down and petrified on the floor. We get back to the hotel around 10pm, and we went to Caravelle hotel where we had cocktails and enjoy the night view.

We finished the night up around 1am since we were leaving tomorrow.

Day 7 - The Mekong tour

I was arguing with my sister last night that we should get up at 5:45am, which will give us 1hr 15mins for the 3 of us to shower and get ready. She starts screaming that we don't need to get up that early and that she's getting up at 6pm. So when the alarm goes off, my sister scurries into the shower. Since there's 3 of us, I'll just wait my turn. The lights are on, so I open one eye just to check the time on my mobile. 4:55am. W....T....F?????? My sister comes out 10mins later, and I ask her if she changed the time on her mobile because Vietnam is one hour behind Singapore.

"Errrrr...."

I almost threw my phone at her before I went back to bed. When all finally got up and showered, we all sat around watching TV as its 6am in the morning. Around 7am, we get up and go searching for breakfast. Last night we had walked around trying to find a food massage place (Which was completely booked out) when we spotted this noodle place just down the street from our hotel. My sister finds out that they open at 7am, which is perfect for us to have breakfast at. We rock up at 7am, and all the staff stands there staring at us. Apparently they're open at 8am. My sister starts going on about how THEY told us 7am, specifically one of the girls. They must've felt guilty so they told us to sit down and they'll serve us.

The specialty of the place is Bun Bo Hue, which is beef and pork noodle soup, where the broth has been stewed for hours with beef bones. Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the photo of the delicious noodles. I do have one of the banana blossoms they served with it??

My first Vietnamese drip coffee

Steamed rice paper rolls

After breakfast, we go back to the hotel and wait in the lobby where the tour guide picks us up. He drives us to the office we booked the tour at yesterday, where we change to a bigger bus. Meanwhile, my sister ducks into the local shops to grab some pastries and pork rolls for us to snack on:

My first pork roll in Vietnam - Same but different to the Oz version

We didn't realise its a 3hr bus ride to get to the Mekong Delta and the floating markets. So I sat by the window and amused myself with taking photos of the locals:

Taken from my seat on the bus, with the traffic coming DIRECTLY at us

All of the traffic is moving in this photo, including the pedestrian

We eventually get to our destination, where we all transfer onto this tiny wooden boat where the floor creaks as you walk to your seat. The guide explains that we're on our way to a smaller floating market, as the big one is too far away. So I get myself a good seat and start snapping away:

Doing their laundry

The Mekong Delta has lotus growing everywhere

This girl was so cute!

Watermelons!

Taking a nap on their hammocks

Bananas and coconuts

Some guy fishing

It was at this point, the boat turns around and goes back to the direction we came from. My sister is looking at me, and I'm looking at her going WTF? I ask her whats going on? Aren't we going to the floating market? Apparently what I just saw WAS the floating market. The one watermelon boat, and the bananas and coconuts. There were a few other boats with things like sugarcane, but THATS IT. We had bought extra shopping bags with us so we could buy some fruit and other stuff to take back, but theres no market for you to buy from! GRRRRR

The boat continues on down the Mekong Delta, and our next stop is to look at the rice paper and puffed rice making:

Look at how the guy is steering

Because he needs both hands free for lunch!

The boat eventually pulls up to this shack looking thing, where we all get off. The first thing the tour guide takes us to show is this:

Yep...cobras and scorpions

They did offer us a taste, but if I won't drink the 4 snake wine my uncle makes, I'm not about to drink theirs. Next he decides to show us coconut candy making.....which took all of 30secs, 15 of which, was him taking the coconut out of its shell:


We got to taste the coconut candy before we were shuffled into a tiny room at the back of the shack, where a little old lady is making rice paper. We also got to try the freshly made ones:


We ended up buying a whole heap of coconut candy and rice paper to take home with us. We then walk about 100m to the next shack where they make the puffed rice. This was actually the most interesting part of the tour. The rice in its husk is stirred and tossed around with hot black sand. The rice will then start popping and puffing like popcorn. They then put the whole mixture through a sieve for all the sand to go back into the wok, then transfer it to a second sieve where all the husk falls out. The leftover husk is then used as fuel for the fire they use to cook the puffed rice! Genuis!

Puffed rice cakes - like LCM!

Removing the longan from the seed, which is dried and sold

We then sat down for awhile, tasting the different puffed rice cakes they made whilst sipping on lotus tea. We then get ushered back onto the boat, where its a 1hr ride to our lunch destination.






There was a lady from Sydney sitting right behind me. She also had a Nikon SLR, but it was a traditional film camera. Plus her camera had duct tape all over it because she had dropped it recently. So she started asking me all these questions on where to get a DSLR, and how it compares and responds etc etc. So whilst the boat is going along the river, and we were all enjoying the view, I could see in amongst the trees, a woman with 2 babies on a bike about to ride over a bridge. "PLEASE!! Lets the timing be right!!" I prayed silently to myself. And as the boat is about to pass the bridge, out of the corner of my eye, I could see the lady raising her camera simultaneously with me, and both of our cameras went *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*. She immediately goes to me "Did the shots turn out???" since I could review my photos straight away. What do you think?

I should edit that power cable out

They have a poo stick to hold onto so you don't fall into the river!

By the time we got off the boat, I swear my butt was flatter than a sheet of paper sitting on that wooden bench. Lunch was served at a cultural village type thing:


Although its a tour, and I didn't expect authentic Vietnamese food, but come on, this is quite dismal. We didn't even get drinks, they were additional charge:

Pork chop, boiled rice, cold spring rolls, paper-thin-see-three cucumber and tomato

The best part of the meal was actually the veggie broth we got:


After lunch was over, we had about45mins to relax, where most of the people found themselves a hammock to take a nap. I went for a walk around the village and found out that they had a crocodile farm, good thing I wasn't exploring at night:


There was also a traditional Vietnamese singing performance, and the minute the music started, I knew what to expect......


At the end of the performance, the prettiest and most timid looking girl came out with a MASSIVE donation box...... They were lucky I had a lot of small USD notes left in my wallet.

We hop back onto the boat and 20mins later, we're back on shore where we have 45mins to explore the local markets to buy any fruit and veggies we liked. This was probably my favourite part of the tour (Despite it being 35degrees), as I got to see all the local produce. The things I was hoping to see at the floating markets:

Nashi pears

All different types of gourds

Fresh straw mushrooms

My sister insisted on buying a watermelon

We buy a whole heap of fruit, even though we get complimentary fruit from the hotel before we jump back onto the bus. Its another 3hour trip before we get back, so we settle in, draw the curtains and nap. Next thing you know, the bus stops and both the driver and tour guide gets off. I open my curtain and see the bus driver pull out spanners and screw drivers etc. Oh great, the bus has broken down. Within a minute, the whole bus heats up. You'd think that the bus will remain cool for 5 minutes because the air con has been on for an hour, but no. Within a minute everyone starts to break out into a sweat and fanning whatever they could get to cool down.

I look out the window again and see the bus driver walk past with a hammer. This can't be good. I jump out of the bus to see what's going on and to also get some fresh air.

The fan belt is broken and he's desperately trying to get it fixed. Its slightly cooler standing out here, but the sun is killing me, so I opt to get back onto the sauna of a bus. 15mins later, he finally gets the engine going and the air con comes blasting out.

We have a pit stop at another cultural village thing, where theres souvenirs to satisfy all tourists. Whilst my sister hits the shop, I decided to go take a few more photos. This has got to be one of my favourites for the day.


30mins later, we're back on the bus and it breaks down again. Luckily, this time it only takes them about 5mins to fix. We eventually get back into Ho Chi Minh City and they drop us off at our hotel. We went and scrubbed ourselves clean before going out to search for dinner. Rache's husband recommended this really nice restaurant that was near our hotel, we walk up and down the streets for about 20mins before we find it. We take one look at the menu and realise the entrees cost about 5x the amount of a main meal. We decided to pass on that.

Since it was getting late, and we had a foot massage booked in, we went into this place called Vietland. It was a touristy place, but the prices were much more reasonable and close to the massage place. Surprisingly, the food was really good!

Green Papaya & Prawn salad with rice crackers

Grilled lemon grass pork

Summer rolls

Seafood stir fried noodles

Hot and sour fish soup

Fresh straw mushrooms with tofu

After dinner, we take a stroll before heading to the foot massage place. When we got there the night before, we were quite skeptical. Its a building in the dark empty streets of HCMC. To make matters worse, when we were looking for the place, this random guy offered to help us, but snatched the address card off us and refused to give it back for awhile. Suddenly we were surrounded by 3 guys trying to give us directions. I'm not sure if he was trying to help or not, because he gave us directions and didn't try to offer us a lift there or anything. But we were all a bit shook up after that. I mean, I was on high alert with my hands on my bag, ready to kick some self-defence ass if I had to.

So we walked into this place and its like a day spa...but at night time. It was serene and almost zen like atmosphere. When we walked back in tonight, they seated us and gave us some fresh fruit and tea whilst we waited. When we were done, they asked us to go upstairs for our massage. So we climb up these steep stairs, and at the top of the stairs was this dodgy looking door with a curtain hanging in the doorway. We walk in, and I was gobsmacked. It was a MASSIVE room, with about 30 chairs lined up next to each other. The lights are dimmed down with a reddish glow. There are men on all the chairs getting massaged, and it looks like they're all sitting in their boxers. The first thought that popped into my mind was if they offered "Special" massages. I wanted to throttle my sister for recommending this place.

Since we didn't speak Viet, and they didn't speak English, and theres a no talking policy in this room, we started playing charades with them trying to explain what we wanted. Me and my sister wanted foot massages whilst Rachel wanted a head and shoulder massage. 10mins of playing charades, suddenly me and my sister get shoved into a change room and told to take our pants off. WTF? Luckily they clarified that we need to put on the boxers they've supplied. Now I know why all the guys look half naked.

We get ushered to our chairs where we laid back and waited for the massage. Once they left us, I turned to my sister and hissed at her "WHO THE HELL RECOMMENDED THIS PLACE??". She just tried to stop laughing in my face. The next 10mins, they have the massage girls running back and forth. They kept walking past us, as if they didn't know what to do. We kept explaining in sign language that we wanted foot massages. They eventually got the message and we could finally begin. They came out with buckets of hot herbal water to soak our feet in, and it was hot. So hot, my sister lifted her foot up straight away, but the woman put both her hands on my sisters knee and pushed her feet back in the water and held it down. *blinks*

They also gave us a cool cucumber mask before starting the foot massage. The foot massage was pure bliss. Until she started massaging my calves. Now that was painful, but not as painful as they started massaging my thigh. Now THAT was painful. And I was certainly uncomfortable with the fact that they're practically massaging my groin! Maybe we accidentally told them we wanted a "special" massage? Near the end of the massage, they got us to sit up so they can massage our necks and back. This was good, until she massaged my arms and I felt like she was trying to break my bones. I had my eyes closed at one stage, and the woman taps me on my shoulder and asks me if I wanted "that" and then points to my sister. I turn to look over, and the woman had flipped my sister onto her knees and had her hanging upside down. I started shaking my head going "NO NO NO!!!!".

By the end of the massage, my feet has been pampered and the rest of me is all bruised up. We stagger back to the hotel where I pass out painfully in bed.