finally after a long wait, i made my first trip out of hong kong during the long weekend over good friday and easter.. knowing the fact that everybody would be thinking alike, we started looking for possible destinations quite early only to realise that we have again been beaten in this game.. we were getting tickets for vietnam and were close to finalizing hanoi, when pankaj told us that that there were no tickets available from tokyo to hanoi.. so we unanimously agreed to go to ho chi minh city (as if we had many other options !!).. anyways so the tickets got booked and we were lucky enough to find some rooms in a hotel 2 days before our departure..
the four of us met at the airport express station on friday and seeing the long queue there (and the short time we had before the flight departure) thought it wise to go straight to airport and do the check-in there itself.. when we reached the airport it seemed as if entire hk was flying out on that day.. we were sure that we could never make it to the flight in time if we checked-in through the normal queue.. luckily one of us had the marco polo privilege card of cathay, so we dumped all the stuff that could not be taken as cabin-baggage in his suitcase which he would check-in quickly though the short marco-polo line.. the rest of us used the no-baggage line and it appeared as if we had finally put a crack but our friend got struck at the marco-polo counter since supposedly the flight was over-booked and there were no tickets left.. the sorting out of the entire issue took another 10-15 min and after that there was a very long and congested queue at the security check.. but there was no going back, once we had the security check, we ran at full speed and managed to get into the train by couple of seconds.. the train dropped us at the departure terminal and from there onwards it was again a 1-2 minute sprint to reach the flight gate on time.. we managed to reach the flight on time and took off for ho chi minh city..
the first thing that took me by surprise as we landed on the ho chi minh airport were the small size of the buildings.. there were houses all around the periphery of the airport and they were on average having 2-3 floors.. it was a much welcome change from the high rises of hong kong and actually reminded me of my home town jaipur.. it was as if the tall buildings of hk have been uniformly shrunk by some external force.. we queued up in the long line for visitors at the immigration check but some local guy asked us to go to the shorter line for vietnamese citizens.. the officer in-charge there was a dangerous looking guy giving side glances to us as if he will eat all of us alive.. i was the first one in the queue and as expected when i went to him, he started making fun as to why i was in the line which is for vietnamese and not for indian, i didn't argue much since i didn't want to be denied entry.. after all of us were through we bought some local currency (dong which we renamed as dongrila) and hired a cab to our hotel.. the second surprise followed as soon as we entered the cab that this is a right-hand drive city.. to add to the confusion of the second hand drive was the plethora of two vehicles we encountered as soon as we hit the road.. whatever few four vehicles were there, were getting lost in the uncountable number of scooter, mopeds and bikes.. to give some idea, was later told that with an approximate population of 8 million the city has nearly 3 million two vehicles, so on average every family has at least one two vehicle..
anyways after the half an hour drive we reached our hotel which also had some history associated with it.. during the vietnam war, this place had many bathing rooms for american soldiers and after the war was over, the hotel was constructed here.. since it was time before pankaj's flight arrived in city, we had lunch at the hotel and decided to stay there itself.. after pankaj arrived late afternoon, we had some snacks and then left for our first walk around the city.. crossing the road was a great experience.. there were no traffic policeman and not all crossing had a traffic light, so the idea is to start crossing the road without panic even if traffic is coming and they will move past you without even touching you, the drivers are really expert at this.. i actually quite enjoyed this and soon became adept at this after becoming confused a couple of times initially due to the right hand driving traffic.. we took an hour long boat ride on the saigon river which reminded me of some of the scenes from movie platoon, after which we enjoyed the cool breeze at a river side cafe and then headed for some live music and drinks at another hotel followed by dinner at our hotel.. before hitting the bed, we booked a cab for the next day to take us to cu chi tunnels..
next day we left for our tour of cu chi tunnels (read more about them
here) with our guide.. on the hour long drive he kept telling us about the tunnels and the city in general.. though it became boring sometimes but was quite informative on the whole.. how the city which was called saigon earlier got its present day name, how the french brought rubber tree to saigon, how the civil war started and america got involved and above all about the 250km long underground tunnels used by the vietnamese guirellas to resist the american forces.. CP put by pankaj amazed me, if only he had used this talent at iimc, our dude has come a long way it seems he he :)) the trip of the tunnels was an amazing experience, there were remains of a american battle tank that was destroyed in the war, the big craters left in the ground by the B52 bombs dropped by the american forces and then the tunnels themselves which run as deep as 10 meteres in the ground.. the ingenuity of the vietnamese people was great, they actually used the metals scraps of the bombs dropped by american to make spears which they used in hidden traps to kill american troops, the manner in which they made the outlet for the smoke of the tunnel kitchen so as to keep it unnoticed by the planes, keeping the clothes of dead american soldiers near the air ventilators on ground so that the ventilators dont draw suspicion from the sniffer dogs of americans.. we just walked some 35 meters on the first level of the tunnel and wondered how they can live in such claustrophobic conditions for years and more so on the the deeper levels where it was not even possible to walk but people can only crawl.. besides this there was a shooting range where i had my first experience of firing a pistol :) on our way back we went for lunch at a local place, our guide thankfully arranged for some vegetarian food for me as well :P after this we went to the war remnants museum where there were on display some of the aircrafts and tanks used in the war along with numerous pictures describing the condition of american and vietnamese troops and the vietnamese locals during the period of war.. two of these pictures were pultizer prize winners too.. after this we went to the notre-damn cathedral which was built by french to be a replica of the cathedral in paris (though my friends who have seen the paris one didn't agree to this) and then booked a tour to mekong delta for the next day with our guide.. myself and pankaj stayed in the hotel watching a movie while the others went for a massage, when they returned we again hit the streets, went to a place called apocalypse now, didn't find it interesting, then went to another place which was also quite dull and so returned back to sleep..
next morning we were supposed to check-out the hotel and leave for mekong delta by 8 am but as expected there were some delays and we left at 9 only.. reached our destination after a two hour drive and purchased some local hats which gave us the appearance of shambu shikari and rice peasants :) we were told that mekong is the longest river in asia (if i remember correctly) and flows through tibet, burma, laos, thailand, cambodia and vietnam.. there are 4 islands around the mekong delta named after the animals considered lucky here - unicorn, turtle, dragon and phoenix.. we were supposed to visit unicorn and turtle as part of our cruise :P we noticed eyes on all the boats that were cruising along the river and were told that it is believed that this keeps all the evil forces and harmful animals likes crocodiles away from the river.. on the unicorn island, we drank honey tea (we actually tasted honey from a bee-hive with bees all around our fingers), listened to some local music & songs and then took a boat ride along a very narrow canal (boats coming from both direction but rowed with extreme dexterity by the locals) back to our boat.. after this we went to the tortoise island where we saw the coconut cookie making workshop (& actually bought some, they tasted real good) and took a short ride on horse-cart.. the boat took us back to the mainland and from there we left for the place where the lunch was arranged for all of us.. after this there was a further one hour drive, we reached the airport well in time and after having some light snacks did the usual hisaab-kitaab of the trip.. as in most cases in past, i was appointed the accountant and performed my job with full accountability :) we bade goodbye to pankaj whose flight was 5 hours after us and btw he lost his ipod in the process :)) thanks to the marco polo membership, two of us got upgraded to a business class seat and had a convenient ride (watching the movie Dhamaal) back to hk..
so now i can also say that i have been to "The Nam".. don't know if i will visit hanoi in future.. let's see.. the ending is abrupt but couldn't think of a better way.. till the next time..
