First Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City

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Russell - Well we have arrived in our first official destination. We landed yesterday after a long flight so have been very tired but already this has been an amazing place. The fun started straight from the plane and getting through immigration. Now I have no need to worry about this as I'm a perfectly normal tourist but isn't there just something about offical military uniforms that makes you feel guilty? And lets face it if you want to design an intimidating military uniform then you can't beat the communists. "when confronted by government officals just smile" the guide book helpfully told me so I gave it my best grin and had a warm smile returned to me. Then he looked in my passport looked up again and started to grin back - the guy was finding my passport photo most amusing - really why? But he stamped all my papers in about 400 places and let me in so no probs there. Then there was customs also no probs so we were in.

Next get some money for a cab. There's an ATM no probs right. Unfortunately I missed a couple of noughts from the mental exchange calculation and took out 8 quid instead of 80! I will arrange to give back my maths A level on my return.

Outside to find a cab and we were immediately accosted by a driver offering us a ride for just $15 american. Hmm a bit expensive we said, "Ah yes it is expensive but also far" We politely said we find a metered cab and moved on to the line where a nice driver loaded our stuff in the boot. We then serenely moved out of the airport and into the traffic. Sorry that should be into the Chaos!!!!

Drivers here are mad. There is no other way of putting it. The most important piece of equipment on a car appears to be the horn. There is no anger in beeping though it just appears to be their way of saying "excuse me I don't wish to run over you but I will if you don't move" most of the vehicles here are mopeds and so far we haven't seen any accidents so I guess the system works. . Anyway the grand total for the cab ride through insanity was 56,000 dong. So just over two pounds, or less than $3. Although we didn't have any change so we gave him 80,000. It was worth it!

The traffic was really fun to watch from the cab - crossing the road on the other hand......

"Don't run across the road walk at an even pace and the traffic will drive around you" our book says. And it is right but I have to say it takes some courage and I have nearly lost my nerve on a number of occasions. It seems to be a successful strategy, though as Lins pointed out we are defining success as not being dead yet so lets hope it remains a successful strategy!

Lindsay: Well what is there left to say? We just about managed to check into our hotel last night before we collapsed. The porter took our bags up and put in our nice refreshing air-conditioned room and showed us the "very important" safe. I did keep gesturing at Russ to tip him, but he wasn't taking any notice. And eventually about 5 hours later wondered to himself "should I have tipped the porter earlier..?" Duh, yes. Anyway we were very tired so I didn't care that much - I just wanted to sleep. We did go out to forage for food a little later - it seemed a very long way to the area of HCMC where all the restaurants in the guidebook seemed to be, and we lost the ability to read last night too, but after several attempts made it past the construction site marked on the map (now a sort of park/market, since they seemed to have got bored or run out of money halfway through the construction) and found at ATM since I realised in the cab that the 200,000 dong we had carefully stashed as a week's budget was actually about 7 pound 50, which everyone knows is only going to last you two days. And found a nice cafe/bar and the rest of the western tourists, where we had a nice meal, and for Russell a desperately needed beer.

Russell - Ah yes. As I would like to make this somewhat informative I feel it is my duty to review the beers of the places we go. Selfless I know. Anyway the local beer here is Bia Siagon (I'll leave the translation to you) which is a most refreshing larger with definite wheaty overtones. Definitely recommended.

Lindsay - O-Kay. Anyway, we walked back to the hotel in about half the time, and took refuge in the air condidtioning. I looked at my frizzy hair in the mirror in horror... I think the temperature when we landed was about 32 degrees (91 in old money) at about 4ish. Still very warm in the evening. Perhaps I shouldn't have packed the fleece after all... Since then all we have done is sleep really. And sleep so much it is now night again and we missed the daylight. I spent a long time anti-frizzing my hair, which has lasted about 10 minutes, so I think it is truely time to give in and embrace the frizz.

And we have come back to the park tonight for more food, which today has taken us about 2 minutes as we have found out that it is actually around the corner and we were just walking in circles around the city. Unfortunatley Russell seems to have lost his nerve for crossing the road this evening, and sets a foot on the tarmac and then freezes, while I scream "don't stop!" at him, and a motor cycle who doesn't expect the pedestrians to just stops manically heads towards him beeping like mad. I think I should take him for some more alcohol at this point or we may be trapped on this side of the road.

Russell - Whilst writing this I have just witnessed how to complete a three point turn in heavy HCMC traffic - basically extensive use of the horn is all you need! You don't understand they are crazy!!!!!!!

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Comments

[Pam]

Hey, you two will have the time of your lives - how fantastic for you, nice to hear you've arrived safely - seems like you'll soon have the traffic 'situation' under control hehe!! I'll pop in here occasionally and see which part of the world you're in. Enjoy every minute, even the times when you might be thinking "what the hell are we doing in this place" it will all be amazing. Take care, Pam (MouchelParkman)