Day Six ? -- Ha Noi and Saigon

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Another early morning this morning! We took the elevator to the top floor, the ninth, in our building to the hotel’s breakfast buffet. It was an odd combination of foods that didn’t match - eggs, toast, rice, stir-fried veggies, pho but with pork (I’ve never seen that before and neither has Thu), and little bits of chicken that I think were supposed to resemble chicken wings. We picked it over - it wasn’t good, but it was food.

After breakfast we met downstairs. The plan was to go see the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh. Sadly, when we arrived we were told that the body is closed on Mondays and Fridays, so we couldn’t see that. Instead, we could see the museum, which is housed in a huge building built in 1990 (I think). An interesting point about the museum - Vietnamese people can get in for free, but non-Vietnamese have to pay. Ha! Once inside, one could see the Russian and Chinese communist influences in some of the propaganda pieces on display. We decided while there that the museum really should’ve hired Thu to translate their signs. All of the signs were in Vietnamese and English, but the English translations were really shaky, with plenty of pseudo-words thrown in (like “scarifying” - we figured out they meant “sacrificing”). Many of the quotes referred to the “emulation” movement, which through using Thu as a translator we discovered they meant development movement, kind of like China’s Great Leap Forward (it seemed to have similar results, too).

After the visit to the museum we had a couple hours until we had to check out, eat lunch, and catch a plane back to Saigon. Some of us used that time for a nap - I don’t think we’ve had more than five or 5.5 hours of sleep in a night, so naps are desperately needed. I planned on sleeping on the plane, too, but instead Matthew and I read and Thu & Peter played computer games.

We arrived in Saigon, parted ways with our tour guide and Thu’s uncle, and met up with someone else. Kieu (I think that’s her name) is the wife of someone who works for Bac Phuc back in Portland. They’re trying to sponsor her over to the States, but that takes a lot of time and effort, so I guess any time that they are in Saigon Bac Phuc and his wife visit her. This was nice because she acted as a sort of guide through the city.

Saigon is huge, packed with people (the traffic in Ha Noi was nothing compared to Saigon! it was crazy!), and having someone who knows the city is very helpful. We went to a BBQ place for dinner (not BBQ like in the states, but a sort of grilled meat experience), which was very crowded and loud but fun. I ate chicken feet for the first time but couldn’t bring myself to eat fertilized quail eggs. The goat, however, was excellent.

After dinner we went to a place to drink coffee and listen to live music. There was a woman as the final show who is apparently very famous and has been around forever (40 years would be my guess from the picture slideshow they had). She’s in retirement right now but still loved, so she was a huge hit with the crowd. I took a couple videos, although the quality and angle aren’t really good - hopefully the music turns out. This music club is popular with people who like the older music, Thu said. She knew many of the songs because of her parents. Although loud, it was an enjoyable experience. One funny thing - we saw a huge picture of a guy on the wall of this place and said “Wait a minute, we’ve seen that guy before!” at a Vietnamese poetry reading in Portland.

Our hotel in Saigon is nice. Our room is comfortable and less than $12/night, so affordable for us. We’re on the third floor (what we would call the fourth floor), and above us is a rooftop that is flat and so has a garden and a great view of the city. Pretty!

The plan last night (Friday night) was to return to our hotel and sleep in, but that didn’t happen for me. I received a call at 5:30AM from Salem-Keizer asking me to come in for an interview for AP, so now I’m up preparing for that while I still have internet. The interview will take place Tuesday at 6AM (their Monday afternoon) over the phone, which is nice of them. I don’t actually hold out much hope since I know that they have to interview all people who currently work for the district, but it is a job interview. Maybe if I keep my fingers crossed…

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Photos

A "truck" in Ha Noi
They can fit anything on a motorbike over here!

The family vehicle
Peter has a theory about families on motorbikes over here -- as soon as you can no longer fit with the family, you have to learn to ride by yourself.

Hotel lobby in Saigon
See all the bikes parked in the lobby? Instead of stairs they have a ramp so you can drive right up!