We barely made it up in time for breakfast, the slightly softer than usual bed had been very nice to us. We did some research on what to do, the Cu Chi tunnels turned out to be nicer to do in the morning so we striked that option for today. Tripadvisor nr 1 thing was touring with XO tours so we checked them out. A bit pricey but they seemed nice, and had trips in the evening as well as a foodie trip. We arranged for two foodie trips (58 USD each) for the evening and went outside to stroll towards the War Remnants Museum. It was closed for lunch as we got there so we enjoyed a fika nearby, mango strawberry smoothie for yours truly tasted just great.

The War Remnants Museum was in some aspects similar to other museums of the sort, showing the cruelty of mankind – tortured victims and general horrible numbers and facts. Not surprisingly the focus was on the sufferings of the patriotic communist side, and little was mentioned about how things looked before US decided to go berserk. Nevertheless, Agent Orange, the sheer number of bombs and tortures does paint a not so flattering picture of US. There were also photo exhibitions, including some classics but it was clear that not all Americans supported this war – far from it. This in combination with the fact that this wasn’t that long ago, Senator Bob Kerry admitted massacres just a decade ago, and children are still born with mutations from Agent Orange as of today, left a bad taste. It didn’t help seeing that Boeing had proudly manufactured some of the gunships, but the perhaps most uncanny feeling was from realizing that very reason we can understand these horrors (and learn from them) was that information had been made public. Life magazine had very graphic images, stories of the horrors of war leaked through and the government realized that the support from the voting people were plummeting – so it seems that these heroes, these photographers and these writers, who many died for providing this to the public, were instrumental to enable an informed public that finally led to retreat. Contrast this with how US and other governments treats leaks of similar information today, it seems that unfortunately the lesson learned was not to behave as barbarians but rather to hide it and punish those who uncover uncomfortable truths.

Enough political ranting, we headed back to the hotel just a few minutes before we were picked up by our guides from XO Tours. They were simply put stunningly beautiful, and looked very professional in their traditional Ao Dai dresses. They drove us to the first stop where we met the other members of the group, it was six other tourists with their respective guide and the manager, Tung, so 17 in total but it didn’t feel crowded. The first dish was a soup with a fresh taste, it looked similar to the common noodle soup but had another name as well as taste. It was really good and it was only the first our of five entrees.

There were too many delicious dishes to describe here in the detail they deserve. In addition to the regular dishes we also tried frog which wasn’t bad at all. One thing that I did try but didn’t finish however was an egg with some partly evolved chicken fetus, it didn’t taste much but considering the alternative dishes and the limited capacity of my stomach I preferred the other dishes. We visited different areas and places in between the dishes and it felt like we really saw different parts of the city, district 7 where dogs walked freely and no sounds of motorbikes could be heard, Chinatown with night markets, district 4 infamous for its high crime rate and so on. With the exception from when we drove through a backpackers area we saw no other tourists but was surrounded by locals who visited their favorite places.

Perhaps it was the emotions from the museum, perhaps the joy of eating such good food with such a lovely company or maybe it was the fact that I rubbed my chili-smeared fingers in my eyes – regardless the reason the result was that I quickly needed to rinse my burning eyes with water at one place. One has a certain grace when crying and stumbling and trying to get water in your face but not over your clothes. All in all we had a great evening, the lovely girls were safe drivers and great guides, the food was really nice and we could definitely not have done this ourselves. So a bit pricey, but something we feel we can really recommend others to do as well.

We checked out and left our luggage at the hotel but thought we would try breakfast elsewhere for some variation. An hour or so later we settled for a Cafe at their central lake – being picky combined with our navigational skills extended the search considerable. We treated ourselves with mixed fruit and yogurts (served in glass but still) which was excellent. There was a slight understanding about fried noodles with eggs though, leading to an untouched dish. It was nice weather, sunny but a nice breeze so we thought it would be a good idea to lay down in the grass and just slack.

After a bit of blogging, a bit of Civilization and some reading for Mona we started to stroll back towards our hotel. After a block we understood that the breeze had been very local around the lake and it was scorching hot. Well we had put on some sunblock, so we would be good.

I decided it was time to settle the score with my long overdue haircut and got one approved by the socialist party for the bargain of 2.5 USD. We had lunch at a place called Chocolate, which was nice but nothing to kill for. A little bit of slacking with wifi at our hotel before we were offered a free ride to the airport shuttle station. Luckily Mona found the way better than the driver, also known as the husband of the more business oriented lady. He looked like a man who expected a rather nasty scolding from his love when he realized he may fail to drop us off in time. It all worked out and the taxi shuttle didn’t even leave until 15 minutes later than we’d read so no worries. We checked in and went through security in less than two minutes and took the opportunity to borrow some electricity to charge our iToys until boarding, which reminded me of back in the days when Ulf and I relied on laptop batteries while touring Japan.

The Taxi to our hotel, Sophia Hotel, which costed 6 USD including a little tip to district 1 using the meter, the cab driver wasn’t thrilled but I almost expected more of a rip-off. A bit tired after all the slacking we spend the last hour Watching bad Kung-Fu and Harry Potter before falling asleep in our rather nice room.

As we woke up we realized we were already late for some starting-early tours but we had decided that we wouldn’t go with the suggested 180 USD tour regardless. We instead popped over to the place next doors which had some drivers offering tours, some version of Easy Rider, original or not was hard to tell. We spoke with an older guy, Truöng, who sketched up a pretty nice day tour for the price of 20USD each. He said he could of course take us to Lak Lake but it would be more or less 5-6 hours straight drive so we decided we would settle for the suggested tour which included a Silk centre. We quickly prepared our bags and had a record fast breakfast before hitting the road on proper motorcycles, with working speed meters this time.

We stopped at a flower plantation and had a look, the guides (and drivers), Truöng and Tam, were very knowledgable as well as almost fluent in English which was great. Next stop was a minority village, Koha, and this was a real surprise. I expected begging children and a stream of tourists but we were the only tourists there, we learned about their culture, chatted with some of the children and it felt really genuine. The guide picked out a puppy he would collect for his kids later, normally they feed the puppies for one month and then they are either sold or eaten. We said our goodbyes and headed towards Elephant Falls which was the most impressive waterfall so far. There was also a pagoda and a huge Buddha which we of course photographed.

We then headed to off for lunch at some local place where we also were offered some strong foul liquor they kept dead animals in – great for a range of reason they assured us. We drank it fast and smiled. Next up was the silk centre, this was really interesting and I am sure my mom could have spent days in there looking at their weaving equipment. I really liked the mechanical/computer hybrid weaver with cards with punched holes for the cloth design.

The good thing with private guides was that we could spend a considerable time here (Mona also just happened to spot a lovely Silk Kimono) and getting detailed explanations while we for instance at the next stop (basket weaving) only spent a few minutes. There was more foul spirits to be drank though, we stopped at a rice wine distillery – and by wine they mean strong moonshine made in equipment that would impress most people familiar with the process. It burned well and fine, but I smiled while drinking it. Now we were heading back, just stopping by the road at a place with nice overview of the lands. The skies started to darken now and we just made it back before the first raindrops.

Mona went to get a haircut while yours truly would take a shower, as I got out I realized it was pouring down so I thought I would bring Mona’s waterproof jacket but met her in the stairs, wet like a mermaid. After changing clothes we went out for dinner and thought we would try to find some Gyoza this time. After a considerable number of queries to locals we found the restaurant Ichi we had been looking for. They were, of course, out of Gyoza. We skipped the Shochu and I had a nice rainbow roll, Mona’s teriyaki was not properly done so she had to wait for them to make new ones. Japanese is always nice but this wasn’t really worth returning to. After a long and really great day we headed back to our hotel.