Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I was up at 6AM and began working on this blog and editing photos.

I sent emails to our General Contractor regarding a subcontractor who gave us a call at 1 AM.

We packed for our Mekong overnight.

We had lunch with Dale and Jenni.

Our scheduled excursion today is : Siagon Highlights and Pedal Cab.

We made our way to the Star Theater at about 2:15 PM for our 2:30 PM excursion. The Excursion Manager, Chantelle, assigned us to bus 8. We waited while several other buses were called. At about 2:45 PM, bus 8 was called so we proceeded onshore, found bus 8, handed our tickets to the tour guide and boarded the bus.

Vietnam traffic and trash are both 'wonders' to behold. There are motorcycles, scooters, cars, bikes, buses, and trucks all vying for the same space on the road and sidewalks-yes, people drive on the sidewalks. We thought traffic in Indonesia was crazy - those countries have nothing on Vietnam. Similarly, Vietnam has so much more trash. In fact I saw an huge pile of florescent light bulbs just thrown on the side of the road. Can you say mercury poisoning anyone?

On our 2 hour drive from the port to downtown Ho Chi Minh City, our guide gave a brief introduction of himself and Vietnam. He then proceeded to describe the tour's schedule. We didn't hear anything about the pedal cab or dinner. But we didn't think much about it because our guide was very hard to understand and we just thought we missed it during his description. A couple in front of us asked about the pedal cab and dinner. They were told that there was no pedal cab and dinner on this excursion. Come to find out, we were on the included tour. We told the guide that we also were supposed to be on the Saigon Highlights and Pedal Cab excursion. Clearly, Chantelle put all four of us on the wrong bus. One would think that the Excursion Manager would be able to assign people to the correct bus. This is not the first mistake that we have encountered with the excursion manager. We chose to make the best of the situation because it was not the guide's fault.

The guide immediately got on the phone and explained the mistake to the excursion team. After much back and forth, the decision was made to reverse the order of the included tour so that we could meet our correct tour at a market.

When we got near the market, the bus pulled over and the four of us exited the bus with the guide. We took a harrowing walk crossing several intersections and finally reached the market. Our new guide was no where to be seen. The guide started frantically making phone calls to try and locate our new guide. Our new guide finally showed up and escorted us to join the correct tour group.

We walked through the market feeling a bit like fish out of water. We had no idea the significance of the market nor what information the guide had previously given the group.

Next we walked to a Chinese temple. Our guide said that there is always a Chinese school associated with the Chinese temple so we were able to see children in their uniforms.

Next we got back on the bus for a short (short in distance but not time as it takes forever to get anywhere in Ho Chi Minh. City) bus ride to where we met our pedal cab drivers. A very small, elderly Vietnamese man can up to me and asked me to follow him. I think that he was sizing up the crowd and figured that, although I am a giant next to him, I probably weigh less than most of the others who were left to be assigned to a pedal cab. It was a harrowing ride amid the crazy traffic. My pedal cab driver was pointing out a lot of buildings for me to take pictures. I obediently did so but I have no idea about the significance of these buildings. Evidently, our correct guide told everyone on the bus all about these buildings in this area while we were on the wrong bus.

The next item in the agenda was to visit a lacquer factory. We were given an introduction on how lacquer ware is made either with mother of pearl, egg shells or oil painting. We were given ample time to browse 2 floors worth of lacquer ware. Some of the items were stunning but just not our taste or color.

Finally, we headed to dinner. Our restaurant was in what used to be the Vice President's house. Half of the house was converted into a restaurant. The result was quaint, separate dining areas. A group of ten of us found a round table in what we assumed was previously a bedroom. We were served traditional Vietnamese food. The meal amazing both in the variety of flavors and number of courses.

We finished our meal and negotiated very narrow, slippery stairs which two of our group managed to fall down. I am happy to report that no bones seemed to be broken. The group made a short walk to the bus with two of our group trying to shake off their recent plummet down the flight of stairs.

We once again had to negotiate our way across the street to meet the bus. Since the sun had set and there were not many street lights, I felt like those who did not fall down the stairs would join the recently injured with life threatening injuries acquired by crossing the street in the dark. Miraculously, we made it to the other side of the street no additional injuries.

I believe that our guide spent the time while we were at dinner consuming large quantities of highly caffeinated Vietnamese coffee because when we got back on the bus, he was talking extremely fast and, oh my, so very loud! I had to plug my ears and it was still so loud that it hurt my ears.

After enduring about an hour drive back to the port while being yelled at by our amped up Vietnamese guide, we finally made it back to the port at about 10:30 PM.

I was tempted to go directly to speak to the Excursion Manager to explain her error and how negatively it impacted our excursion. Our guide continually referenced information that he previously told the bus which left us totally out of the loop. But since I was exhausted and had just been yelled at for at least an hour, I did not think it was the best time for me to address the issue. I would probably do some yelling myself. So I exercised prudence and headed to our room.Baca selengkapnya