Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 212

Vietnam has turned out to be so different than what I thought. I came to Vietnam with this vague idea of discovering where I came from. Where my parents lived, where they met and courted, where they got married, where I was born, where I was nurtured. That Vietnam, for the most part, is gone. The apartment my parents first lived in has been razed. The houses my grandparents and my uncle lived are basically crumbling structures. Even most of the streets have been renamed. But discovering where I come from is so much more than just the physical places that I thought I wanted to see. What I've discovered is a whole new extended family I never knew. My journey to Vietnam is as much, if not more, about these people as it is about ... read more

Local Colour & a Great History Quiet breathing all around me, faces concentrated and involved on a level I’ve never seen before, eyes on the verge tears signaled by strong and uncontrolled emotion at the historic sights held within the Saigon War Remnants Museum………. This was the sight of people all around me, and as I viewed the photos in the museum myself I couldn’t help but wonder if many others shared the same uneasy feeling from there stomachs up to their chests. The museum here in Saigon was very different than the northern Hanoi museum, and the pictures were extremely graphic. They depicted war crimes such as; Agent Orange chemical birth defects, horrific Napalm burns, and Children who would not get a chance to grow past puberty. The pictures also captured the results of ... read more

Moving, again Our package with Holiday Tour and Travel was for four nights, so today we have to get a hotel of our own. We had (mistakenly) pre-booked a hotel when we bought the Vietnam package. Boy, we must really have been feeling lazy in Melbourne. I can’t blame us… after the whirlwind that was Match Day and the Move, I think we just wanted Vietnam handed to us on a platter. Maybe now that we’ve rested and been taken care of in Manila, we’re more apt to do more on our own like we usually do. This morning, someone from Holiday will help us move our stuff to the Saigon Oscar Hotel, which is where we were supposed to stay the past few nights, except the tour company said the hotel was booked. We’re not ... read more

Morning rush hour The morning was rather chaotic. There were still pictures to be transferred to DVD for the folks in Manila, bags to be zipped and locked, showers to be taken, and a light lunch to be consumed two hours after breakfast was eaten so that we wouldn’t get hungry on the plane. Tita Reena had a fish omelet prepared for us to complement the oatmeal and fruit that became morning ritual since returning from Boracay. In between meals, Meli spent more time working on her presentation. I finished up Talladega Nights and got cracking on the picture transfer. It was mad hectic trying to be out of the house by 11:30am. I made it to the table at 11:25am for lunch. Oliver pointed out the dishes while Xandra told me not to let this ... read more

My final Cambodian travel experience was as disappointing as all the previous ones had been. I was refused the free pick-up included in the cost of the bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh City because the company claimed they didn't know where the guesthouse was - despite me giving them the name, address, and phone number. The supposedly aircon bus had the faintest breaths of air coming through the vents, and the toilet - near which I was seated - was almost constantly in use by the Chinese tour group who took it in turns to go in there to puke. Taking my Cambodia blogs as a whole, it's probably apparent that I didn't really like the place. Leaving after a mere 2 weeks of my 30 day visa is another indication of that. Apart from ... read more