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WARNING: Explicit photos. Thought I'd tell you in advance that there are some disturbing shots from the War Remnants Museum and also for all the animal lovers in my family there are some photos of me eating a certain household pet- don't worry Syoens, you are safe until I get up north... so after my ordeal at the border I was happy to meet the coolest kid on the bus from Cambodia into Vietnam and my new buddy Mads from Denmark and I shared a cab in Ho Chi Minh City, still known as Saigon to most. I hadn't changed any currency into dong yet so he paid and I agreed to pay him in USD for half and after exiting the cab we realized the driver charged us $27 for what would have been a 5 minute walk. Rookie mistake. I was pissed, up until this point I have been so conscience about currency conversions and making sure I'm given correct change as it's all too common over here to get your change back short and if you realize it later and try and go back you don't have a snow ball's chance in hell at getting the money back,
Dinner
The owner of these dogs did not appreciate my photo session one bit... but if you catch it right away then they will smile at you and say "sorry" and give you the additional money that is rightfully yours.... it's happened to me a few times so I was angry at myself for not being more vigilent. So then we wander the streets of Saigon with this annoying older man following us urging us to stay at his guesthouse and even though we continuously tell him we would like to ask around at prices he follows us to every single guesthouse speaking to the owners in Vietnamese. We finally shake him and drop our bags at a place and decide to go grab a beer and luckily we are on a rooftop about 4 stories up so we have the best view of a street fight occuring below- hundreds of onlookers and many uniformed police watching as well.... I am woken at 5:15AM to yet another street fight, this one massive with westerners and their tiny Asian women companions picking up stools and motobike helmets and throwing them which is so amusing to me since these girls can't weigh more than 80 pounds. Unable to fall back asleep I wait for my friend
to awake and meet me and we tour the sights together and get stuck in a huge rain storm where I slip and fall flaring my knee infection up to the point where I'm unable to bend it again- just when I was starting to walk normal finally and was hoping to be back running in a few weeks! So I find myself back at the clinic and back on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories but mai ben rai. That's our favorite Thai saying and we use it frequently. It means "It's OK" or "Oh Well"/ "Whatever"... Mai Ben Rai. Just like everywhere else I've been I get my bearings and figure out who is trying to rip you off and who is trying to be your friend and who just wants to practise their English, which many of the Vietnamese do. Sitting in the park alone reading is basically an open invitation to give free English lessons as I find myself doing quite a bit. I even taught formally at a local childrens' school a couple of hours on two occasions which paid for my ticket to the Cu Chi Tunnels and part of my open-ended bus ticket. It wasn't so
much making lesson plans or anything like that it's basically standing up in front of groups of children with a microphone and saying words and they repeat you and you feel like a game show host- the younger ones have no real interest in the lesson they are more intrigued by your looks and will sneak up and touch you and giggle wildly and scurry back to their seat. It's quite entertaining. So I saw what there was to see in Saigon and took the bus tour with the anti-American war vet tour guide out to the tunnels- Saigon in HUGE with a staggering population of 10 million so it takes quite awhile to get out of the city and out to the tunnels as we listen to "fat-ass Americans getting stuck in the tunnel" jokes.... I believe he was partially attempting humor. P.S. This fat-assed American made it through the tunnels no problem but claustrophobia may have been what pushed me through. All interesting attractions and after 5 days I became tired of the big city life and hopped a bus to the mountains. I was sad to say goodbye to Mads a couple of days prior as he
has less time to travel Vietnam than I and is starting University in two months. We shared a similar adoration for Cambodia, a few jugs of bia hoi, a couple of meals of dog meat prepared in various ways and many laughs. My peculiarities on Vietnam thus far: the food is better than Khmer but not as good as Thai. You don't have to take your shoes off before entering places (the girl working at my guesthouse asked me why I did that and said it was a good way to get my shoes stolen). The written language is not done in symbols like Khmer and Thai so it's quite easy to learn Vietnamese words and pick them up on signs and menus, though pronumciation and tones are near impossible. All of the guesthouses I've stayed in so far have satellite TV and very hot water- I hope I don't get spoiled! It's like they say... SAME SAME... BUT DIFFERENT.
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