No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now - Richard Nixon
Our exploration of Vietnam started with Ho Chi Minh City. It is the largest city in Vietnam and until its fall (or liberation depending on your political viewpoint) was the capital of South Vietnam. The central downtown area where we stayed is still referred to as Saigon.
Saigon city skyline
We were taken through the Reunification Palace building (previously the Presidential Palace). It was completely rebuilt in 1966 following the bombing of the former Norodom Palace in 1962 by two Vietnam Air Force pilots who were communist sympathisers.
Presidential Palace front lawn and gates
The War Remnants Museum (originally called the The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]) primarily contains exhibits relating to the American phase of the Vietnam War including Army and Airforce hardware left behind during their withdrawal.
Chinook helicopter left behind by the US Army
Other exhibits include graphic photographs, showing the effects of Agent Orange, the use of napalm and phosphorus bombs, atrocities such as the My Lai massacre, and three jars of preserved human foetuses deformed by exposure to dioxin.
Napalm bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail in neighboring Laos
Saigon is a great place to take leisurely strolls. The French colonial architecture stood out against a background of modern office towers and hotels. We were also entertained just watching the motorcycle action on the busy streets as well as the bustling commercial and passenger traffic on the Saigon River.
Saigon Post Office
Dining on the Saigon River
The downtown streets are dominated by two-wheeled traffic. Everyone uses small capacity motorbikes to get around - from fashionably-dressed young women with designer sunglasses to mum or dad collecting the kids from school.
Saigon commuter
With few traffic lights, intersections are negotiated by everyone by slowing down and then weaving through the cross traffic.
Downtown Saigon
Crossing the street on foot takes courage especially as the few traffic signals are basically ignored anyway. We quickly learnt that you simply pick your moment to step off the kerb into the melee then maintain a deliberate, steady pace, without hesitating of breaking stride as the traffic swirls around you. It sounds crazy, but it actually works!
Crossing the street near the Notre Dame Cathedral
We enjoyed a day visiting a part of the extensive Mekong River delta. We were surprised to learn that the Mekong River has its origin in Tibet and also flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.
Fruit heading for the Floating Markets
It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and canals, and carries so much sediment that the delta advances up to 80 meters into the South China Sea every year.
Rice husks on the way to the brickworks (for fuel)
Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and many of the villages are only accessible by rivers and canals rather than by road. We visited a floating market and stepped ashore to see a range of small family owned factories operated before having lunch at a homestay farmhouse.
Lunch on the Mekong Delta
Hoi An is a beautiful town near the coast just south of Da Nang in the central part of the country. The Old Town of Hoi An is (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and is full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled shophouses and a huge marketplace. We missed the annual flooding by just a few weeks when the streets become canals.
2011 flood in Hoi An
On the river next to the marketplace is the wharf where motorcycles, bicycles and passengers board ferries for the commute back to their remote villages upstream from Hoi An.
While almost all shops now cater to the tourist trade, the area has been largely preserved.
Hoi An waterfront
The historic highlight of the town (and now the symbol of Hoi An) is a 16th century Japanese Covered Bridge. It links the Japanese and the Chinese quarters. On both ends of the bridge are altars with guardians; dogs on one side, and monkeys on the other- both symbols of sacredness in Japanese culture. Ancient superstition speculates it is heavy enough to weigh down the vertebrae of a dragon-like monster.
Japanese Covered Bridge
Just out of Hoi An is My Son - a set of ancient Cham Empire temple ruins. They were built using bricks (without mortar) and decorated with sculptures of gods, priests, animals, and mythical battle scenes of battles. The jungle began to reclaim the temples after the fall of the Champa kingdom. More recently they were used by the Viet Cong as a base and were severely damaged by B52 bombing during the Vietnam War.
Temple ruins
Hanoi, the capital city is much smaller that Ho Chi Minh City but it seemed much busier. We window shopped for hours exploring the different precincts near our hotel. We were particularly fascinated by huge the electrical store (TVs, sound systems, mobile phones, white goods, kitchen appliances etc.) which had massive shipping containers stacked four high in the front carpark. They had adapted a builders elevator to store and retrieve the stock.
Shipping container elevator
Near the city of Ninh Binh we visited the massive (new) Bai Dinh pagoda complex which will be the largest complex of Buddhist temples in Vietnam (it is still in construction).
Massive bronze Buddha Sykamuni statue - 10 meters high and 100 tonnes
This pagoda complex currently holds the record for most Arhat statues in SE Asia. The complex includes an astonishing collection of five hundred Arhat statues, each 2.3m high and unique made of local Ninh Binh green stone.
Arhat statues
A 60 tonne bronze bell was to be placed in the main sanctuary of the temple however our guide explained that it was then discovered the building was unable to support the bell's mass.
Over-weight bronze bell
Poetically described as Halong Bay on the rice paddies, we thought that the scenery around Tam Coc was stunning with rugged limestone rock formations soaring skywards from a sea of green rice paddies.
Tam Coc landscape
The area is named after the low limestone caves through which the Ngo Dong River flows. Our memorable Tam Coc experience was to sit back and be rowed along the pristine shallow river alternating between soaring cliffs and the three narrow and low caves. It was a wonderfully serene and scenic trip.
Entering the cave
Halong Bay is a 1,500 square km bay in North Vietnam near the border with China. The bay consists of a dense cluster of 3000 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean. Several of these enormous limestone karst islands are hollow containing dry caves and others where the sea has completely eroded a tunnel at seawater level.
Halong Bay
We were not only amazed by the huge number of islands but also the number of junks (replicas) used to show tourists the spectacular scenes. The cooler air unfortunately bought with it the fog. Our views were quite impeded by the fog/smog from the mainland. We still really enjoyed our 2 nights on-board the junk and the time we spent exploring some caves by kayak and on foot as well as a floating fishing village and oyster farm.
We left cold, organised Berlin and arrived in crazy New Delhi early in the morning. According to our guide 1:30am is one of the busiest times of the day at Indira Gandhi International (New Delhi) Airport. The fog (or more accurately smog) enveloped the city.
New Delhi's Lotus Flower shaped Bahá'í Temple
We had planned 3 days to try to acclimatise to this exotic country. Although staying in the central part of the city, the anarchic traffic, the relentless noise from horns and two stroke auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) motors,
CNG powered auto rickshaws in New Delhi
the pollution, the rubble (the whole area where we stayed was a construction site) and the rubbish everywhere made us initially feel quite isolated and uncertain of how we would adapt quickly to this new environment.
Construction work in progress at Connaught Place, New Delhi
Our concept of what is normal was repeatedly tested over the next few days in New Delhi (even more as we toured Rajasthan). The sight of two elephants being led along the left hand lane of the main road into town was one of many double-take moments.
Elephants decorated for a wedding
Touring Rajasthan was a memorable and mind boggling experience. We had an amazing driver Ganesh who can drive through any traffic conditions, remaining calm, reading cows minds and pre-empting crazy bike and tuk-tuk drivers. India has only two road rules,
there are no rules (that we could identify) and
try to survive.
Overloading and driving on the wrong side of the road seem to be standard procedure. We were never sure what we would encounter around the next corner.
Raika camel nomads on the move
Just ahead of camel train
Land transport has a different look in India. Yes, there were trucks but they mostly 30-40% overloaded with cargo extending way beyond the tray and/or above the sides. Consequently we saw a number trucks crashed along the side of the road where axles had given way or drivers had lost control.
Just another day on India's highways
Driving in the Indian countryside
Every mode of transport imaginable seems to be in constant use. There are carts pulled by camels, horses, bullocks, mules, donkeys, tractors and people. Record numbers of passengers are carried by motor bikes, tuk-tuks, tractors, buses and utes.
On the way home from work
Motor bikes regularly carry up to 4 adults and we often saw the whole family (dad, mum and three kids) aboard. As you can imagine there are arms and legs everywhere!
Let's go shopping
The camel powered carts are generally fitted with old aeroplane tyres so they can support incredibly heavy loads.
Recycling takes on a whole new meaning in India. Old bicycle wheels are particularly useful on the countless trolleys used by street vendors. These hand carts are just one more form of transportation that chokes the busy streets and main roads. When they move, owner and driver (pushing) just merge into the traffic and join the throng.
Street vendors trolleys
The insanity of the road transport network seemed to intensify at each village along the way to our destination. Nobody uses the lanes, just their horns as they weave around everything slower than them. Local bus and lorry drivers seemed to believe that the vehicle with the loudest horn has the ultimate right of way. After the first few occasions when disbelief was the involuntary response, our coping strategies included sleeping (Roger) or just closing the eyes (Helen).
Village marketplace traffic
There were plenty of cows just standing or moving along the roads very confident (ignoring loud music and air horns) they were not going to be disturbed.
Our last long drive, the relatively short trip from Agra back to New Delhi, lived up to it's reputation of being incredibly congested and slow. About half way back we encountered a Hindu festival where tens of thousands of pilgrims were occupying every available space (including the median strip) to set up their temporary accommodation.
Hindu Festival
Impressive forts and palaces dominated the landscape of many towns and villages in Rajasthan. Our local guides were keen to deliver the sometimes complicated history which we struggled to absorb. We learnt how important inflections of tone are to how a word sounds. We thoroughly enjoyed the variety of architectural styles and the rich diversity of decorative fashion adored by the Mughal and Hindu emperors, and the Jat and Muslim kings.
Amber Fort transportation
Rajput Maharajah and Maharani at Amber Fort
We visited a number of Hindu temples with a diverse range of sizes, decor and ornamentation. In the Bhandasar temple we observed people coming with their offerings of food, money and flowers. In this temple it was considered good karma to feed the resident population of rats. It was the last thing we expected to find in a temple.
Rats being fed at the Bhandasar Jain Temple
The Ranakpur Jain temple is labelled as the most spectacular of the Jain temples. Inside, the restored white marble created a great sense of purity. Jainism emphasizes the equality of all life, advocating harmlessness towards all, whether great or small.
Ranakpur Jain temple
Udaipur City Palace holds a commanding place on the edge of Lake Pichola. Our cruise on the lake just on sunset included a closeup look at Udaipur City Palace as well as the famous Lake Palace and a quick stop on Jag Mandir (Lake Garden Palace).
City Palace, Udaipur
To say our trip to India was a culture shock is an understatement. We had fantastic experiences, saw amazing sights you see nowhere else.We stayed in palatial buildings, and ate like kings. The food while delicious was very spicy (our bodies took quite a while to adjust).
Mandawa Fort - our hotel
Finally no trip to India would be complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal.
Symbol of love fit for a queen
Sunrise at the Taj was spectacular, watching the jewells glisten as the sun rose above the city skyline. Our guide was keen to make this a memorable experience for us directing us to the best photo sites and giving us plenty of free time. This truly is one of seven wonders of the world.. We were also privileged to witness the beauty of the Taj Mahal without the usual crowds of local and foreign visitors.
