Ho-Chi-Minh City and Dalat (Vietnam): Friends, excellent food and meditation

17 November - 29 November 2010











After a little bit more than 1 week in Cambodia, I went to Vietnam. Half way by boat and half way by bus, to sail on the Mekong and to see the beautiful landscapes.

First step in Vietnam, in Saigon (since 1976 called Ho-Chi-Minh City). Biggest city in Vietnam, noisy with a crazy traffic, hundreds, thousands of motorbikes everywhere all day long. But though very nice city.

Em, my vietnamese-belgian friend was there when I was there. She took my to the nicest places in HCMC, meeting up with all her friends and having delicious food. It was great to have her there. I stayed there almost one week, time goes fast when you have friends around.

The city is also very interesting from a cultural point of view because of all the sights related to the Vietnam war. Sometimes very chocking museums like the War remnants museum where you have lots of pictures of the war. But still extremely instructive.

This is my first time in Vietnam. And I have to say that so far I like it very much. I appreciate the life, the culture and the diversified landscapes and especially the food.
I could have Pho every day for breakfast... and the coffee is so good, especially the ice coffee with milk, the main drink of all vietnamese. Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world, after Brazil, counting for 14.3 per cent of the world market share, impressive isn't it?

Anyway, after one week in HCMC I moved to the North, to Dalat. The city is located in the mountains. Reason why the temperature dropped by 5-8 degres compared to HCMC. I m not going to complain, it was still around 18-20 degrees...

There is not much to see in Dalat, a part from the market, some small touristic places like the Crazy House and a lake. But there was the most beautiful monastery of Vietnam.

Monastery Thien Vien Truc Lam, where I decided to stay for 4 days. After having asked the permission to stay with the nuns to the Zen Master, I have been authorized to share their daily lives. My first experience in meditation. It was physically extremely tough. Wake up bell at 3AM for 2 hours of meditation and another 2 hours session at 7.30PM, no food after noon... (my stomach still remembers the stay).

Besides the mediation sessions, I also had to share the nuns' life: read books about bouddhism, participate to the cleaning work, prepare food for 120 nuns, pray, dress like a nun, etc. I was definitely totally disturbed by this new life...

After this great experience, I decided to come back to the real life. As soon as I came out of the Monastery, I went to the restaurant to have some meat, went to 2 bars and 1 club, what a contrast!

Next stops: Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue (Vietnam)