The Crazy City Of Saigon

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam….

We were sad to leave Cambodia. After all it was the first country that we managed to get through without being ripped off or robbed by the locals. Malaysia had its more than corrupt taxi drivers and Thailand relieved Chloe and I of a considerable sum of money as we dozed on a bus. However, onwards and upwards. So goodbye Cambodia and Good morning Vietnam. Yeah I had to fit it in somewhere so why not right at the start. But don’t fear, I shall not be fitting anymore war movie references into this blog as I simply don’t know anymore. Oh! I love the smell of napalm in the morning…now I’m done. Now we were overcharged for our visa on entry into Cambodia when we got to the border, though that was by Thai folk, so we decided we would plan ahead and get our visa for Vietnam at the embassy in Phnom Penh. Easy stuff. We paid the standard $35 to the embassy and collected our visa the next day. Onto the bus and across the border in a matter of minutes and we were as happy as pigs in the proverbial. We weren’t totally sure what to expect from Vietnam on arrival but I’m sure as with most westerners, we have the engrained image of war, hardship and violence thanks to a slew of American war movies over the years. We’re sure that when we get back home this will be the country that all you folks will be asking us about so we will be trying our best to take as much in as possible.

The countryside on the way to Ho Chi Min City (referred to as HCMC herein) was beautiful and pretty typical of the countryside we have witnessed throughout SE Asia. Rice fields and narrow roads were the norm. Roads half covered with rice spread out to dry in the baking 30degree heat, and random livestock roaming free. Then it was back to the hectic life of the city. HCMC is crazy, and certainly a different sort of crazy to the happy pizza selling craziness of Cambodia. BEEP BEEP BEEP…..bloody horns. Thousands of motorbikes honking horns trying to alert the driver in front that their about to drive up their arse. Buses ramming on through the motorbikes in the middle of the road commanding whatever part of the road they see fit. The odd car, normally a taxi beeping at us travellers for our hard earned cash. And then us, the poor helpless pedestrians that run the gauntlet each time we so much as consider setting foot outside. And I don’t just mean on the road. Over here motorbikes casually mount the pavement to gain a bit of space. And they drive on the right instead of the left which totally confuses us time and time again as we wreck our brains trying to remember whether we should be looking left or right first before crossing the road. In the words of our good old friend ’The Lonely Planet’, “It may appear like absolute chaos at first….its in a setting where just watching the street is more fascinating than any film.” In the words of any sane traveller such as ourselves “It is chaos…watch the road from the safety of a hotel balcony if you want to live to see another day” . But we love it really. The chaos does bring about a soothing reminder that your in another country far from the structured cities that we have at home. All along the roads you can pick up some food. Little stalls every 10metres selling baguettes with some laughing cow cheese, Pho (noodle soup) being a particular favourite for us, all at the price of a bar of chocolate back home. I’m sure we will learn to love Vietnam over our 2 weeks here.

Having settled into our guesthouse room, fully equipped with a stocked fridge, cable TV, and private bathroom and shower, all for the unbeatable value of $6 per room, we set off on an adventure. Having dodged about the backpacker area of Pham Ngu Lao we realised that there wasn’t much about other than bars, guesthouse and restaurants. But we did find a better guesthouse for cheaper on Duong Co Giang, so we moved in the next day. So enough with the boring formalities, we made plans for the next day to visit the War Remnants Museum. This museum documents the atrocities of war and is promoted as being the kind of place that even the museum averse would appreciate. Having been to S21 prison in Cambodia, we were expecting a similar style of museum. There were photos of many people who had been killed during the war, but this place was certainly a lot more heart wrenching in my opinion. Upon entry we were charged a paltry 16,000 Dong ($1) for entry. We were greeted by US Army tanks, Massive bombs twice the height of me, rocket launchers, a helicopter, planes and other such instruments of war. Wilsy and I were like kids in a candy shop as we inspected all the vehicles and their rockets and guns mounted to them, imaging how much devastation had been caused by them. There were 5 different section to the museum. One section depicted photographs taken by photographers involved in the war. Close ups of people dying in trenches, wounded soldiers being tended to by medics, hostages being beaten by US soldiers. It was so striking and moving and really had us thinking about the propaganda of war movies. The photos were just like what you would see in the movies. Only we were looking at these photos knowing they were real life shots. Another section was devoted to the weapons used during the war. Guns of all shapes and sizes, rocket launchers, grenades and landmines all on display with description of how they were used and the damage they could cause. Photos depicting victims that had fell foul of these weapons. The most disturbing of the display was that of the victims of the chemical side of the warfare. All the different chemicals that were used during the war to destroy the enemies crops and food source were on display. Images of acres of crops and trees wiped out as a result of chemicals dropped from planes lead onto the images of the effect it had on humans. One large wall was devoted to images of Vietnamese men, women and children with deformed bodies, missing limbs, burnt skin and other disturbing pictures reminded us of the aftermath of war. The main chemical to blame was Agent Orange, a chemical that lead to birth defects many years on after the war. Today, the victims still file legal suits against the company responsible for supplying the chemical to the US Army. US Army soldiers today fighting against the US Army for compensation for exposing them to the danger. It was certainly an experience we were all grateful that we could witness and learn from.

Now don’t get me wrong, HCMC is not all doom and gloom. There are many religious Pagodas, temples and churches to be visited, but having been to the largest collection of temples n the world at Angkor Wat, we were all templed out. We spent the next couple of days just kicking back in our nice wee guesthouse catching up on watching some TV, going out for extra cheap meals and equally cheap beer, still managing to spend too much money at the same time. We took a chance with a very cheap bottle of vodka and red wine from a wee corner shop. The vodka, brewed in Hanoi, cost 50cent and needless to say could not be drank. I pride myself on never throwing drink away but this was undrinkable. The wine was much the same, with a nice hint of vinegar and sour milk to it, we decided against drinking it too. We have held onto it for a rainy day, so needless to say I may finish it off soon.

The weather for us up until now had been quite nice. 30degree heat is quite comfortable here, as we have acclimatised to it. Vietnam is to give us some funky weather patterns however. We have arrived during Typhoon season. So while we get sunshine during the day, we are as abruptly greeted with severe rain storms. As we move further up the coast we expect to be hit with some dangerous weather though we are going to take our chances, all in the name of adventure. Hanoi in the North has been flooded for a while now but weather forecast suggests it will be better by the time we get there. Well here’s hoping anyway. We have bought our open tour bus tickets to travel from HCMC in the south to Hanoi in the North with 3 stopovers. For $27 we can cover almost the entirety of Vietnam by coach. Cheap and effective. Next stop for us in Nha Trang. Located on the coast of the South China Sea with what is meant to be one of the best and most popular beaches in Vietnam, we are hoping to catch up on 4 or 5 days of sunbathing and topping up our tans. Lets hope we get the weather. Thanks for reading folks and we shall update you soon with the next part of or adventure. Leave us a comment just to let us know you are reading these. Bye folks.

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Photos

Vietnam Flag
The flag of Vietnam - Our 4th and final country before home.

The War Museum
Chloe posing with a tank used in the war.

Guns
Selection of weapons at the museum.

Plane
US Army plane recovered after the war.

Powerful Images
Horrific photographs of people killed in the fighting. The have all been chained to a circle of steel and shot dead

Images
A photograph of fighter planes dropping bombs on the land below.

Helicopter
US Helicopter

Tiger Cages
Tiny cells used to keep prisoners. The museum has placed a life sized replica of a prisoner in the "cage".

Guillotine
Execution device used during the war.

The View From Our Guest House
Check out all the food stalls lining the street. Also all the hundreds of electricty cables hanging dangerously at head height.

Comments

[John]

Lucky sod!
Sounds amazing. Im well jealous... you could start your own Travel Guide for the world. Enjoying the blogs.. no storeys of 'the runs' yet?

[mar]

sounds wicked!!!
hey guys sounds wicked!!! get to ho chi minh next week - looking forward to the traffic - sounds like dicing with destiny to cross the road!!! good 2 hear ye had no visa dramas - hope wel b the same. happy travels!!!