Having been way too wordy with our first part of Vietnam, we have decided to be a bit more economical with the second part. The Mekong Delta was an amazing landscape to bike through, and Saigon /Ho Chi Minh City will always live in our memory. If you have not visited this amazing country yet, put it on your itinerary. Here are some of our strongest memories, and we will let the photos fill the gaps.
1) Beautiful, fertile delta property displaying rice farming in all stages: new seedlings in shimmering pools, young plants painting the countryside an luminous green and mature rice swaying in the wind and then cut, carries to the road where it was spread out and dried right on the road we were biking on. Due to the ability to harvest 4 times pr. season in this fertile area, we were able to enjoy the full circle of growth.
Philip: Best picture not taken:Astri stuck in the rice paddy after failing to negotiate a curve in the narrow walking lane we were biking.
Astri: Equally good, and not taken: Philip stuck in the rice paddy one minute later (Even if you do not see the water, the bottom of the paddy is very wet!!!)
2) Changing crops, but a countryside always bursting with fertility: Coconuts, mangoes, dragon fruits.....
3) Interesting toilets. Special award: Bridge seat over shallow river in the open with schools of small fish directly below
4) Vietnam's greatest asset: its people. We were overwhelmed by their friendliness: always smiling and waving as we biked by, even though they knew we were Americans. We must have received 5000 hello's and then there was the old man who came out of his hut, shooed at us and said: "Go away, go away" We could only imagine what painful memories our presence may have triggered, and hope he went back inside and forgot about us.
5) According to our excellent guides, Vietnamese women want 3 things when looking for a husband: Gentleness, flowers and a motorbike. In that order,
6) The motorbikes were everywhere!! And if you think a small motorbike / moped is made for one person, think again. A moped can easily carry 2, 3, 4 or 5 people. See the picture of the “fiver”.
5) Crossing the street in Saigon was an adventure in itself due to the motorbikes. Apparently most women got what they wanted, so the bikes are about 20 across the street, and perhaps 50 deep every time the light changes. And the noise!! (We are happy Beijing does not allow them inside the 4th ring road)
7) Most emotional moment: Visiting the "War Remnants Museum" It was a very difficult museum to view as we revisited photographic scenes showing the horrible sights of an unjust war upon an innocent people. But the Vietnamese people we met kept repeating that it was a war between the leaders of two countries , and that they had no hard feelings against the American people. The museum showed plenty of footage of resentment against the war by people all over the World..
The inclusion of many children's paintings titled "Dream of Peace" "Prevention from being absorbed by agent orange" etc was very powerful.
8) Leaving Saigon was made even more difficult by our taxi being hit by a motorbike at full speed five minutes short of the airport. Philip jumped out of the cab, checked the driver who lay unconscious in the street and at first seemed to have stopped breathing. At the time when he wondered if he needed to start resuscitation, the young man groaned and moved. His girl-friend sat in the middle of the street with a big gash by her knee, taking on her cell-phone. We keep wondering if they are OK. Did they have insurance? Did they lose their prize possession, the motorbike. But our cab flagged down another cab for us, asked for his fare and we made it to the airport in time. But sometimes our thoughts go back to the departure and we just hope that everyone is OK.
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