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Saigon Day 1

So after a couple hours sleep, we hit the streets to explore. We started out with a bowl of pho each (I had beef, Aly chicken), then headed to explore the market. Not much food at this market, but beautiful highly colored clothing, jewelery, shoes, you name it. You can also by any electronic you want for very cheap. iPhones, Xbox, iPad, PS3, you name it. You could buy a 60g iPod then fill it up with all the music or movies you want. About 25 cents for an album, about $1.00 for a movie, about $2.50 for a whole season of a TV series.

Quite amazing how much we pay for these things in the states when they are so cheap in reality. Anyway, Aly bought a pair of swishy pants from the gay man who fell in love with me (he told me I was very handsome). I think it’s because they’ve never really seen a beard before. I bought a backpack which I have been in need of and some coffee that I will be sending your way dad. This coffee is the shit. Sorry, but there is no other way to describe it. Weasels eat the coffee beans and poop them out before they are harvested and roasted. Sounds gross, tastes delicious. I have learned to not judge food by what it looks or sounds like as I have had some quite delicious surprises on this trip. So you’re welcome dad, shit coffee on its way soon.

After the market, we wandered the streets until we found the Ho Chi Minh art museum. This museum is all Vietnamese artists, and much of the work is focused on the war and its effects on the country. There was some really great stuff, and some very telling stories about what the war did to this country. From there, we began aimlessly ambling again. That was the mission of today…get a feel for the city. And we sure did. Crossing the street here is probably more challenging and more exciting than anywhere we have been yet. This is the city of motorcycles. More than you could possibly imagine. They don’t stop for red lights, and when they run out of room on the street, well the sidewalk seems quite a reasonable place to expand too. I got hit by a man’s handlebars today and had several other near misses.

The best way to cross a ten lane street, which we had to do many times today, is one step at a time obviously. It’s one step…wait…one step…wait…keep your head on a swivel…and if there’s a local nearby, try to stick with them. The motorbikes don’t wait, let alone the cars, trucks, and buses, and it is your job to avoid them (a difficult task when there are hundreds of them coming at you at once). The city itself is quite pretty, largely untouched by the war, except for the American culture that the soldiers brought over while finding vices to forget about the front lines. There are lots of go-go bars, massage parlors, etc, but the city is working hard to clean up it’s act. Most bars have a closing time of 1 AM, and in some places this is actually enforced (shocking, I know).

The next stop we stumbled upon was the Reunification Palace, or Independence Palace as its known know, or whatever you want to call it. This was the headquarters of the South Vietnamese government during the war, where the North stormed through the gates to receive the resignation of the South and in essence win the war. Many of you have probably seen pictures of tanks bursting through the gates at the end of the war. There wasn’t much there, just a bunch of stately rooms where the Southern government conducted business. It is a grand complex in a beautiful park that is completely unused by today’s administration.

You can see the tank that lead the procession through the gates, but other than that, not much from the war exists there. It is cool to be in a place where such historic events happened however. Then back to the streets. We wandered through a park with school children playing, a sculpture garden, lots of electronic shops, lots of motorbikes, and lots of street vendors selling a little bit of everything. By the time we made it to the War Remnants Museum, it was already closed, so this will have to wait for another day. What we have heard about this place is that it does not favor the American side of the story in any way, but the winner’s write the history books, and like it or not, we lost this one. We often tell Vietnamese we are Canadian, just so we don’t have to deal with any trouble (not that there would be any a lot of the time). There is a hint of bitterness towards America though. When purchasing bus tickets this evening, we were warned about an upcoming holiday on the 30th. We asked what the holiday was for. His response, “we celebrate the day we kicked America out.” So we’re from Victoria a lot of the time if anybody asks.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped for a late evening snack. What was this snack you might wonder? Yep, you guessed it. Woof woof. Dog is pretty good. The taste is hard to describe. It is somewhat porky, but with a chewier texture, and a little bit of a taste of liver involved. Definitely doesn’t taste like chicken, but comparing it too much to pork is false as well. I guess it just tastes like…well…dog. Exactly what you think dog would taste like. While I enjoyed a whole slab of it, Aly did dare to eat a nibble, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was quite surprised. We also booked bus tickets today for our whole time in Vietnam. You can get an open tour from many of the tour companies, and this allows you to just call a day in advance and book your bus ticket for the next day, many of which are sleeper buses. It is nice to have that worry and expense out of the way ($50 for 8 bus tickets). Quite a good deal and much cheaper than booking them all separately. Tomorrow, we depart at 8 AM to go to a service at the Cao Dai temple.

Cao Dai is a religion all of its own, merging philosophies from east and west, including Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and several others. Should be an interesting site, and its supposed to be a beautiful temple. Then we are going to the Cu Chi tunnels in the afternoon. These were built by the Viet Kong during the war (nearly 250 km of them) and include schools and hospitals amongst the tunnels used for war. Should be quite an experience to crawl through them and think about what happened there not long ago. There is a crazy amount of American relevant history over here in SE Asia (unfortunately), but it sure makes everything quite interesting. It will be like touring the Middle East in 40-50 years.

Alright then…out for a bite and some beers. I’ve seen turtle on quite a few menus, so this may be the creature who falls prey to my stomach next. Bed early probably as we have to be up early in the morning.

Also, just so you know…Aly and I won’t be responding to any of you via facebook, because the commies don’t allow social networking here. My hacking skills are not great enough to bypass the Vietnamese government (I already tried), so for the next 3 weeks or so e-mail is the way to go

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Saigon Day 1

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