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Published: February 10th 2010
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Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City? Both, probably. I went to Saigon expecting to be like the scenes in Good Morning, Vietnam- women in all white walking down the streets with the round straw hats on, kids playing in puddles in the streets, old French buildings falling apart in the most charming ways.. In reality this Saigon has been replaced by what I like to think of as HCMC- which sort of resembles a very poor version of Shanghai with lots of traffic, skyscrapers, building projects, over used city parks and that ever present feeling in the air of acceleration and improvement. There still are lots of women wearing the round straw hats though, and kids playing in puddles on the street... which is actually a lot more disgusting than it is cute, because the streets are so filthy. There are also a lot of chickens hanging out everywhere, which is strange. I've never heard of the "city chicken", but in Saigon they seem very adept and dodging traffic and eating garbage. Here in Phu Quoc I've been introduced to the "beach chicken" which spends alot of time digging in the sand and eating coconuts with gusto.
In Saigon we
visited the War Remnants Museum, with lots of old military equiptment and incriminating photos. We saw the Reunification Palace, which despite it's grand name looks like an ugly high school built in the early 1970s. This was about all we did in Saigon, besides drinking mango smoothies, delicious Vietnamese iced coffees and beers in cafes, sitting in the flower market part of the city park, and laying around in our $8 hotel room unable to move for heat and humidity. $8 hotel rooms in Saigon do not come with air-conditioning, by the way.
One evening while sipping a Saigon Red at a cafe we invited an elderly gentlemen sitting a table across from us to join us. He turned out to be Phil, an Australian in his mid-70s who loves Vietnam and is the only person I've ever met in my entire life to describe himself as a Monarchist. He passionately made a case for continuing the English monarchy in Australia, and looked at John with utter reproach when he asked- But isn't the Queen just a figurehead? Apparently not in Australia.
There are lots of Australians in South-East Asia (and everywhere, for that matter). John and I
used to be skeptical of Australians, because of a particularly bad night with one in Bucharest, but they have now changed my mind. Australians are A-OK in my book.
One hot afternoon John and I were sitting in the shade in the park, contemplating our next move when an energetic Vietnamese guy in his mid-20s approached us. "Where you from, man?" he shouted at us, and when we told him America, he said "No way, dog! I love America I travel there all the time in my television!" He introduced himself to us as Andie, and we learned that his love of American culture is inheirited from his father, who was a translator back in the war. He said that he and his dad always speak English together, and that his dad is always saying old slang phrases that he doesn't understand like "No sweat, man!". I'm still not sure Andie understands the meaning of "No sweat, man!" because he used it pretty consistently as a replacement for "Thank you". He told us in a heated voice NOT to call it Ho Chi Minh City, because that is what the North (pronounced with extra disgust) renamed it after they
won. Andie also told us not to worry about all the nasty photos in the War Remnants Museum because "they were all Communists and they don't count."
So much for the American War, I guess.
On Phu Quoc. There was quite a bit of debate as to how to get here. There are 2 options from Saigon.. Option A involves a 10 hour local bus, a night in Ha Tien, and a 2 hour ferry ride. Option B is an 1 hour flight from the Saigon airport. Money saved on Option A? $10. Therefore, for the first time in my life I found myself buying a ticket for an airplane that left the next day. I had never even considered such drastic measures before, but it works! The Airport was really neat.. all the old bunkers and blast proof hangers are still there.. with machine gun stands on top. I thought about all the soldiers that must have taken off from that airport, and how happy they must have been to be leaving Vietnam. I felt pretty happy, too. I made it out alive!... and I'm going to a tropical island....
Everyone promised Phu Quoc would be
an undeveloped tourist free heaven. After the rest of Vietnam, I was pretty skeptical however, because Vietnam is so so touristic. It's true though! It's amazing that tourists come here at all, besides the beautiful resort free beaches with white sand and sparkling blue water, the untouched jungle that covers the center of the island, and the utter cheapness of everything. The town is really under developed, nothing in it suggests that Phu Quoc could soon become the next Acapulco. On the stretch of beach near our hotel several families operate a small restaurant, and they're kids run around everywhere shrieking and playing. Feral dogs and chickens run up and down the beach, and there is trash everywhere. Doesn't this sound lovely? For a backpacker, I guess. Give me a beach bungalow for $12 a night and I am happy!
Yesterday we took a boat out to some smaller islands off the South side of the Island for snorkeling. It was John's first time, and he had a great time. I had to force him out of the water, by which point we were both completely cooked. So, today we mostly hung out at the bungalow, reading in hammocks
and eating delicious mangos and bananas. Bananas here are amazing! They taste nothing like regular bananas!
Anyway. We leave on Friday and go to Cambodia- to escape Tet! More beaches... to bad sunscreen is so hard to come by here!
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