Vietnam: The Mekong Delta

After a few days of being distinctly lazy on a Vietnamise beach, I decided it was time to get off my ass and do a bit of actual sightseeing. I therefore decided to take a boat/bus to the city of Can Tho, the settling for one of Vietnam's famous floating markets.

I settled on a rather charming hotel in the centre of the city and, rising before dawn, I set out on my tour of the floating markets. As our boat chugged up the river, we were treated to a truly lovely sunrise that bathed everything in a warm orange glow.

By that point me and my fellow tourists were all getting a bit peckish, so as we pulled up to the market it was a pleasant surprise to find one of the boats ladling out steaming portions of beef noodle soup. After pigging out on it and freshly prepared coffee I took in the sights and sounds of the floating market. People selling everything from fish, veg, junk food and even the occasional electronic good floated past us, all on the mostly brightly coloured boats imaginable.

After all this hustle and bustle it was a pleasant surprise to find that on the return journey our guide took us on a detour down some of the backwaters of the river. We drifted past verdant green shores, upon waters that turned to green and sparkling gold in the midday sun.

I arrived back at my hotel in the early afternoon and decided to spend the rest of my day wandering around Can Tho. It proved to be quite a nice place to spend the day and as I walked down past the river I got sucked into a rather beautiful buddhist temple decked out in the most splendid golds and blues imaginable.

My time in Vietnam was coming to an end however and the next day I took a bus back to Saigon, ready to fly back for my final two weeks in Thailand.

Vietnam: Dinh Quan

Dinh Quan was the next destination on my travels. I had past through the town on my first pass through Vietnam and I had been impressed with the truly stupendous boulders that littered the town. So as the bus rolled through from Cat Tien I jumped off and decided to explore.

I managed to check in to a relatively nice (and more importantly cheap) hotel and was soon exploring the town. It was bizarre to see shops and garages literally backing onto rocks that were twice the size of them and in some cases being used as billboards to advertise local products.

Wandering the town, I was drawn to the distance figure of a buddha that sat high on the rocks overlooking the area. It turned out that the area it sat in had been turned into a wonderful area of semi wild parkland and as I scampered over rocks and climbed past fences I was struck by just how beautiful the area was.

After I had toured the massive buddha I puffed and panted my way up the rock face on the other side of the park and was rewarded with a massive rock that was perched precariously on one side. I sunbathed beside it and enjoyed ice tea with the local teenagers who were hanging out by the boulders.

Volunteering with Go East: Part 2

By my second week on the island I was fully getting into the swing of things, I had learned about the four types of primates that the project was aiming to protect on the island. The Pygmy Loris, the Golden Cheeked Gibbon, the Silver Langer and the Black Shanked Duc. All beautiful creatures and all at risk of extinction due to deforestation, hunting, the illegal pet trade and the use of traditional Chinese medicines.

It was sad to learn the stories behind some of these animals, how two gibbons had been rescued from a tiny cage in a Vietnamise school where they had been continually stressed out and harassed by school children. Or the Pygmy Loris who had been taken from the wild and had his teeth pulled out because there was a chance he might bite his owners. Whatever the story the message was clear these animals don't make make good pets and shouldn't be taken as them.

But at Dao Tien there was hope for them. I watched them play and frolic to their heart's content, safe in the knowledge that one day there was a hope that these animals could be released back into the wild.

I was giving tours by the second week and it was great to know that I was helping to raise awareness about the plight of these animals. I also got to help clean the cages of the gibbons, a fun endevour made even more challenging by the fact that the animals would often try and grab you or your broom while you were cleaning one part of the enclosure.

What really impressed me about the project was that both the Vietnamise and British staff were so hard working, it was very humbling to see how much effort everyone put into the centre and its work.

I also got to see and photograph a bit more of the island itself including the dried out river bed behind our main office. This all had to be done carefully though as the island itself could potentially provide some unforseen hazards. Still by the end of my second week I was very much looking forward to my third week there, when I would finally get to see the gibbons feed in a semi wild environment.

Christmas In Saigon

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Christmas Eve and proceeded to spent the day wandering around the city. Saigon turned out to be rather a different beast from Hanoi. Affluent where Hanoi was rustic, open where Hanoi was cramped and open all hours where Hanoi wound down at twelve.

They both shared a certain sensibility however, both were busy and hectic with the strange mixture of culture, spirituality and a pronounced emphasis on making money.

My first stop was the Bitexco tower in downtown HCMC, where I was offered a stupendous view over the city. After this I wandered the streets of the city itself, taking in the sights, sounds and views that the city had to offer.

I slept well that night and got up ready for a full day of sight seeing, I started my tour at Vietnam's war museum, where I got to witness first hand the devastation that Agent Orange and chemical weapons had caused, not only on the people (and in horrible detail children) of Vietnam but also on the countries wildlife and forest (much of which is still recovering).

After this I visited the Jade Emperor Pagoda and enjoyed the sheer level of beauty and craftsmanship that pervaded every level of the temple. Buddhas mixed with Taoist deities, all wrapped in a cloud of sweet smelling incense. That evening was Christmas day for me and I was pleasantly surprised to run into a few familiar faces from Bangkok. I spent the evening getting pleasantly wasted before moving on to the azure beaches of Cambodia.

Cat Tien: The importance of preserving Vietnam's wildlife

Shocking fact of the day, there are only 70 wild elephants left in Vietnam. Think about that, its not a very high number. In fact the WWF has advised that Vietnam might be one of the first countries in Asia where elephants actually go completely extinct.

I wanted this update on my blog to be a little different as I wanted to raise awareness of the very real threat that exists to Vietnam's wildlife (and sadly this also extends to alot of wildlife in Asia).

Poaching in Vietnam is rife, with animals like the incredible sweet Pygmy Loris being taken wholesale from the jungle, having their teeth pulled out or clipped (so that they cannot use the venom that is one of their distinct features to defend themselves) and kept as pets for Vietnamese family. The fact that large numbers of them will die of stress or that they in fact do not make very good pets is something that will lead to many of them then being abandoned to die.

The same happens to the rapidly dwindling numbers of Gibbons left in Vietnam. Whose mothers will be shot and killed and whose's babies are then sold as pets. The conditions that they are then kept in leads many to die of malnutrition or to suffer painfully cramped and cruel conditions.

My advise to any Vietnamise reading this blog who want to take one of these creatures as pets is simple, don't. These animals belong in the wild, not in a cage.

Cat Tien is one of the national parks hoping to turn the tide on the destruction of Vietnamise wildlife and forests (which sadly disappear more and more each year). The Gibbon sanctuary there works hard not only to rescue wildlife from conditions such as this but also seeks to rehabilitate them so they can once again enter the wild.

It was one of the few places in Vietnam where I got to see a truly wild area of countryside. I took showers and had stick insects land on my head, almost stepped on snakes, watched fireflies burning in the night, disturbed porcupines on the way to the bathroom and saw more monkeys in the forest then I can count.

But if the people of Vietnam want to keep any of this beauty and wonder then they have to act now. Or else have a future where they have no wildlife left.



If you want to help you can donate to Go East, who are working to protect Vietnam's wildlife:

http://www.go-east.org/

Dalat

My first impression of Dalat, besides beautiful surrounding countryside that (sadly) didn't extend to the city  was distinctly leopard print shaped. My tiny but very comfortable alcove at the hostel I was staying at was decorated in some of the most garish upholstery I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I'll be honest and say that Dalat wasn't the best places i've been in Vietnam but in its own way it still had a certain charm. I started my first proper day there by visiting an old fashioned steam train, I then took a stroll through a particularly pretty floral show before heading to some of the temples that lay around the town. After being entranced by some particularly lovey statues of Quan Am, a Buddha of compassion.

While wandering the temple I was invited by the local woman there to stay and share the truly delicious food they had made. I chatted to them about why they were making food, what it was the monks did in terms of charitable work and even made a donation to help the poor there.

Afterwards I took a taxi to see the appropriately named crazy house, A particularly strange piece of architecture designed to make you feel like you had wandered into a scene from Alice in wonderland. All strange shapes, abstract structures and weird animal statues.

That night I went out for a tasty group meal with people from my hostel, after chatting to four traveling journalists I even got interviewed by them for their website (Human Unscripted, find the link below).

After exhausting all that I felt Dalat had to offer I decided to move on to the wonders of Cat Tien national park.


http://humanityunscripted.com/

Hoi An

The bustling city of Hoi An was my next port of call, set right on the coast it seemed to embody the best of what Vietnam had to offer. My first impressions of the city weren't that spectacular, as it seemed at first glance to be an average city with above average beach and old Vietnamese architecture.

First impressions turned out to be misleading however, as when the night fell the city came sparkling to life. Lit as it was by the iridescent glow of floating lanterns, bejeweled lamps and the ruby red fire that poured from nearby temple lights. My days around the city were spent cycling around the gently fading architecture and browsing through markets. While my nights were spent meeting up with some old friends (and making new ones), exploring the many bars that crowded the streets along the river and occasionally lighting a wish lantern to send floating down the river.

I spent my next day renting a bicycle and taking a leisurely ride to the beach, the sea was a steely grey and I relaxed there with beer as various touts took it in turns to try and sell us some braclett or trinket. The sight of the day had to go to three overly ambitious tourists who attempted to take a jetski out on the roughsea. Non were injuried in the ensuing accident but it was quite the spectacle, resue included.

One my last day there I decided to take a tour to the Cham ruins of My Son, we toured spectacular red brick ruins that had been sadly diminished by the repeating bombing it had taken during the Vietnam war. Our guide proved to be a surprising source of amusement for us, speaking as he did with one of the most ear splitting and overly bombastic voices I've ever had the pleasure of hearing.

My time in Hoi An over I decided to move onto the city of Nha Trang.