One day in Saigon...

But before I get to that, we did have a full day in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), which involved a whole lot of walking around.  And it was hot.  Fires of hell hot, with 200% humidity.  Good thing a 1.5L bottle of water is 50 cents...


We saw Notre Dame, which is modeled after the cathedral in France (attended part of a service in there for the hell of it... as it was Sunday.  A little girl was wearing a t-shirt that said "Girls make better Ninjas."  How awesome is that?), along with a whole lot of french colonial architecture styled houses (yay run-on sentences!).  It's interesting seeing the french influence on this culture.  You hear about it, but just like everything else in this country, it's totally different to actually see.  After walking around, having lots of ice cream and cold fruit juice (and water, of course), we came to the Museum for American War Atrocities (Local name, not official).  Remember when I was talking about Hiroshima being an intense museum?  This one was like a low budget version, but just as terrible.  Once you get past all of the military vehicles outside, you're confronted with two floors of photos from the war, portraying nothing but death, decay, destruction, remnants of agent orange and other dioxin attacks, and stories of how we were pretty messed up towards this country.  I can understand from a tactical perspective why Hiroshima would have happened.  It was a war, we wanted to end it, and we weren't really sure what we were doing.

The American War, as it's called over here, was completely different (of course, this is according to the Vietnamese.  If you want an American perspective, try and get the war covered in Public Schools, because I never went over it in more than a cursory manner).  We basically went in for a multitude of bad reasons, and then used this war to test all sorts of new/deadly stuff, not to mention clearcut a nation or completely massacre untold amounts of innocent people.  The worst part, to me, wasn't the actual war, but the fact that there are still unknown amounts of landmines, toxins, and other bad stuff still littering the landscape, and while we are donating money to get rid of this stuff, the lasting effects on people that had nothing to do with the war are horrendous.  After seeing the museum, you start to notice the people in the street that have one leg, or have fused fingers, or other things.  Who knows if it is a result of the war, but seeing it definitely touches you...

We also tried to find a noodle shop that was the headquarters of the Viet Cong during the war, and due to bad directions, we walked 20 minutes down a street in the sweltering heat to a tiny shop when we didn't even want pho to begin with.  So, we took a motorbike back to the hostel.

In the last post, I was talking about how crazy it looks.  It's just as crazy being on one.  Those guys are nuts, and even though you're not going very fast, the feeling is unique.  So much so, we're thinking of renting one and doing some driving of our own... One of those things you have to try, I can't put it into words.

We got back, took a nap, and then went out for dinner (I get to choose most of the food places, which is good for me...) at this little family food place that had amazing quail, pork stuffed tofu, chicken, among other things.  The food is turning out amazing so far (of course). 

The people here are very nice, similar to Japan, but much more motivated by money.  I guess it makes sense, because it is more of a developing nation.  If you have a few Dong, you can pretty much get anything.  People will follow you across the street to sell you things, try and shake your hand just to get your attention, and haggling is very much the norm, something I have to get better at...

Mekong delta next up...