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Published: December 27th 2008
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Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now officially called) is a crazy, busy and buzzing place. Having experienced Hanoi, Saigon seemed like more of a worldly city with large department stores, big cars and
very big roads.
At the airport we had some bargaining issues with the taxi driver who was about 18 years old, but in the end we made our deal and left for the guesthouse in Pham Ngu Lao, the touristy area in District 1 of Saigon. Dropped at our address, our hostel was nowhere to be seen…Looking like the lost backpackers that we were, there were plenty of people willing to help us out, but knowing that they like to take you to ‘a friend’s guesthouse’ we declined. Eventually we realized that our address was in fact through a little alley into the ‘second Pham Ngu Lao street’. The guesthouse we booked online was fully booked after all and they sent us on to the neighbours, who only had a room on the 4th floor (I’m all for getting fit, but I prefer a ground or 1st floor room..). So we opted for the guesthouse across the road (there were about 12 guesthouses
to choose from in a very short street). Our place was new and there was room for bargaining the room rates so we felt we had made a good choice! Plus, we had a room, with A/C, on the first floor 😊
Starving by this time we walked to a restaurant which we’d seen on our way over which looked like a fun place, right on a busy crossing so lots of opportunities for people-watching. With a catchy name like Allez-Boo, we knew we were in for a treat. We ordered some Saigon beers and a very fancy looking meal, served in a pineapple, which was really tasty (there are exceptions to my statement about the best food being served in the divey café’s). Whilst busy people-watching we noticed quite a few scantily-clad ladies (although the amount of ‘manly looking’ ladies / blatantly obvious 'guys with a dress on') in the restaurant. It was only after we got back to the guesthouse when we read in our Lonely Planet that this place is popular with local prostitutes as well. Hmmm.
The next morning we slept in, had a breakfast (it was back to baguettes with omelettes) and decided
to explore the city. It took us a while to cross the roads, they were a lot wider than in Hanoi and despite some traffic lights you notice that these are definitely not always obeyed. Traffic here really is madness....
- Nobody drives in a straight line, it’s a slalom of motorbikes, cars, cyclos, ‘normal bicycles’ and bakfietsen (Dutch people will know what I mean, bikes with large storage areas at the front)
- There is constant honking..all the time! There is no clear reason why, just that it has to be done...and so they do.
- You can pile as much as you like onto your motorbike: Some people will have either 4 other members of their family piled onto a small motorbike, or 5 cages with pigs, chickens, piles and piles of bananas, mattresses, anything is possible!
We solved our problem of finding the right moment to cross the road, by blindly following a local. Figuring they must know when to cross and how to avoid the motorbikes, cars, we moved as closely behind them as possible. They were probably a little creeped out by us stalkers but it worked well for us! We attempted to
find a buddhist temple and failed to,…asking a local didn’t help as it ended up taking us to the Reunification Palace. It was unfortunately too late to go in (all the museums close for lunch for about 1-2 hours), so we took this moment to look at it from the outside, hang out in the park, drink fresh coconut juice and find a little restaurant to eat near the War Remnants museum. This proved tougher to find than we thought so when we saw a window with lots of grilled whole chickens we didn’t hesitate long to check it out. Fortunately there was more on the menu than grilled whole chickens and lots of local dishes (all shown on the menu with pictures so it was easier to choose) so we made a selection of what we thought were pretty ‘tourist-friendly’ dishes. We ate some supertasty fresh spring rolls (not fried), however when our beef noodles (which we thought we’d ordered), we got a very interesting-looking ‘Pho’ (typical vietnamese noodle soup) with a big chunk of bone in the middle of it and some ‘more fat than meat’ bits on top. It was pretty obvious they didn’t often get tourists
in their restaurant, because a couple of the waiters stood around us, smiling, waiting for us to dig in. So we ‘dug in’ as much as we could handle and hid the big bone and ‘meat’ in another bowl (although I think our disgust was pretty obvious) and spent a lot of time on the spring rolls and sauces and ate the vegetables and noodles in the soup.
Our next stop was the War Remnants museum, a display of photos, tanks, bombs which were used during the Vietnam war (which is surprisingly NOT called the Vietnam war according to the Vietnamese but is often called the American war). Many gruesome photographs show the after-effects of the napalm, Agent Orange and phosphorous bombs used on the Vietnamese. Pictures showing people’s fear, but also soldiers holding body parts (and proud of it…awful) or children born (as recent as 1998) with missing body parts or seriously deformed due to Agent Orange. It was extremely quiet, the horrific pictures and items on display clearly shocking the visitors. A lot of Americans who I’m sure never heard this side of the story in their History classes at school. It’s unbelievable to think this all
happened so recently. Also on display was a room full of drawings by primary school children about war and peace…beautiful, really colourful and full of hope, so that was a slightly more positive ending to the day…
By the end of our visit the rain seemed to have caught up with us and we were stuck inside during an incredible downpour. At this point, tuk-tuks see their chance - and drive up to the building offering a ride…while salespeople will also appear out of nowhere to offer raincoats and umbrellas. They know when to do business!
After about half an hour of sitting on the ground we walked back to our guesthouse in the drizzle (declining the 50 or more tuk-tuk and raincoat offers on the way) and stopped in the Highlands Coffee on the way (the Vietnamese equivalent of Starbucks…yummmm). We had booked a tour to Cu Chi tunnels the next day so after a lovely dinner on a balcony overlooking one of the busy market streets we had an early night.
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