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Published: August 7th 2012
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When I was planning out my time in Vietnam I had originally planned to spend time in Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon as most of the locals still call it). Then, however, timing wise I thought I was only going to be able to fly in and catch a bus right away to Cambodia if I was to make it back to Bangkok in time for my flight to China. But after some reevaluating, I was able to work in one full day in Vietnams largest city.
I flew from DaNang, 40 km from Hoi An, to Ho Chi Minh after getting up at 5 in order to catch a taxi to the airport. Once I arrived at the airport I had to work to try and find the public bus that would cost me about 40 cents as oppose to 20 dollars by taxi to the city center. The stop was not marked whatsoever but I was lucky enough to be walking by right when it was pulling up. I immediately saw it was almost full and there were a lot of people trying to get on as well. Not wanting to wait for another I decided
to line up like the Vietnamese do, aka shove to the front. I'm a lot bigger than most of the locals and with my bags it's easy to work my way through a crowd (something I also learned to do in Spain). I was the last person the driver let on 😊. I ended up standing next to a couple from Denmark who had just arrived to Asia for the first time. They seemed to be a little culture shocked with the whole scene of people shoving on the bus, a crazy bus driver that talked to himself and just shouted numbers when collecting money, and of course the insane driving, honking, and several times the driver slammed on the brakes. I know I felt very similar only a month ago when I started my SE Asia adventure.
Once in the city, I easily found my hostel, set down my stuff and went out to enjoy my only day in the city. While the biggest city in the country, it also feels more organized than Hanoi did. Wider streets, sidewalks you could actually walk on (in places at least) and very helpful tourists police that spoke good
English and were there to point you in the right direction or help you across the street made the city very easy to get around. I decided to start at the supermarket of all places because I had a strong desire for something sweet and knew I would be able to get a better deal on cookies or chocolate and water at the store. I forgot how much I like browsing supermarkets in other countries especially after mostly just hanging around in street markets. Always interesting to see what people are buying, how they shop and who is doing the shopping.
After my detour, I went off to the Reunification Palace. Full of history and the site of many significant events in Vietnams crazy past, it is still used by government officials for meetings, conferences, and receiving foreign government people and heads of state. Walking in the room where Henry Kissinger met with then South Vietnams rulers as well as another room where just last week the heads of state of Vietnam and Cambodia met for a meeting is kind of cool. I took a free guided tour (my favorite as usually you have to pay for
any kind of tour) and found the whole place more interesting than if I would have explored it on my own.
From there, I went to the Vietnam War History Museum. When you enter the museum, they're very explicit that the purpose of the museum and it's exhibits is to show that war is not the answer and promote peace. I think they could have also included a footnote that says in you American, prepare to be embarrassed, ashamed and that it is probably best you don't tell anyone you are American. The exhibits were gruesome to say the least and everyone had a caption that said things along the lines of "the imperialist Americans did such and such" or "GI's torturing person x and killing family y". While it was a very one sided depiction of the war, it was also very eye opening. Also rather interesting was running across a few Vietnamese war veterans who were visiting the museum with their families. I can't imagine what was going through their heads as they went through the exhibits.
After that rather depressing couple of hours, I needed something to lighten my mood, so
I went to a park where I had seen people playing different games so that I could eat the rest of my cookies and watch them. While sitting there a few university students came up to me and asked if they could practice English with me. They were very eager with
lots of questions and surprisingly good English so I enjoyed chatting with them for a good 15 minutes or so. I then had to be on my way to meet up with a local Vietnamese guy I had met in Hanoi who was from Ho Chi Minh city and said if I come there he could show me a round a bit. We met for dinner and we wandered a couple night markets before settling in a bar to avoid the rain. Most interesting thing about this guy though, was that his family owned a wholesale clothing business that supplied and also manufactured fake clothes (Nike, Levi, Burberry, banana republic, Ralph Lauren, and lots of more). It was fascinating to learn about the business though he also didn't want to answer every question I had for him.
A very full day in a huge city.
Especially for having started at 5 am in a whole different town. To Cambodia tomorrow.
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