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Published: February 24th 2010
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Scooters, Cars and people. That is all you see when you first drive into Saigon. The second thing I notice is that if the traffic in Can tho was crazy, the traffic in Saigon is absolute insanity!!!The cab driver was driving a lot faster into the traffic, and the amount of bicycles and scooters are tripled. Horns seem to be the soundtrack to Saigon, and the pollution is way more apparent here. I have decided from the look of my surroundings that I'm giving up food here. Jill's family has booked our hotel,much beyond my control, and calling it a 2 star would be generous. Again, having to be in a travelers mind, I will just have to suck it up. definitely different from the sheratons we were staying at. I must say I have stayed at some simple hotels in europe and even new york, and as long as its clean and safe, I usually dont care, I'm not that high maintenance. But remember my rules were clean and safe. This does not fit into that category. Oh well, only 2 more days, who needs to shower anyway?Plus its free, but really, a decent hotel in Saigon is like $50
a night anyway. I have to say as soon as I get home the first thing I am doing is showering, jumping on my bed and going for a big ass salad!!! But back to Saigon. We made it around to district 1 which is actually called ben thanh to locals,according to Jills family. Check out some of the cool markets, and things are so cheap, Its actually funny how much we have become bargain whores. And Jill's family had told us the correct way to bargain which is offer them half of what they ask for and work your way up. Its actually ridiculous how much we pay back home and how much I got a lot of my stuff for. The market also has more of a presence of tourist which I haven't seen in a while. Lucky for us we had an insider,one of Jills relatives who lives here in Ho chi minh.She was our fearless leader and helped us with barganing, and became our unofficial tour guide. After the markets we wander in the heat for a bit around district one, a far cry from where we are staying. Our area is a little more ghetto,
roughed up. District one has fancier hotels, Louis vuitton and higher end restaurants. What I like about district one is the presence of the french influence. Because of the control France once had in the city, a lot of the buildings have French architecture and a lot of french touchs. Cafe's and bistros line the streets with European style patios, a lot of french style names occupy the awnings, and for fun facts, they get a lot of radio Canada and parisian tv programs. One of Jill's relatives actually grew up taking french in school. I think they are forced to take either french or English in school, And he was more than happy to practice his french on me.This was actually the first time I could communicate with one of Jill's relatives, and he had some interesting stories to tell. And once again, I find myself watching french programs at night, like Japan, Much to the chagrin of my roommates. But after I made Nhung watch an old episode of Murder she wrote this morning, I think she doesn't mind the french.(So I grew up watching stupid cheesy tv, So what??? don't judge!)
I don't know if I
Dola, the cutest puppy ever!
Unfortunatly the other black dog was stolen and may have been eaten. Not joking have mentioned the task of crossing the street in Vietnam, but I feel its a subject matter that needs to be approached again. I actually have become accustomed (almost) to the ritual of getting to the other side, staring at my impending death right in the face, but the one thing you must remember when crossing a street in Ho chi minh is NO HESITATION. If you hesitate for a second, you could possible get smoked but a motorbike,( which sounds like a like from some dramatic movie) but its absolutely true. Its actually not unlike a game of human frogger. You have hundreds of motorbikes and a couple cars, driving towards you, some may yield(thats yeild not stop) but most wont. so your goal, to keep youself alive, is to step forward and basically step in between one motor bike let one pass and step a bit further in between another motorbike. This sounds a little dangerous, and it is, but once you get the gist of how the system works, its not as scary as it looks. I can only imagine pulling this back home, and I can almost hear the screeching of tires and curse words in
the back of my mind. It is still a bit of a production when we do it though, all single file, usually a bigger group of us,holding onto each other's arms, taking step by step and most likely looking like a pack of deer stuck in headlights. I'll have to try to get video before I leave.
We ended up eating at a food chain called I heart bun. This restaurant is a bit cleaner than the ones we have been to so I felt safer eating here. Unfortunatly for Nhung, even after taking Ducoral, has contracted some sort of bug. Luckily for me, and the fact that I have been taking colidal silver everyday, I have not had any problems.Even though some of the food I ate in Can tho was probably not on the safe list. You have to make sure when you go to the restaurants that you ask for the "good ice" , the ice that has been made with the bottled water. After seeing how the fruit and vegetables were handled, I have decided to wait until I get home to eat fresh produce. Its actually disgusts me how they were selling their food
in the market. Scooters are whizzing by the aisle polluting the produce with exaust, fresh lettuce and greens in a basket on the floor with the leaves touching the dirty road where all the traffic is driving past, and not far away from a mysterious black sludge . The other day when I had been walking around for a bit, my skin felt gross and sticky and I scratched it and black grime was underneath my fingernails. All the pollution of the city was on my skin. So gross. So imagine whats sitting on top of their "fresh" produce. And I dont think there is a lot of sanitation regulations on meat, because I see it raw, sitting open air,flys all over, rotting in the sunlight. After witnessing this and with Nhungs stomach problems I decided to be extra careful of what I ate. This makes me miss Can tho, where all our fruit and vegetables were from Jill's grandma's yard. It also makes me miss the cleanliness of Canada. Gotta love the FDA!
After all that I didnt get to explore as much of Saigon as I wanted to, so tomorrow is our last day. Have to get
anything else we need and hopefully check out some of the cool temples I have seen while we were driving. And at least soak up as much warmth and sunlight as I can because I know we wont be getting that for a long,long time.
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Renee
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Froger Shannon
Shannon we miss you!! Sounds like a cool and way different experience then japan. At least you get to practise your French and visite with jill's family... OMG that dog is so cute!! I'm a little traumatized to know that someone may have eaten his buddy!!! Yikes!! Be safe and Im looking forward to reading more on your adventures in Vietnam.