Globe Journey: May 2012

The Mekong Delta and the painful Cu Chi Tunnels

While in Saigon we did a one day tour to see the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Mekong Delta,

We got to experience a little path in the Mekong Delta,

We took one of these tiny boats,

We noticed that it was mainly women operating the boats,

Here we gooooo!!!

rowing with a majestic look!

It wasn´t an easy job to navigate these boats! These ladies are quite impressive,

In general we have noticed that in Asia women do a lot of hard labor!

Coming back in a different kind of transportation :)

Our driver,

The painful Cu Chi Tunnels are a tough reminder of the Vietnam War. It is quite impressive the traps and how creative the Viet Cong were! This war is still present in the mind of many due to the incredible suffering it created to the people caught in the middle that just wanted to live their lives peacefully.

The tour we took had an incredible guide with a very strange sense of humor! :P Our tour bus pretty packed! it is quite the popular tour to do,

First joke from our tour guide! There is only two types of tunnels:
"The Steam rice tunnel
and
The KFC tunnel"

Juana barely made it in the steam rice tunnel :P

Almost completely hidden!

Some painful traps for the American soldiers...

You don´t die immediately.. is the moving to get free that kills you... to which Joke number two is: "the faster you move the faster you reach heaven!"

Other lethal traps,

Joke number 3! as per our guide... every-time an American soldier would get trapped the Viet Cong would sing: "bye bye miss american pie" :S

The KFC tunnel was not that big :P you had to crawl,

Jokes aside this war left a lot of scars in both ends...

Ho Chi Minh City = Saigon and Anthony Bourdain Lunch Lady!

After a lot of rain we arrive to a really hot and sunny Saigon City! If we thought Hanoi was busy!! ohh menn! Saigon was even more! motorbikes everywhere!

Rush Hour is a crazy experience!

And when there is no more space in the street.. they take the side walk as an extra lane! :P

If you wonder why are they using masks... because of the pollution :S They didn´t adopt electric motorbikes like the Chinese... From all the cities we have visited so far Saigon was definitely the most polluted one :(

Antonio even got a new accessory!

The locals found it quite amusing to see a western wearing the mask as well :P

Walking around the backpackers area,

It was interesting to notice that there were more tourists travelling in Vietnam rather than in China! we wonder why!

Some really cool paintings,

Sea food as a street snack!

In Saigon we were staying with Rita! our friend from university! and together we went in to a gastronomic adventure!! we followed the footsteps of the Anthony Bourdain show No reservations and had some amazing noodles made by the famous Lunch Lady!

The yummy noodles,

We were glad to find out! that everything was very much the same as we saw in the Show! the Lunch Lady just got some extra helpers! but she is still the one doing the noodles... and as well counting the money :P might not be the most hygienic thing to do! but we can confirm we didn´t get stomach sick from it :P

As good geeks! we had to take a picture with the Lunch Lady! :) she is already used to having crazy tourists asking her for pictures :P

Browsing around a market made for tourists,

Walking around Saigon you really feel the french influence,

Who said you cannot take a tv on a tiny motorbike!! YEs you can!! and this guy is here to prove it :)

The time the weather caught up with us!

From Hanoi we traveled by train to the Vietnamese Imperial city of Hue!

Our accommodation in the train,

Our dinner some instant Pho Noodles! actually quite good for instant :P

We arrive in Hue and it was raining a lot!! we got soaking wet every time we went out! We didn´t knew at that time that it was rain season in this part of Vietnam! it rained non stop for 3 full days!! :P

But not everything was lost! we found an amazing restaurant! :))) here are some pictures of the amazing food we had there!

Yummy spring roles,

Beef Pho!

In Vietnam due to the French influence they have some amazing bread! you find a lot of this little places were you can get an amazing sandwich,

The best find in Hue was this little bakery in which you could get some pan au chocolat,

After four days of constant rain we decided to move on to Saigon! So far we had been really lucky with the weather!

Ha Long Bay - One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World

Halong bay is simple breathtaking. It is so majestic and impressive! It is definitively in our top must see places! We took an amazing cruise of one night and just loved it!!

Here are some pictures of a total of 927 in two days! :P