Day 5 September 22

The one distinct difference between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi is the fluency of spoken English. The staff at the hotel lobby spoke decent English, and were able to communicate well with us. Compared to our experiences in Hanoi, we even had difficulty ordering water and ice.

I think we were happy to start of our Saigon adventure with our sightseeing weekend.

We boarded the coach to the Mengkong Delta, the "rice bowl" of Vietnam. Our new tour guide, Carh, which sounds like the automobile. He briefed us on the history of Vietnam, about President Ho Chi Minh he died on 2nd September 1969, which coincidentally is the National day of Vietnam. While the Vietnamese do hang the Vietnamese flags, they do not wear red, an auspicious colour, as a sign of respect.

He spoke about China's influence, Cambodia's occupation of Vietnam, followed by the French colonization and Soviet rule. The Soviet Union supported the Vietnamese for 15 years, between 1975 to 1990. When it collapsed, Vietnam had to stand on its own, develop its own economy and provide enough food for its people. Hence they had no choice but to begin opening trade with the outside world. Singapore actually supported them by buying their grains.

Anyway compared to the Ho Chi Minh 10 years ago to today, there has been massive improvements. Roads have been built, new apartments have been constructed to address the overcrowding problem in the old city.

New cities such as Fu May Hung is one example of the development of expensive housing to cater to the richer people. According to Carh, the entire area was reclaimed swamp land. In order to facilitate better transportation networks, even an underground train system similar to Singapore's very own MRT to shuttle the thousands of workers commuting in and out of town.

Other less expensive properties have been constructed to house labourers, which are mostly on the outskirts of town. They look remarkably like our HDB blocks. A superhighway, the National Highway No.1, links the North and South cities together. A newer and bigger highway is being built to accomodate the overcrowding.

Reputable schools such as the Royal Melbourne Info Technology Uni have also set up branches in Vietnam. Carh said that nowadays, the Vietnamese understand the importance of finance and therefore finance is one of the hottest degrees which students want to take. Business is another hot course sought after by students, which shows how enterprising Vietnamese can be.

The main economy of Vietnam is agriculture, mainly dealing with rice, seafood and crude oil, although they are also known to produce clothes, silk embroideries and handicrafts.

One thing Vietnam is famous for is also its "marriage" exports. Many foreign men come over to Vietnam to find a Vietnamese bride. Carh even gave us a website, vietnameseladies dot com to browse and select a potential spouse. Men usually choose girls between the age of 18 to 24 years old. Funnily enough there is also a market for Vietnamese men too. Foreign spinsters or widows actually pay to find a nice husband. According to Vietnamese tradition, it would be the groom's duty to pay for the wedding ceremony.

As we all know, Vietnam's population is the one of the youngest in the world, therefore the government have implemented birth control campaigns, such as the 2 child policy.

Anyway as mentioned before, the teachers in Vietnam are venerated. Therefore it is customary for students to give their teachers mooncakes on Mid Autumn Festival as a sign of respect. Imagine the amount of mooncakes a teacher teaching a class of 30 students will get! Funnily enough, we did receive mooncakes from Hanoi Open University. Had them on the flight over to Ho Chi Minh but it was too hard to consume.

Another thing about the Vietnamese women is that they strongly value beauty. According to Carh, they spend a lot on cosmetic products, especially whiteners. As mentioned before, Vietnamese like their women fair. Therefore most of the pillion riders on motorbikes cover their entire bodies with clothes to prevent them from getting too dark. Carh said that his sister uses her whitener sparingly because she wants to save money. Therefore only her face is white, whereas the rest of her body is dark!

Got to the Mengkong Delta. The river has been the transportation network of Vietnam for centuries. The use of it has polluted the river badly. Silts have formed as well. We took a short boat ride to Unicorn Island. Can anyone guess what are the Island's names? *Hint the four mystical animals discussed earlier.

We sampled some tropical fruits, and even took a short boat ride along a stream to sample some honey tea, have a taste of some tropical fruits and enjoyed a traditional music performance. We bought our souveniers here, including those who actually tried "Cobra Juice", a Vietnamese aphrodisiac! Not sure how the guys fared after that.

Went back to the hotel, and we were allowed to explore Ben Tahn Market. The place is an indoor market, crowded with rows and rows of shops selling everything from clothes to vegetables. Everything is a bargain.

We then went to Pho 2000, a Vietnamese franchise which sells Vietnamese noodles. I had the beef bowl noodle, which was awesome. Apparently, Bill Clinton came to patronize this outlet as we saw his photo hung on the walls.

After that we were given 20,000 VND to pay our rickshaw drivers. We were given a 40 minute tour of the old city on a rickshaw. The ride was crazy, where zillions of motorcycles were zooming past us left right and centre. I don't know how I managed to get out of that trip alive but I did enjoy the majestic Ho Chi Minh night scene.

Checked back in the hotel for a early night in, ordered room service before that! What a luxury.