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Published: June 27th 2006
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Saigon is definitely a city with a pulse. I don't always like big cities, but I loved Saigon and spent more time there than expected. It was very different than Hanoi, which shuts down after 11pm. The hot and noisy streets of Saigon are buzzing even at 3am. I enjoyed meeting new people and seeing friends from Hue and Hoi An for one last party before we all went our separate ways.
I did some touristy things in Saigon, like going to the War Remnants Museum and Notre Dame cathedral. I also went shopping in the markets and mailed stuff home from the beautiful main post office. Pirated movies and music are very cheap in Vietnam, and there are some great things to buy, such as coffee, food and clothes.
However, the best thing about Saigon is just hanging out on the streets. Unlike the US, where people tend to sequester themselves in their homes, people in Asia live their lives out on the streets. There are always people out selling stuff, hanging out with family and friends, sleeping, washing or tinkering with their motorbikes, eating, etc. I had a great time just wandering around and people watching. It
was also fun taking rides on the backs of motos. It's quite an experience zipping along with thousands of other bikes and darting in and out of traffic. There are so many vehicles that crossing the street in Saigon can be pretty hair raising at times, especially in roundabouts, but the Vietnamese are quite accustomed to dodging pedestrians. As long as you don't back up or run, they'll avoid plowing into you.
What made Saigon so much fun for me was the people. I met some really interesting characters there. Chris is a Brit having the time of his life being openly gay and teaching English in Saigon. Mark is an Australian doctor experiencing the world. We drank Saigon and had some interesting talks at Minh Minh cafe and Eden bar. Tam is a Vietnamese guy working at Minh Minh taking English lessons from Chris. George (Oz) and Katherine (NZ) were also fun to hang out with. I met Katherine on the bus from Nha Trang to Saigon. Her parents live in Saigon and she and George are in the same English teaching course. Chris and Katherine are also avid text messagers and I frequently distracted them at work
or interrupted their morning hangovers.
It was great to be reunited with the group who hung out in Hue and Hoi An for one last crazy night in Saigon. We started out at Good Morning Vietnam before moving to Go2 Bar, where most of these photos were taken. I don't know what possessed me to buy that crown with flashing lights, but it seemed like the logical thing to do at the time and provided some entertaining moments that evening. I have vague recollections of us finishing the evening at a table outside Allez Boo around 4am. Lili and I went shopping at the market the next day. Needless to say, we moved very slowly.
The food was great in Saigon and it was incredibly cheap. I usually had street food for breakfast: iced coffee from one vendor and baguette with cheese and veggies from another vendor, eaten while sitting on plastic chairs on the sidewalk and simultaneouly talking with/fending off overeager moto and rickshaw drivers. All this cost a grand total of 10,000 dong (70 cents). The CRDF crew will be pleased to note that I ate a lot of pho (meat noodle soup). I also went
to dinner at a fantastic French restaurant called Le Jardin, which I can recommend to anyone visiting Saigon. The awesome mashed potatoes and wine were a welcome change from a steady diet of rice and beer.
The coolest place was a Vietnamese BBQ restaurant frequented by locals and foreigners. I went to this place twice with Katherine, George, and others in their ESL teaching course. They bring you a grill and you cook whatever meats you want at the table. Some menu items are rather unusual: snake, jellyfish, worms, crickets, eels, birds, various pig and cow parts, goat penis, etc. The Vietnamese will eat just about anything and no part of the animal goes to waste. The beef was really good and so were the frog legs, which tasted like (you guessed it) chicken wings. The most unusual dish was eel. They bring you the whole eel in a pot along with side dishes of greens and noodles, which are thrown into each person's bowl. Even though the eel looked like a fat creepy snake, it tasted pretty good, like fresh river trout with lemon grass.
Thanks to all for making Saigon such an unforgettably rockin' good time.
You know who you are!
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