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Published: March 22nd 2008
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Wherever you go around here there are a few things you notice, first off being all these people walking around in those zip off trousers that become shorts. Like does anyone ever zip them off and wear them as shorts, no never, it's the look at me I'm the world traveler and I've got this really cool outfit that saves me 100 grams when I pack my backpack, really give me a break.
The other great thing you notice is that there's a significant number of people walking the streets with their copy of the Lonely Planet tightly clasped in their hand as they look for the place that serves the finest pizza this side of Italy. Tony Wheelan would be so happy, if only they were original copies instead of the finest knocked up on Vietnamese photocopier complete with a real looking cover version. Around here it looks like everyone is on the Lonely Planet non-package tour. That's the tour where you stay at the hotels Lonely Planet recommends, eat at the restaurants that Lonely Planet suggests and go for drinks with your fellow non-package tour buddies at the pub Lonely Planet recommends.
Responsible service of alcohol hasn't
War Remnants museum
That big cylindrical thing in the foreground is a bomb. reached Vietnam yet, it's more about you've just taken your last mouthful which indicates to the waitstaff to come and ask if you would like another drink. It doesn't matter where you are in Saigon or what you are drinking, put that glass down and within a nanosecond bang here's the waitress. It happened the other night three times in quick succession with three different waitresses in the same restaurant noticing that my glass was empty. I just finished saying no to one and another one appeared. After trying to savour an almost acceptable coffee and putting the cup down, bang out of nowhere comes a waitress, sir would you like another? Come on people give me a break here.
Saigon is a little bit different to Hanoi, here they seem to have this overt dislike to the Americans, mainly due to the American War that ran for 10 000 days. As they say there's two sides to every story so when I Rome it's good to hear the other side. One of the must sees is the Reunification Palace. It was made famous when a couple of tanks went crashing through it's gates in 1975. The other one
that everyone talks about is the War Remnants Museum, conveniently located just up the road from the Reunification Palace. After seeing the Army Museum in Hanoi initial impressions of this one were a little disappointing. Those impressions didn't take all that long to change though after walking through the War Photographers gallery and seeing all the images it made for a very solemn and quite walk around the rest of the museum. Even though there is not much exhibition space used (at the moment only the ground floor is used), there's some powerful images and displays. There's a couple that stand out, the landmine photo display showing the work of MAG around the world de-mining the minefields and the display about Agent Orange and it's use in defoliating large portions of South Vietnam. Integral to this display is the two deformed foetuses in glass jars. One thing you do notice about the War Museum is that everyone starts out noisy as they first walk in, by the time you get to the main hall everyone is in silence.
Being in South Vietnam it was only fair that I venture on a half day trip to see the Cu Chi
tunnels. For the bargain basement rate of USD5 you to can take a bus ride through the streets of Saigon for a stopover at the handicaped handicraft factory before finally reaching the tunnels. If you are lucky you can also have a guide who is desperately waiting for his chance on Vietnam Idol provide a nice rendition of all those love songs from the eighties.
Vung Tau is only a short ride by hydrofoil from Saigon along a very picturesque but busy waterway. Having a buit of time to kill in the afternoon I decided to venture out to see if it was worthwhile for a return visit when next in Vietnam. The trip out was good, heaps of vacant seats, nice weather for cruising down the river on a Russian built hydrofoil. After getting ashore and using my poor negotiation skills I bought a part share in a moped complete with driver for the half hour unguided tour of Vung Tau. It's safe to say that half an hour in Vung Tau is enough, with an anticlockwise lap of the sites. There's Jesus looking out over the ocean from the hill top (just like Brazil), then there's the
pagoda on the island off-shore, the memorial to the war, the long stretch of ugly beachfront, a few more statues of religous icons and you're done.
The trip back from Vung Tau was much more entertaining in the former Russian sauna that doubles as a hydrofoil. there are three different cruise lines that service Vung Tau, but it doesn't matter as they are all the same. My ticket said Petroline, but I was on Greenlines for the trip back. Greenlines is named after the colour the passengers go ten minutes after leaving port. This is complemented by the hostie walking the aisle handing out sick bags!! Combine this with the lovely scent of diesel that permeates through the rear cabin and you're in for a great trip back to Saigon. Somehow I survived the trip without the need to make a dash for the open air.
For my last night in Saigon I decided it was time to go and see what sort of night life I could find. It also prooved to be a great night of people watching. First stop Saigon Saigon bar, one of the trendier places in town with a great view of the
A fine piece of Russian engineering
Built for the cold not the tropics, but doubles as a sauna. city from this little roof top bar. With a reasonable wine list by the glass I managed to spend the equivalent of a nights accomodation in two glasses. A glass of the Baron von Rothchilds from Loire Valley was just the thing to enjoy while watching the other punters. Like the French guy who talked up the bottle of red to the waiter and then proceeded to drop ice cubes into his glass of red. Now a couple of viewers will recognise how popular that move has been previouslly. Then there was the table of four from the USA, complete with this one guy who decided to leave his cap on, no manners really, what did his mother teach him. The aside to this was that it was a Vietnam communist star cap, makes me wonder will I be sitting in a bar in Bagdad in thirty years time watching a guy from the USA having a beer with an Iraqi cap on? Oh and the houseband at Saigon Saigon not bad at all, some nice covers of the '80's and '00's, they were sensible enough to avoid the '90's. From there it was off to Sheridan's the Irish bar,
almost like the Monkey, but in an Irish way. I did cause a little confusion by walking up to the bar and ordering my drink. Evidentlly that's what the five waitstaff are for, so barman pours drink, waitress writes out docket, barman gives me drink, I give money to waitress, waitress gives docket to barman. Hey but after that little bit of confusion all was good. The band was doing their thing very well and then it all stopped, they packed up at 10:30pm and that's it the gig was over. So is my time in Saigon, next stop Siem Reap.
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