So this place has 2 names; Ho Chi Minh is the newest one, but everyone still calls it Saigon. While talking about it, I may interchange the use of both names.
On the way to Saigon, we ran into Kate! Remember, Ally introduced me to her in Siem Reap! She was off on her own little adventure for the next few days, but we'll see her again... We also met this wonderful gal from England named Lucy. We ended up getting a hostel together, Vietnam Inn Saigon, and hung out the rest of our time in Saigon!
That night we walked around the backpacker street and had a few beers with Lucy, another guy from our bus, and a few others we met at the hostel. On this street, there are many little tables and chairs where everyone hangs out. We heard that around midnight, the police start coming by; everything has to get cleaned up and most places shut down, since Vietnam is a communist country. But when we were out, it didn’t happen! We were at a pub at that point though, so I think that is why. I kind of wish it did so we could’ve experienced it! I’m sure we will at some point though…
Something I’m really not a fan of over here: children being up at all hours of the night to sell things. The reason you see them out more than adults is that they will sell better; they are children, so a lot of westerners will want to help them, and there’s more of a chance that someone will buy from a child rather than an adult. Pretty messed up when you think about it, huh? At one point, Lucy and I noticed a little boy about 4-5 years old, kneeling on the ground gathering little crumbs/leaves and putting it in what looked like a rollie cigarette of some sort. We figured he was going to try and sell it as weed or something; he even closed it by licking the edge. I don’t know where he learned something like that, but it was absolutely painful and heartbreaking to see. It’s disgusting to think about everything the children are subjected to. There are soo many people who will walk around selling things, cigarettes, lighters, flowers, sunglasses, and then after, offer drugs.. It’s insane. And it’s even more upsetting when you think about the source of this problem, and how many tourists, backpackers, and travellers are out there enabling the behavior by buying from them.
The next morning, we met up to go to the War Remnants Museum and walk around the city. On our way, we walked through a park and noticed a lot of guys, old and young, playing this game (I don’t know what it’s called), where they have a court set up with what looks like a badminton net, with 3 guys on each side. They also have this shuttle cock that has a feather on the end, and they kick it across the net to the other side until it drops. We sat and watched them play for quite a while, it’s really cool and they’re really good at it!
When we arrived at the War Remnants Museum, there were a ton of old US and Vietnamese war planes out front. This museum was really hard and sad to go through. We did a lot of horrible things to the Vietnamese while we were there, but they also did a lot of horrible things to us. But just as any museum you’d see anywhere, of course it’s going to be one-sided in some way, making the country it’s in look a lot better than the opposing. Still, it has to be one of the most one-sided museums I've ever been to. At the end there were a lot of propaganda posters and newspaper articles against the war, which ended up giving a lot of hope during/after the war, along with helping to bring up all our spirits. They even mentioned the Kent State protest, which both excited me, but made me sad, with the way our police force responded.
After, we had some street food, which Vietnam is very famous for, and just walked around the city a bit. The traffic in this city is CRAZY! There are even tourist t-shirts with the traffic in Saigon printed on them.
Scary moment now funny: We crossed the street at one point, half way across the light changed, and the traffic starting to go before we were done crossing! We didn't know what to do! There were motorbikes going both in front of us and behind us! It was TERRIFYING! Lucy and I started screaming haha and we eventually made it across.
I must say, being in Vietnam has definitely made me more confident in crossing the streets in Southeast Asia: the key is to not hesitate, slow down, or stop when you’re crossing. All you need to do is judge which cars/motos you can make it in front of as you cross, and just go, don’t wait, and walk with speed according to those judgments.
Of course this is all much easier said than done, and definitely takes a bit of getting used to.. I mean really, it took me 3 months of being here to get to this point!
Have I mentioned the view from top of hostel yet?? It’s pretty awesome! There is a rooftop restaurant on the top floor that has an awesome view of the park that is out front on the same street as our hostel, along with many of the skyscrapers in the city. At the top of one of the buildings, we could see a cafe/bar that was completely lit up with colored Christmas lights; we referred to it as the Christmas rooftop bar!
After checking out the view, we had dinner and a few beers with Lisa, a girl who stayed at our hostel waayyy back in Thailand, and her friend Liberty!! I met her via Ally, because they met in Bangkok, and surprisingly we all ended up at the Lounge in Koh Samui without realizing it. All very confusing, but makes complete sense to us! :)
The next day, I took a moto taxi to Palm Sunday Mass. I found out about it as we were walking around the city earlier in the week, and there was a mass in English! It was soo great to finally hear an English service for the first time in months! And what was really awesome was that there were a lot of locals who attended it! Something different about Palm Sunday here is that they make that palms look pretty before giving them to you! :) There are also displays of palms that included palms that looked like fish, birds, flowers, leaves, crosses or just a really cool folded up structure. I really loved mass that day. It was beautiful, especially being able to understand the homily.
After, I walked back to the hostel because we then all took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels just outside of Ho Chi Minh City. The Cu Chi Tunnels are a network of tunnels outside of Saigon, but also all throughout Vietnam. The system of tunnels really helped the Viet Cong.. They were used as a place to hide for the Vietnamese, escape routes, for booby traps against the American soldiers, and as a way to get from one place to another because they are all throughout Vietnam.
That night, we went for some local food on a side street outside the backpacker area.. The lady who ran the area literally laughed out loud at Ally when he sat down in the stools, because his knees literally went above the table when he sat.. hah!! After dinner, we went out for one of Ally’s friend’s birthday. He knows her from home and is living and teaching English in Ho Chi Minh. We were waiting to hear from her, so we started walking around after dinner and there was someone standing outside this hotel. He gave us a card with a bunch of really good drink specials so we decided to check it out. When we went in, the hotel looked really nice, so we were a bit confused that there were such cheap drinks on the rooftop bar. When we got off the elevator, guess what: it was the Christmas rooftop bar that we saw earlier! And guess what happened next!? We heard from Ally’s friend, and sure as shit she was headed there!! <3
After spending quite some time there, we decided to go to a Karaoke place.. In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, it is soo popular out here, and as soon as you get into a city and drive around, you see that Karaoke places are literally EVERYWHERE!! You see buildings upon buildings with Karaoke signs on them. Asia loves it! <3
There are 2 types: Karaoke places that have many private rooms and ones that are a big bar. The one that we went to ended up being a private room one. There were only 5 of us, and to say the least.. It was absolutely hilarious and a complete BLAST!
Today, Lucy and I went to the market, Ally ended up staying at his friend’s flat last night, so we just hoped to run into him at some point that day. I have no idea how it happened but we decided to leave the hostel and go to the market and as we were walking there, we see a blue figure out of the corner of our eyes and sure as shit, it’s Ally running toward us through the middle of the park!! How things continuously work out on this trip, I do not know lol.
After the market, Ally went back to the hostel, but Luce and I walked around a bit more, and planned to meet up a bit later. Well, it ended up being quite a bit later, because after buying some fruit from the street venders, we decided to go to the park to relax, watch the shuttle cock players play, and enjoy our fruit. A girl came up to us and asked if she could hang out and practice speaking English with us. After saying absolutely and talking with her a bit, a few more came and joined us, and before we knew it, it was a serial situation of being surrounded by about 10 Vietnamese university students all having a chat with us! It was great! We loved it soo much.
After about 2 hours, we decided it was probably time to go and meet up with Ally again. I have been in contact with a German girl, Kat, who Ally and I met in Koh Samui, and throughout the week, we planned to meet up tonight for dinner! Well when she got down to our hostel, I went downstairs, heard my name yelled, and as I turned I saw her AND guess who… ALMA!! Hahaha mann this girl is everywhere! I seriously LOVE travelling. And I heard that continuously running into people happens everywhere throughout Vietnam, because everyone visits the same places and does it in about the same amount of time, so I’m really excited to see if that happens!
We all went out to eat, Lucy, Ally, Alma, Kat, and I, and then on the way back we walked through the park and ended up watching the locals play that game that I don’t know the name of again! Ally, Lucy, and I each bought a shuttle cock to take home with us. We also practiced with the local coach who sold them to us, and THIS GAME IS SOO HARD!!! They are PROS out here!! Hahaha –can’t wait to try it out with some friends once I get home!
Tomorrow morning Lucy and I leave for Mui Ne, Ally is staying to hang out with his friend, and we’ll meet up with him again in Dalat in about 3 days’ time!!
<3 M
PS – I totally forgot to mention: Zumba / exercise classes in the park. One day, we were just chillin on the roof, and we heard some music coming from the park. When we looked down we saw that’s exactly where it was coming from, along with about 50-100 people dancing/working out to it!! It was awesome!! And it also happened in Koh Samui, people get together and just go to a public place, play some music, and lead an aerobic/zumba/dance class in parks and parking lots!! We need to get that going in America.. imagine the impact it would have on our overweight problem! :)
Next stop: Mui Ne!!
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