Southern Vietnam, Mui Ne, Saigon, Phu Quoc

Mui Ne, Vietnam

This is the 3rd and final segment of my trip to Vietnam in 2014. I had heard a lot about Mui Ne; how it had become one of the most popular Vietnamese beach destinations in recent years and the place many of the package tours would accommodate guests to enjoy a great beach. I was disappointed. There is no real center, it is just over priced hotels and shops and resorts strung out along about 15 Km of coast. The beach is not very wide at all and full of garbage and there were only a few places where one could even buy a drink or food.

Not many people were even on the beach as the center of activities was mostly on the road. And not that I choose to stay at hostels if I can avoid them but there didn’t even seem to be any as a cheap option. Things were not outrageously expensive, the place was not terrible but it lacked any charm and was just boring. I rented a bike from my hotel, the best one out of a dozen but it was much too small and with only 1 speed was not enough to take some of the longer slopes.

A few KM to the north of where I stayed was a fishing village where I took the next 2 photos. Beyond the fishing village were some large sand dunes I had intended to visit but I gave up before getting to them. I had already ridden about 30 Km to the Cham ruins to the south and back and my knees were hurting from using a crappy bike.

Temple south of Mui Ne

This was a nice temple on the main Mui Ne road to the south that I found on an afternoon bicycle trip. Not sure of its name.

Po Shanu Cham Towers

Farther south of Mui Ne are the 3 Po Shanu Cham Towers on a hill overlooking the city of Phan Thiet a few kilometers farther down the coast. The architecture is similar to the Cham towers in Nha Trang.

Po Shanu priest

Other than these priests or monks or however they are called, I didn’t see more than a handful of other visitors at Po Shanu. I would see much more people at the Cham towers in Nha Trang including locals performing rituals in them although these towers were originally Hindu rather than Buddhist.

Po Shanu Communist monument

On the top of the Po Shanu hill are ruins from a fortified estate built by the French, captured and destroyed by the Viet Cong. Just below on the way up from the Cham towers was a monument to the communist revolution. Seemed the Communists preserved religious sites since they are historically important but they always throw in a plaque or monument to the revolution. Seems a bit irreligious but then not nearly as much as the Americans and French who militarized and eventually bombed many such places.

Bus Mui Ne to Saigon

I spent 3 nights in Mui Ne and then got an early bus to Saigon. Although it was not an overnight trip it did take until late afternoon and the bus was one of the typical sleepers. Despite it still being in the Tet holiday time I did manage to find buses to where I wanted to go. They are sometimes more expensive and the scheduling irregular but one can travel then. Upon arrival I got dropped of near the area with most of the cheap backpacker hotels. For later transportation out of town I had to go to this Saigon bus station. But there were various transporation hubs and some long distance buses left from their own company locations.

Saigon – motorbike madness

Like in Hanoi, Saigon is a mad house (if not more so) of motorbikes that gridlocks during the rush hours. Saigon seemed to have much less bicycles than Hanoi but the typical street vendors are still to be found.

Belle Époque architecture

My friend from University Bryan came to meet me and we walked towards the center to see some of the sites. Here was the Continental Hotel. Nearby is the Notre Dame Cathedral, which along with the Opera house and below left the old central post office are all landmarks of Belle Époque architecture.

Preserved architecture

Not far from Bryan’s place was this beautiful mansion that now has a tearoom on the first floor. One can visit most of 2 floors that have been preserved and renovated to their historical glory as the residence of a wealthy Chinese merchant family that owned much of the nearby property. Sadly many such places in Saigon have been torn down to make way for ugly high-rises.

Saigon Zoo, History Museum & Military Museum

There were a cluster of other sites in central Saigon. This is the entrance way to the Saigon Zoo. I did not go into the zoo itself but to the left inside the gates was the History Museum, which had extensive exhibitions including English explanations about Vietnamese history and culture. Directly across from the History Museum was another large temple worth visiting. Back outside the gateway to the zoo and across the street was the Military Museum, not dissimilar to the one in Hanoi. Lots of military hardware but more limiting in scope to my interests as the below mentioned War Remnants Museum.

War Remnants Museum

Instead of the Reunification Palace I spent the rest of my afternoon at the War Remnants Museum. Sure, I had seen lots of military displays but this really focused on the war with France and America including many photos, posters and commentaries from westerners. There was also a lot of information about the political situation and usage and effect of things like agent orange. They took pains to be objective and gave gratitude to the help of conscientious people around the world that helped shift public attitude from paranoia of communism to realization of how immoral the war really was. There were by far more foreign visitors here than at any other site I saw in Vietnam. I had to wonder about the name. Remnants are small pieces of something left behind; like memories which leads one to the word “memorial”, which is the word I think they actually intended.

Binh Tay Market in Cholon

My last day in Vietnam was in Saigon and I took a bus to the Binh Tay Market in Cholon, which is known as the Chinese quarter. It was good sized but I didn’t find it much different than other covered markets I had seen, nor did I see a noticeable difference in the neighborhood.

Chinese Quarter of Cholon

From the market I headed off to see half dozen temples and on the way passed this small park. In the pool is a dragon; so was this an example of something Chinese? So many Vietnamese symbols including much of the traditional characters were borrowed from the Chinese so I am not sure how to tell the difference. Located in this area was the fabric district; one shop after another of material of every sort.

To Phu Quoc Island by bus & boat

I went down and back to Phu Quoc Island shortly after arriving in Saigon. On short notice, I had to pay more than usual and thus opted to go by bus and ferry and only splurge for a flight for the return leg. Despite hearing that Phu Quoc should be over commercialized, I found it to be the nicest although not cheapest place in Vietnam.

The trip was not easy though as I got picked up by a van, transferred 20 minutes later to a bus depot where we went by a mid-sized bus for 40 minutes to get to our sleeper bus. It drove through the Mekong Delta but it was dark out so I couldn’t see the country side. I had eaten a meal with tofu before leaving, even commenting to some other tourists there that I rarely if ever got sick from the food in third world countries. But within a couple of hours I was feeling bad.

Food poisoning set back

The sleeper stopped about 3.30 am and I was told to get out and go to another small van everyone else on the bus continued on. As I got out of the bus, I not only threw up but started to get diarrhea and soiled my pants a bit. About 40 minutes later I was dropped in front of a closed office in the town of Rach Gia. I sat there with my backpack and vomited profusely and felt like just crawling into a ball. Funny thing was that there were already people going out for a walk and blaring music that seemed to be to encourage people getting up and exercising.

Eventually a cafe opened across the street and the woman encouraged me to come and relax with them and I sipped a coke. Eventually the travel agency office opened and they merely verified that I had a ticket and said that I needed to go to the harbor to catch the ferry. Luckily it was just a few hundred meters walk but I continued to vomit my guts out. But better that it came before I went on the ferry than during the 2 hour ride. The ferry was called the Superdong IV, which sounded like the title of a bad porn movie Across from it was this cafe restaurant where I think I managed to sip some tea between runs to the waterfront across the street to puke.

Phu Quoc Island accommodation

Once on the Island, I got a van taxi with a bunch of other tourists but the driver was a bit obsessed about taking people to the place he recommended. To make peace I took a look and saw that one of the places I wanted to check out was very close by. The touted place was not bad but 20 USD for a bungalow.

I went to the next place and was told I could have bungalow that looked as nice for just 15 USD but then suddenly they claimed that it had been promised to someone else. For the same price I get a room up on top of the main house; not nearly as nice but by then I was so out of it that I took it, showered and had a rest. These were the bungalows and my room was at the top of the white building to the left. This was the view going down to the beach from my place.

Phu Quoc sites of interest

There were some sights around the island but it took a couple of days for my stomach to recover and I just stuck to the beach although I strolled pretty far. At one place there were these concrete dolphins and mermaid statues and nearby a crazy looking place with other statues. Near this amusement park type place was a water-lily filled canal that ran parallel to the beach for a hundred meters or so. Access to the establishments there over a quaint wooden bridge.

Back to Saigon, reflections of Vietnam

My flight back to Saigon was delayed but uneventful. I spent 3 days there before returning home catching up with my old friend from University and looking around the sites shown previously. In all, I was happy with my trip to Vietnam. It was more developed than I expected and the quality of accommodation and food and other services for tourist was quite high. The down side was that the level of English his not high, even at tourist places. The quality of buildings and lack of open poverty was commendable but a lot of charm of old styles of architecture and life in general seem to have been lost in the road to modernization.

My friend commented that few tourists return to Vietnam. It is not that it is difficult or unsafe, on the contrary; but I think most of its sites are over shadowed by other places that are even more spectacular. The temples and ruins are nothing compared to India, the food and beaches not nearly as good as in Thailand etc. But if one lives in the moment and takes it for what it is, then Vietnam was well worth seeing.

If given the opportunity I would see more of the Mekong Delta, go to the tunnels in Cu Chi, visit Con Dao Island and find a way to get more off of the beaten track and see some of the western highlands. There are other countries I’ve yet to see so I cannot foresee going back to Vietnam right away but maybe in combination with seeing Burma and Cambodia I might get back again.