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Published: January 27th 2009
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At 7pm on the 16th January Emily and I finally made it to Vietnam.
We left our plane and the delightful people at Qatar Airways and walked into a brand new terminal resplendent with giant Vietnamese flag, smiling posters everywhere, and, most importantly, air conditioning.
After waiting a short time to go through all the formalities, we stepped out of the airport to be blasted by the smells, light, sound and heat of the city. (Like walking into a hot sauna after having a cold shower, with some chap carrying an active strobe light hiding in there and shouting at you at the top of his voice every 30 seconds.) After a few moments adjusting, I decided I was game to take on the airports notorious taxi drivers and set about haggling a good price for transport to our prearranged hostel. ((Needless to say I failed miserably, but we got to our hostel in one piece (no small feat in Saigon) and were greeted by the famous Madame Cuc who promptly told us that she had given our room to someone else as we were late!
After a frantic discussion and a couple of phone calls we were
Saigon Traffic
As Emily states so vehemently, "ITS CRAZY!" found a room in a hostel 3 buildings away and where then given supper (noodles, spring rolls and juice) to fill the void that existed after not eating for a couple of hours. Needless to say it was delicious at the time and after getting to our room, having taken a bit of time to wander around the backpacker quarter, we promptly fell asleep.
For the next three days our routine was roughly the same - wake up, go over to Madame Cuc's for breakfast, decide where to have lunch, wonder to it (praying every time we crossed a road) and then exploring the points of interest near it on a full stomach. Highlights included Reunification Palace where we observed an interesting take on the Vietnam war and the full horror of 1960's decor, various new and huge shopping complexes (straight out of London - including prices), multiple Pagodas and temples, getting lost in beautiful back streets (my map reading was a little jaded and I consequently made a couple of mistakes which Emily gleefully pointed out!), the various markets (food, clothes, plants etc), Emily's strange fascination with Government posters and 2 brilliant bars - one, Saigon Saigon bar
One of the Food Markets
Emily and I started playing the guessing game... "Did this animal go moo?" "No, I think it went cluck cluck cluck." Needless to say we didn't have a clue, but the smell was pretty distinctive. on the 10th floor of the Caravelle Hotel had a fabulous view of the city, the other, Go2 bar had an all night happy hour, a grill at every table and friendly rats who would come and share your meal.
All in all Saigon was a great place to start our gap year and by the end of our stay we were happy to walk down the middle of the major highways with hundreds of scooters on either side of us, order off any menu, and, most importantly, know which beer to drink.
Next stop was Dalat.
Alec.
Ho Chi Minh (Saigon):
Ho Chi Minh, an interesting sight. Met by the brilliant lights of a bustling, thriving city. Neon lights everywhere. The most noticeable thing is the traffic, roads packed with mopeds crazily veering all over the place. This meant it was an interesting experience for us trying to cross the road for the first time. Think Rome and times it by 10. I can best equate our experience to disney's Mulan, where the old grandma crosses the road with the Cricket, you cross and hope and pray that you wont be run over!
We rock up at our Hotel at about 10 (in the evening) only to discover that the place is full due to confusion in our time of arrival. Madam Cuc (owner of the Hotel) however arranges us to stay at a place a couple of houses down for the same price, still including supper and breakfast. We then sit down for a much appreciated noodle soup and spring rolls, the spring rolls are good but the noodle soup isn't much different to a Pot Noodle (never mind).
On our first day in Ho Chi Minh we head for all the all the major sites, Alec has the map so he leads the way, only to discover that he isn't really reading the map but in fact leading us in the complete opposite direction, so we do a rather large detor (by that I mean a few hundred miles out, we end up in the middle of a field, which is odd because Ho Chi Minhs a rather large city!?). Once back on track we go to a number of places: a few pagodas (temple things), Notre Dame (again Alec went a bit wrong!), a nice park, a couple of
Goverment Poster Number 1
For some reason Emily finds these posters fascinating, this one especially... expect a lot more where this came from. mahusive shopping centers, and finally, but most importantly, Reunification Palace. Reunification palace visiting wise wasn't that interesting, however what it stands for is, and it is evidently a significant establishment/site in Saigon. It used to be known as Independence palace (in some places it still is), but is now a symbol of the unification of the North of Vietnam with the South and interestingly enough the video documentary we were shown portrayed a rather damning impression of the Americans. This country is evident very proud to be a Communist state and what I find fascinating is the posters they have up everywhere, they remind me of those I have seen in history books showing Nazi propaganda (i.e. focus on the family, country products and army men). Anyway, enough of that.
The only other thing I wish to note about Ho Chi Minh is the Caravelle Saigon Saigon bar and Go2 bar. The latter I liked more. Saigon Saigon had a spectacular view across the center of the city and we sat there with a drink as the sun went down (how romantic!!!). Go2 bar was more of a studenty place set in the middle of the back packer district. All night Happy Hours allowed us to drink exorbitant amounts for the grand price of $2! We also went there for a meal one night, which was fantastic. At the center of the table they have an in built hot plate, you choose your meat and have your own mini BBQ, lovely!
Well, that's all I really have to day about Ho Chi Minh. Next, Dalat, only 200km north of Ho Chi Minh but because the roads aren't great the bus journey to get there took 9 hours. But it was ok, I spent the entire time staring out the window listening to music (and vaguely thinking I aught to get on with my application, staring won). We also got talking to a local girl from Dalat, Thao. She was travelling back from Ho Chi Minh (where she was studying for a fashion design course) for Tet (Chinese/ Vietnamese New Year). We exchanged numbers and planned to meet again, but I'll save the details of that for later.
Emxx
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chris
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get on with the blog...!!
Sitting here in a bare house in Surrey, hoping for an update---and nothing to read. Hurry up with the next part!!! Hope all well. C n H (surrounded by packing boxes)