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| Stones in the middle of nowhere... |
Saigon ho!
After usual 'bunh mee'
and coffee for the breakfast reached Saigon at about 9.00 am. We were told to go
to District 1 (Quan 1 ) as there are many hotels in this area and Miss.Moon had
given us a contact of Miss Chau, Coastal Travel Guide Ltd Co. that was also in the
same area so we headed towards Q 1. On our way to Q 1 we were stopped by two Chinese
men, they were happy to see us as they also were cyclists and had done the same
route that we did, starting from China and were to go to Cambodia. They were young
at 65 & 70 respectively. We clicked photographs together, communicated with
each other, without a common language. The only common thing was that we were members
of the 'cycling community'.
On our way to Q1 we arrived
at a very well decorated and happening square named Saigon Opera House. It is a beautiful
square with statue of Ho Chi Minh and the 262 meter tall Bitexco Financial Tower.
After asking for directions
we reached the lane where Miss Chau was located. We called this lane 'Khau ani hotel
galli' because every building was a hotel or an eatery or both. We found out soon
enough that almost all the hotels were booked and those that did have rooms did
not have space for our cycles. We left Kedar with Miss Chau and I and Rajoo went
hotel hunting. We decided to finally try out the place that our Chinese cyclists
were staying at. We got a cozy enough room and were able to park our cycles inside
the hotel.
Kedar had some bad news
for us, there were no 2 day tours to the Mekong delta and also all buses going to
Phnom Penh were full because of the holidays and there was no bus till the 14th
and our visas expired on the 14th, we changed our plans. Decided to take a one day
tour of the Mekong delta and also decided to cycle till Phnom Penh (2 days and 250km).
We decided to drop off
the cycles at the hotel and walk to the 'War Remnants Museum' and back to the Saigon
Opera house as we had liked the feel of that square.
The museum had a shocking
story to tell about the Vietnam war and the atrocities committed on the humans and the landscape of Vietnam....
Millions of litres of the most toxic chemicals were sprayed from planes, 1000's
of tons of bombs including napalm which burned everything. All this under the guise
of stopping the spread of communism....
We walked to the Opera
Square and there was a very festive atmosphere, people all dressed in their very
best, lovely flower arrangements, water fountains, roadside stalls, local bamboo
artisans. It was amazing being a part of all this. We walked to the riverside sat
there for some time and headed back to the hotel. Took 'bunh mi' from a market and
cup cakes, that was dinner. Had frozen yoghurt for a sweet dish and a fruit plate.
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