Asia Tour Leg 5, day 12

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I had an interesting night last night where I spent the first part with another guy from OZ and then got talking to a girl from Germany, where we had several drinks and much chinking of bottles.

Had my first lie in this morning, I didn't rise until 9.30. and then decided to get my map and go for a walk around Ho Chi Minh. The roads are madness and you just have to walk out in to them and have faith the hundreds of motorcyclist steer around you. Like everyone else I am accosted every 15 yards by someone where I am either offered, Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana, a young Vietnamese girl for the night (the number of middle to old aged men here for sex tourism is both scary and quite revolting), soft drinks, fake goods, books or more often then not a 1 hour tour around town on the back of a motorbike. They don’t move on when you say “NO” and didn't understand that I wanted to walk anyway. One guy even tried to tell me I was going the wrong way and pointed me in a different direction so I'd get lost just because I didn't want a tour. Having said all its not really a bad place... Seriously!

I walked a good few miles in a 34c heat, went to the market which is huge and then walked to the river and had a beer. It was perfect for just watching the locals passing by transporting rice in their motorised or rowing boats but 5 minutes wouldn’t pass without someone trying to sell something to me or trying to shine my shoes (which were trainers). I then walked down the developing area, complete with Versace shops and swanky hotels. Its really odd as there is absolutely nothing else in Ho Chi Minh to lure the rich list, Vietnam is very evidently a slow developing country. At the end of the avenue lies Notre Damn Cathedral ( a replica) this was built by the French when they occupied much of Vietnams main cities and then I walked through the rest of the district to a place call 'Reunification Palace'. This is the former home and workplace of the former President of South Vietnam, I steered away from a visit inside as I have seen so much history already that I wouldn’t have taken it in and it didn’t interest me too much anyway.

There’s so many different influences here and its taken a long time for the country to unravel itself. Many countries have had a go at the place it seems, China, France, Japan and not to mention America. Its not uncommon to see people walking around the with severe disfigurements, skin diseases, blind, death and all a result of the mass chemical attacks from the USA dubbed “agent orange” (Dioxin). A teaspoon full (85g) could wipe out a city of 8 million. The USA sprayed 44 million litres of Agent Orange so I can understand why the place has a messed up past.

I then walked back to the backpacker district and wacked a couple of lagers down. I should get an early night tonight as I need to be at the airport for 10 for my flight to Danang although I expect I'll roll in late again.

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Comments

[Heather]

I enjoyed your China post. It reminded me of my time there. My blog is looking for good travel photos. If you have the time, check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Heather