Day Three - Mekong Delta

Hello everyone. Today we head to the Mekong Delta and the floating market. The drive there is two hours from Saigon. 

Back in the day it took three times that amount of time. We saw this van on the way. Check out the name of the water advertised on this van. Ewww, " Sweat water."

Day Two - Street Food = Yum

Tonight we explored street food. We started with a spicy green papaya, bean sprout, chili salad with sweet and sour sauce dressing at a local Saigon park.

The park is renowned for ballroom dancing and dance lessons given to anyone willing to learn. Sadly the dancers were not there as it had been raining very hard this afternoon. As a result, the concrete dance floor and surrounding sidewalks were wet or flooded.

The next stop was for Bahn Xeo. Bahn Xeo is a pancake made from a mixture of rice milk and egg which is fried with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts inside. It is carefully made into a large pancake and rolled loosely to resemble a large omelet.

This is served with lemon basil, mint, Thai basil and fresh lettuce leaves. One takes a portion of the Bahn Xeo and places it onto to a lettuce lettuce leaf and rolled up and dipping it into spicy fish sauce with pickled vegetables. It was absolutely delicious. Along with this meal we were served fried spring rolls that you also rolled in lettuce and dipped in the same sauce.

The next course was of broken rice with Vietnamese bbq ribs and Dim Sum (dumplings stuffed with minced pork). Again the food from this vendor was splendid.

Stuffed, we walked (waddled) to a local piano coffee house where I enjoyed ginger tea and Martha had a drink made from passion fruit and club soda. We listened to local singers singing their favorite Vietnamese and French songs from the seventies and eighties, which was different too say the least.

All in all it was a very satisfying day.

Making Bahn Xeo in a street side food stall

Vital Statistics

Date - Saturday, September 19

High Temperature - 95 degrees, Heat Factor 107 degrees

Miles Walked - 2.6 miles

Day two - Finally Remembering

Today was my return to my old units rear base. Before today it was hard for me to remember where the base actually was. All that I could conjure up was that it was on Vietnamese Highway One.  When our guide pulled up to where the front gate and guard shack used to be, I was transformed back 46 years.

My mind smelled diesel exhaust fumes, and burning barrels of feces (human waste was collected from the outhouses in half fifty five gallon drums and then the feces was burned to get rid of it).

I remembered the sounds of jeeps, two and a half ton ton trucks, lambrettas, scooters and the fast paced banter of the Vietnamese workers trying to get clearance to enter to do their jobs. I could re-envision the MP's that guarded the gate and the watch towers not far away on the perimeter of the base just inside the wire.

It was weird, nothing remains but some of the barracks at the back of the complex. Those are now communist barracks used by the Vietnamese Army. The entire base is now a huge industrial complex full of multinational companies and manufacturing buildings.

All of this was foreign to my mind. I was now back in the place I was stationed so many years ago. But I am there in a different time in history. It took a while for my brain to reconcile what I was seeing. Next it was off to the former horse track. A place that has provide horrid nightmares and invasive memories.

The race track, bleachers, box seats and betting windows have given way to a new sports stadium.This stadium is where the Asia Games and many other sports take place. 

Standing here at this place, the old memories came back and overwhelmed my brain and emotions for a few minutes. There were, and still are, really bad vibrations here. The years haven't washed them away.

After this initial day of remembering the U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers who died here during the American war, it's somehow very comforting to see and understand how things have changed for better for the people that live here.

Quoting someone we heard on our way here, "This is the most capitalist communist country I've ever seen" and one can tell the people are happy and the country is on it's way to prosperity.

All that remains of the former Horse Track is this columnade, the bronze horse and a gate. Almost unrecognizable. 

Martha's Comments

Our tour driver, Mr. Thai from Ann Tours, was one of the best parts of this tour for me.  Mr. Thai had been a member of the South Vietnamese Air Force during the war, and had worked with the U.S. Air Force at the base in Binh Hoa, just a short distance from where Chuck had been stationed.  He took us there as well as taking us to where Chuck's unit had been.  Chuck had memories of going to the air force base for shopping at the PX and for other assignments, events and activities.  The base in Binh Hoa is now a Vietnamese air force base.  

Industrial Park where the 199th Light Infantry was located. It is almost unrecognizable but when we turned off of Highway 1A into the complex the driver did not prompt me that we had arrived. I don't know how but I knew where we were the second we turned right into the complex. 

While driving around, we saw many bright yellow stands on the roads.  We were told that they were selling moon cakes for the fall festival.  It apparently is something like a second New Year's for the Vietnamese.  According to our guide, moon cakes are like a sponge cake filled with all sorts of things mixed together:  chicken, chocolate, eggs, beans, etc.

Moon Cake Stand

After the tours of Long Bin, Binh Hoa, and the Racetrack, we were taken to Saigon's Chinatown to see Binh Tay Market, a wholesale market.  We also toured Thien Hau Temple.  According to our guide, Thien Hau was not a "goddess" but was a normal human being with superpowers.  She would ride on clouds and save sailors on the ocean.  Now she is associated with safety, health, luck, safe travels, and success in business.  Success in business is very important to the Vietnamese, it seems. or at least to our guide.   

People come to the temple and light incense and give donations to obtain Thien Hau's blessings on their ventures.  Our guide told us that on her festival day, April 27, the statue of her is dressed in new clothes.  Her old clothes are cut into strips and put in envelopes and given to people for good luck.

Binh Tay Market

Thien Hau's statue

Vital Statistics

Approximate Miles Traveled:  60+