September 24 - Day 5: Hoi An, express tailoring & bouncing

Today we took advantage of the hotel Shuttle to Hoi An which is an old town south of Danang. The trip would take about 2 hours and as we were the only ones going from the hotel we had a comfy car and our own driver.

We were offered a look at the marble carving on the way and as always this turned into a 'tour' with shopping opportunities. The marble sculptures were pretty impressive and the size and complexity of the hand carved work is incredible. It was pretty reasonably priced given the level of skill and hours of labour and we could have shipped a massive piece to Australia for a 'flat rate of $100'! We passed on the opportunity this time but did end up with a few small souvenirs (it's soooo hard to walk out with nothing after using the loo and being so well looked after).

 

 

Then it was on through Danang to Hoi An. The driver dropped us at a silk making demo first where we saw the process of silk worms growing and making cocoons which were then unravelled into thread for weaving the fabric.

 

We saw a quick demo of the weaving and then we were shown into the embroidery room, with rows of women stitching fine embroideries designed from photo's and paintings. Now while I would love to have time to sit and stitch all day, these ladies work 8 hour days, 6 days a week. Again the prices were pretty reasonable given the hours of work and I hate to think how much the workers are paid after the company takes its cut.

 

 

 

Then we were taken for tea....and to be encouraged to look at clothing designs in the the fabric rooms. We explained that we were leaving at 1pm as arranged with the driver. Five minutes later the driver appears and says no problem if we need to stay longer! I was content loading up with silk scarves but Rich and the kids were all soon measured and then selected fabrics. An hour later the order is made and we were are told to come back at 3pm to collect, and if anything needs adjusting it will be sent to our hotel. We had talked about getting some clothes made but didn't really think we could manage it in the time we had so the family were happy to have this treat after all.

Finally we were were ready to head into the Old Town which was the purpose of the trip, only to be guided into the lantern making and wood carving area. Love those lanterns so did indulge and buy one which again seemed so inexpensive ($10) for the labour involved but they are so gorgeous. I just hope Australian customs lets it through. And that it will fit in the suitcase.

 

 

 

And at last we made it to the Old Town which is very pretty and full of arty shops, souvenirs, nice eating places and a scattering of ancient buildings. We wandered into temples and across the covered Japanese bridge. It wasn't too crowed but very, very hot! After look around we gave in and went for a cooling drink and some lunch which revived us enough to wander around a bit more before heading back into the main town.

 

We found our driver and returned a little early to collect the new clothes. Amazingly everything was finished so after a round of trying on and parading and being checked over by many of the assistants, just a few minor adjustments to Rich's suit trousers were needed and then we were on our way. It's incredible what can be made and the quality and finishing was a very high standard. Apparently they have dressmakers working 24 hours to keep up with demand. The staff were all lovely and enjoyed seeing the kids excited and happy.

 

 

On the way back through Danang our driver gave us a bit of a tour and took us over the Dragon bridge (only stopping to take photos this time thankfully). There are many bridges in the city and they are all pretty spectacular. Next time we come I think a stay in Danang will be on the list.

 

Back at the hotel we had missed a couple of our planned afternoon actives but managed to catch a session on the trampolines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for the best 5....

 

Rich

• Marble madness! Marble makers some beautiful sculptures
• Hoi An tailors which wasnt really just a tailors. (In fact a massive tourist trap!!!) the experience of getting measured up and fitted was great.
• Silk picture embroidery - learning and seeing the how of this amazing work.
• Just as you thought you could escape - Chinese lanterns! My wife is a sucker for lanterns!!!
• The Hoi An old town was pretty cool - lots of history there which was interesting - could have been made a lot more of, sadly turned into just a giant sales shop - rather than genuine history - but the tiny streets and old buildings were most endearing.
• Dragon bridge! We need a bit more of this sort of decoration at home ( both Aus and UK)

 

Dan

• On the way to Hoi an we when to Marble Madness! It had some really detailed statues and sculptures.
• First we went to the silk shop. They showed us how they made silk which was a very interesting method
• Next they showed us the pictures made with silk woven in to another fabric.
• Then we went to where they made all the clothes and had some made for us!
• And finally we were showed the lantern shop and mum got really excited.

 

Sarah

• Getting my dress made was the best
• Going on the bungee jumping trampoline was fun coz I could do forward and backward flip
• The marble shop was cool and our guide kept saying she liked my pale skin
• Walking around the old town was very hot
• The silk worms were cool too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 23 - Day 4: Lang co Bay - Resort time

We left HCMC this morning and flew up to Danang for the next stage of our holiday. This was planned as our slow & relaxing time. We were met at the airport and driven north for about an hour, through a very long tunnel through the mountains to the Angsana resort on Lang Co bay. It's quite remote, with 2 connected resorts being pretty much the only development on this big, beautiful beach and bay. The resort itself is stunning. On arrival we had tea and chocolate treats then were delivered to our suite - 2 bedrooms with big ensuites, living & dining, and a private deck with our own pool. 3 TVs! Luxury plus!

The gardens are beautiful and immaculate, surrounding many bigger swimming pools which are all connected and flow into a long winding swimming channel that runs around the resort for over 600 meters. The kids were straight into the water to explore of course.

A lot of thought has gone into design with many sculptures, winding pathways and fabulous interior design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch and a look at the beach (hot hot hot sand, warm water and not a soul in sight) the kids checked out activities and chose to go on the water pillars which turned out to be big peddle wheels. They peddled in the canal which connects the 2 resorts.

 

 

 

For dinner we tried out the Rice Bowl restaurant which turned out to be pretty special and we had one of our best meals ever. Beautiful decor with timber domes over the tables and fantastic lighting. The food was superb and we were looked after like royalty.

 

Salmon steaks. Delish!!!

Not as much action as the last few days but here are the top 5 for the day....

Rich

• I am not sure I can mange five best things. The hotel basically is all of them!
• The Room/Suite was unbelievable. The facilities around the resort just as flash.
• Highlight of the day was definitely dinner. A beautifully designed restaurant and fabulous food and service.
• Farting frogs!

Dan

• The Laguna hotel was amazing it had a great first impression (marangs and hot chocolate)
• Our private pool was great
• The bigger pools went all the way around the hotel!
• The room we were staying in was big for a hotel room.
• The restraunt Moomba had really good food

Sarah

• The first impression of the hotel was great
• The private pool was fantastic
• The other pool was amazing too
• The water pillars were sooo fun I had the best time
• Dinner was amazing the decoration was soooo cool

 

 

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September 22 - Day 3: Cu Chi Tunnels

We were up early again today for a trip to Cu Chi for a tour of the area where the tunnels were created during the resistance of the French occupation and then expanded by the Viet Cong in the late 1960's. The drive took a couple of hours through the crazy peak hour city traffic and then out to countryside with a mix of rice paddies and dairy farming. Much of the farming hasn't ever returned after the area was carpet bombed and poisoned with agent orange during the war. The people here have not been able to grow food anymore, there is no rice or fruit only grass and tapioca they have turned to producing milk.

The tour of the tunnels started with a short movie about the history of the tunnels. It was an old film from during the war and would have been propaganda to encourage Vietnamese to join the Viet Cong and to 'hunt Americans'. It was pretty descriptive and I can see why the American soldiers feared coming into the area given they were so ineffective against the clever and brutal tactics being used against them. The narration of the movie was very anti-American so I asked the guide what the American visitors thought of the movie when they came. She told me that they don't bring Amercans to this part of the tour as it makes them upset and angry. Always 2 sides to a story and I'm glad we had the chance to hear this one.

As we moved into the area of the tunnels we were shown an example of a hidden opening to the tunnels where the Viet Cong could just pop out and shoot then disappear again. Sarah just managed to get into the hole, Rich tried and got one leg in! What was more incredible is that this opening was double the actual size of the real ones. Another frustration for the Americans who were just too big to get down into the tunnels. We went through a short tunnel which had been made much bigger for us lumpy westerners. I can't even comprehend crawling around these tiny spaces for miles with children, wounded, supplies, bombs and all the gear needed to survive underground.

The tunnels are dug down into 3 layers, the living areas, meeting, cooking areas were 3 meters down, then these had tunnels connecting into the next layer of tunnels 7 meters below ground then on to the lowest and safest layer which was 10 meters down. The tunnels were 125kms in total length across a 5km square area. They had entrances under the U.S. Army base (the Americans didn't know that when they thought they'd be clever by putting a base close to the V.C strong hold) so the VC could attack without warning and also could escape into the river 5km the other way, hiding under river plants. Once the Americans worked out about the plants they poisoned the river. The V.C. then dug wells inside the tunnels for clean water. There were many ways of hiding the tunnel entrances, including in ant hills which also could be used for shooting hideouts. Even the smoke from cooking was contained inside until early morning when it was released under the cover of the mist.

Many entrances were booby trapped with some very nasty and sharp devices hidden in holes designed to hold but not kill a soldier. The idea was that the injured man would call for help and once other soldiers came they would all be gunned down by the hidden V.C.

The Americans bombed this area more than anywhere else, firstly with agent orange to defoliate the jungle so the VC could not hide anymore, only to discover the tunnel system. The U.S. trained 'Tunnel Rats' in parts of the camps they found tunnels in. You had to be small so little Americans and fighters from Mexico & Brazil went into the tunnels. This was more effective but with the network being so complex with many booby traps many just got lost or were killed in the tunnels. The next plan was to use German Shepherd dogs to find and flush out people from the tunnels. The V.C started washing with the same soap as the Americans which effectively put an end to that tactic. The V.C. were also very resourceful in collecting unexploded bombs and reusing all the parts to make land mines, grenades and bullets. In the end the Americans resorted to carpet bombing with massive bombs from the B52 bombers which started to expose the tunnels and collapse them - even then the Vietnamese adapted building rooms in triangle shapes to with stand the shock and some of the tunnels 10 metres down were unaffected. Still so much time had passed the Americans had been forced to withdraw.
There were thousands of people killed here and the area was carpet bombed and poisoned. Children in future generations have been born with malformed bodies and permanent illness. There is a lot more to tell about this area's history but space won't allow here.

At the end of the tour we were given some tea and tapioca wedges and shown how rice paper for cooking is made. We also had the opportunity to fire the very big, very loud, very real guns from the war into a dirt wall using real bullets. Not on our list of must do's but apparently popular for American visitors.

This was another fascinating yet sobering experience and one to be recommended.

We were back HCMC for late lunch and were dropped of in the town centre. After yet another fabulous meal we set off for a wander around the more touristy part of town. We found a very nice shopping centre which was a bit upmarket and very westernised so after an ice cream and coffee we were back dodging motorbikes and exploring. There is some fabulous architecture in HCMC and the gardens are beautiful with many people out doing exercise, playing badminton and sepaktacraw (kick volley ball with a springy thing as described by Sarah).

It was a peak hour by the time we were on our way back to the hotel so it was a game of timing and artful dodging to get back. Dan had been checking out all the cool bike helmets people have so we were also on the lookout for a helmet seller. After being told they cost around $10 Dan was even more determined to have one of his own. He's pretty sure they will meet Australian standards for his bike!

After a cool down we were back out to search out a place for dinner and happily came across a man selling helmets. After being offered many options, Dan found 'the one' and was a very happy boy.
Now over to the family for their best fives...

Rich
Cu Chi tunnels - this was interesting and probably includes most of my five today
Thinking about what why and how a whole district was forced to live underground in terrible conditions for 20 years
The ingenuity displayed by the Vietnamese in such terrible circumstances. From living underground, hiding their existence, covering the entrances to the tunnels, creating and disguising the air vents and smoke holes, digging wells inside the tunnels, booby traps and evasion skills, recycling unexploded American ordinance to continue the fight with them all quite remarkable.
The scale of the tunnel system. Each individual tunnel so tiny. As you can see from the photo I cannot even get into the entrance of this "tourist sized" hole, yet there is 100s of kilometres, up to 20,000 people living like this.
Discovering that Ho Chi Min "walked like a man" too! (see picture)
Dan's face when he got a helmet he liked (see picture)

Sarah
The tunnels were cool. dad could only just fit
The tour of the tunnels was fun and interesting.
Getting into the tank was fun ( see pic )
Walking down the walking bit in the city towards the river
The pizza that I had for dinner was very nice.

Dan
I liked how they dug out the tunnels. It seemed to be really hard work.
I liked how smart they were in hiding the traces of where they had been.
The traps they used were really interesting and smart.
I loved buying my helmet.
The pizza we had was the best pizza ever.

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September 21 - Day 2, part 2: HCMC War Remnants Museum

After our morning cooking class there was time for a swim before we headed off to see the War Remnants Museum. We had read that this was a must-see, and we would agree, but we weren't really prepared for the reality of what we saw and learned. The history of the various occupations by foreign counties and the ongoing state of resistance and war for the Vietnamese was something we hadn't known. The U.S. War of the late 60's and early 70s was just the final chapter of the story. The Chinese, French and Japanese all had their time of occupation and all of them were incredibly brutal in their treatment of the local people.

While the museum tells these stories and those of the North South divisions it focuses in the main on the U.S. involvement, starting with financial and arms support for the French colonialisation and then effectively taking over the regime in the 50s and 60s. It is a fascinating deeply moving experience. This really opens your eyes to the realities of war, the corruption of political motives and bartering, its cost both social, financial, and emotional, and man's capacity to inflict atrocities on each other. The story of the Vietnam war is told simply, in bald facts with accompanying photographs, most of which are from well known war journalists. It is certainly no Hollywood production. The effect is at different times horrifying, disturbing, heartbreaking. You cannot help but leave with a great dissatisfaction of what seems to be a senseless waste of human life and of the lasting damage done to the Vietnamese people, and a significant degree of skepticism and suspicion in advocating for armed involvement in other areas of the world.

We were all left pretty emotional one way or another and it prompted some thoughtful discussion about war, the current refugee crisis and how lucky we were to be born and live in stable peaceful and wealthy country.





We went for a walk after the museum and here are some of the scenes around the city. We did improve on our technique for crossing the road although I doubt we will ever look as relaxed about it as the locals. One lady asked if we needed help to cross when we were waiting for the hotel shuttle. Lovely people.

Peak hour = 6 million bikes on the road

Electricians nightmare

Fabulous gardens

Over to the family for their top 5 for part 1 & 2....
Rich

• At the market. A cornucopia of fresh produce, big trays of crabs and prawns and fish, all alive. The preparation of much of the food was going on as we wandered with our guides, filleting of fish, shelling of crabs and most spectacularly the beheadings and skinning of frogs is something I won't forget in a hurry!!!!
• The cooking was definitely good fun and has put some Vietnamese dishes into the repertoire of our cooking and amongst those the kids will eat! Hopefully they might even cook them sometimes
• The mad rush of motorbikes, seemedly everywhere. We learnt later that there are about 10 million people in HMC city and 6 million motorbikes. They are such a feature. Congregating at the traffic lights, overflowing onto the footpaths, with small children squeezed between their parents, or standing on the handlebars, carrying huge disproportionate loads, ladies riding sidesaddle and all the groovy helmets
• The War Remnant Museum stunned us all. Laid out in magnificent photos the simple but appalling story of the horror that mankind will inflict on each other. Unconscionable. It should educate us all.
• The beautiful Tao Dan park just a few short metres from the motorbike mayhem an oasis of tranquility with beautiful sculptures, hedges, flowers and locals praying, practicing tai chi, playing sapak tekraw and badminton.

Dan

• I loved the cooking because we learnt lots about Vietnamese food.
• Eating the what we cooked. The caramel pork was the best.
• We went to the war museum. Some of the pictures were quite disturbing though. We learnt lots about how the Vietnamese survived in the war.
• The park was nice. There were lots of people playing badminton and Kick volleyball.
• The zoom cafe had really nice spaghetti. The lights were made from motorbike handle bars.

Sarah

• The cooking class was fantastic. I learnt loads.
• The food from the cooking class was great I liked the spring rolls the best
• The pictures in the war museam were interesting and kinda disturbing and sad especially agent orange. It can still be passed down in genetics at birth.
• The torture section was quite scary and sad because of all the different things they did to the prisoners.
• The people at the park were cool playing kick volley ball with a springy thingy.

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