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Published: October 25th 2006
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Until I get home for Christmas!!!
**Don't forget to click to page two for the rest of the photos from this blog. If you don't see me with a Royal Canadian Mountie, then you need to find the 2nd page of photos!!!**
Other possible titles for this blog entry:
"Madame Saigon"
"Death by motorbike"
"Why don't you honk your horn a little louder?!!"
"Addicted to Vietnamese coffee and daiquiries"
"Uncle Ho"
"Good & Bad times with Communism"
"The not so quiet Canadian"
But I had to settle on what I heard the most often: "You want motabike madame???"
Everywhere you walk in Vietnam, no matter how busy the streets or deserted the back roads of the beach town, there's ALWAYS someone there to offer you a ride. A good thing if you're concerned about being stranded somewhere...a tad annoying when you just want to walk around and explore.
ANYWAYS...This Saigon blog actually emcompasses three weeks, (but with my four adventures OUT of the city in different blogs). You've already read about
Mui Ne,
Vung Tau, and
Dalat, and my last adventure was through the
Mekong Delta on my way to Cambodia, but 'technically' the Saigon story needs
to be told before that! So without further adieu, allow me to babble:
I got into Saigon from Hong Kong SOOOOO late on September the 22nd, that I didn't do too well on the 'finding budget accommodation' thing, and I settled for a pricey room with TV and air conditioning (and by pricey, I mean $12/night). After the long day in Macau and the delayed flight and the crazy motor and taxi drivers willing to give me their 1st born in order to get my fare into the city...I just wanted to sleep in comfort. Even if I DID have to lug my pack up 8 flights of stairs to my 'luxury' room. Ever heard of an escalator?! Jeez!
My first day walking around the backpacker's district was strange. Just walking around for 3 hours, I had something crazy, like 6 African guys come right up to me and ask me out. Just walking down the street! It was funny...though I didn't take any of them up on their offers...it was nice enough just to be flattered. They were mostly soccer players for the Vietnam team. Go figure! (and yes, everyday I was in the backpacker's district, I
Allyson Keane
Even 7 months pregnant, she still came out to show me the town!was approached by a different African guy...Gosh, I wonder what it would be like if I moved there...???)
Thanks to my wonderful hospitality club, the first 'real' night I was in Saigon, I met up with Allyson Keane, who is a lovely Australian woman who just happened to be 7 months pregnant! I was so glad she was still up for meeting me and showing me some sights. That night we feasted on Vietnamese food and savoured fruit smooties from Highlands coffee on the rooftop of a department store.
One important thing to learn upon arrival in Vietnam is how to cross the streets without getting runover. A VERY important thing to learn! Allyson's method served me well throughout my entire time in Vietnam (and even since, in Cambodia), and it's quite simple. Look carefully in the direction of the oncoming traffic and keep looking. Start walking slowly and confidently across the street and DON'T change your mind about it. Keep walking until you get to the median and start looking the opposite way at the traffice NOW coming towards you. Repeat the same process, look at the traffic coming your way and walk slowly. It's the cars
and motos that will do all the work in avoiding you; but don't you DARE change your mind mid-cross, cause THAT will get you KILLED. Some of the funniest moments I had in Vietnam came from watching foreigners cross the streets. In particular a mother and father with their two small children. After seriously TEN minutes of watching them try to start crossing and (stupidly) expecting drivers to stop for them, someone from a restaurant came out and led them across. I wish I had helped them but I was too busy laughing...Gohd it was funny!
After Yusuke and I got back from Mui Ne, I had totally convinced myself that I would conquer the museums and landmarks of Saigon, but alas the weekend was coming up quickly and I was tired of translating EVERYTHING into Japanese, so I sorta ditched Yusuke and went to meet Antony in Ving Tau for 5 days. Confident, that after I returned from one more venture, I'd see Saigon properly on a walking tour. IF the weather was alright anyways...
When I returned from Vung Tau (we're now up to October 3rd now people...) I was fortunate enough to snag a room
Ben Thanh Market
gotta love haggling prices! at Allyson's place. One of her roommates had just moved out, leaving a spacious room and private bathroom available for the taking. SCORE! Now more 8 flights of stairs at the Le Trung Hotel for me!!!
As is customary when I stay at someone's house, I bring them something! With the non-Canadians I visit, I make them a Japanese origami box and put a Canadian keychain inside. Those keychains weigh a bloody ton, but they're always well received. And the box is bloody cool! (but of course I would say it's cool...I made it.) Allyson and Nhung had a riot trying to make these boxes with me and I enjoyed the 'internationalization' of it all
*Yes fellow JETs, I know the word 'internationalization' is supposed to be used only to represent our jobs in Japan...but I like saying it whenever I want. Too bad.
After almost two weeks in Vietnam, I realized that the weather might NEVER be te way I want it to be, so I stopped caring if the sky looked like rain and dedicated myself to exploring the historical sites of Saigon. Little did I realize at the time the emotional and physical ramifications
Yusuke
...and his new ridiculous glasses those sites could bring...
I went first to the War Remnants Museum, which used to be called 'The Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes'. It's an open air museum designed to shock you and show you the real affects of the Vietnam War and it's left to you to learn from it, and take away what you will. In the main courtyard, there are US armoured vehicles, artillery and bombs on display. Inside the first building, there are three huge walls on which black & white almost destroyed pictures of war victims hang. The photos displayed tortures, murders, children being burned, napalm affects, amputees, agent orange birth side affects etc. It made me sick to my stomach. You can't avoid the uneasiness in yourself when you look at those pictures. You know it happened, you've read about it, learned about it, and now you're seeing the real thing. And the people in the photos haunt your mind. And this was just the first building. As brutal as this place was, it was the most real museum I've ever been to. War is disgusting and inhumane, and the majority of the victims are civilians. For obvious reasons, I didn't
take any pictures inside, but if you'd like to learn more about it, I used the wikipedia website to educate myself:
Wikipedia Vietnam War It's tough to start your day like that, but I pressed on. The Reunification palace is closed for 2 hours over lunch, so I waited a VERY long time at the gate. While there, I brushed aside (with a smile) the many vendors who came my way trying to sell me their postcards or coconuts. About 30 minutes before I was going to be let into the palace, a group of people wandered up to the gate and formed their own circle (I figured they were waiting aswell). One of the men noticed me and after staring for a while (which I am SOOOO used to, it's creepy), he walked right over to me and stood infront of me without saying a word. I looked at him for awhile and he looked right back at me, and I asked, "Uh, can I help you?" No response. He just stared at me. Then he moved beside me and copied my pose. I laughed but then shrugged it off. Ten seconds later, two or three women came over and
seriously just stood infront of me. I was now surrounded. I could clearly see they were harmless and I was finding the whole situation rather funny. Then, the whole group came over! I wasn't even talking to these people and they now had me CORNERED! They were looking me up and down, some touched my hair, some looked at my pink toes...I swear I felt like I was being inspected by another species who had never seen a human before. Suddenly, a small Vietnam girl PUSHED her way through the crowd and up to me:
"Madame! You want postcards?!"
"Oh, no thank you"
"But madame I sell you good price!" (sell ME or the postcards for a good price?!)
"No, really it's okay"
(the people around me studying my lips now, as I speak)
"Madame, these beautiful pictures, you no can get but from me!"
"How much are you selling them for?"
"Oh madame very cheap for you! Only 1 US dollar! So cheap!"
"Okay, tell you what...I'lll buy these postcards from you if you tell these people around me that I have a contagious disease that can be passed on very easily, I just really don't want THEM
to get sick from me. Okay?"
(She steps back from me) "Okay madame, I will."
**As she explained to the group (at least I think she did) I sneezed. It was the greatest thing ever! They didn't run, but they ALL walked away. Even the old man who hadn't moved from beside me the whole time. Well! That only cost me $1!
Once I got inside the museum, I guess word had spread of the infectious foreigner because NO ONE came near me the whole time. The Palace is well known in the West as where the first Communist tanks broke down the gate (of then known 'Independance Palace') on April 30th 1975 putting an end to the existance of The Republic of Vietnam. Many of you will also remember the coverage of the Viet Cong flag (North Vietnamese Communists) flying from the top of said building just seconds after the wrought-iron gates were crushed in.
The building is now used as a conference centre of sorts, and is obviously open to the public during the week. The many rooms, all old and weathered are still used by VIPs (not V.I.P.s but VIPs...love how they do that everywhere
in Asia). The basement has a long and quite creepy tunnel system (which I managed to videotape) and many secret rooms with batman-like telephones on a clean desk. The walls of maps felt like a war planning room and all you had to do was close your eyes and you could envision what might have transpired down there in the past. And of course, no good palace visit is complete without a video showing in the basement.
The Ho Chi Minh Museum was nothing special. I've seen a good deal of museums in my day, and if I say there's nothing too great about one, I think that gets me out of writing a paragraph of boring exagerations on how educational it COULD have been. However there were several couples there having weddings pictures taken, so I was at least amused by THEM.
When I returned from Dalat, all I could think about was Canadian Thanksgiving, and how this was going to be the first time EVER that I didn't get to celebrate. I was pretty bummed out. As I was explaining all this to Allyson, she calmly said, "Why don't you go to the Canadian Embassy dinner
Yusuke and me
at bar "GO 2" in the backpacker's district, Pham Ngu Lao with everyone else?" I was overcome with excitement! I couldn't believe it! We set right to work about finding where the dinner was, how much it was going to be etc.
And so I came to be at the Canadian Embassy's Thanksgiving dinner 2006. It was lovely! I met some wonderful people, mostly Canadian expats and we dined on the most heavenly (outside of Canada) Thanksgiving dinner. The MC was a lively older guy who had had a costume made to look like a mountie (I know, I was disappointed he wasn't the real thing too) and the Embassy staff gave away tons of prizes (none that I won though) and I was smiling ALL night. I didn't even care that it cost me a fortune (a fortune to me is $26 now), because it was worth ever penny! And did I mention is was an open bar?! Um...yeah!!!
My time in Saigon was coming to a close and with one more night, and a couple more splendid meals on the town, it was time for me to leave the comforts of Allyson's beautiful home, stop touching her stomach to feel her daughter kick, and jump aboard my
Street vendors
gotta love photocopied books for $1 first of many boats up the Mekong Delta to reach my next country, Cambodia.
I was only able to visit the South of Vietnam, but 3 weeks was enough for me to love the country. The people (although sometimes pushy or touchy) are kind. Despite the hardships they've endured, there are smiles everywhere you look. And I haven't even mentioned the coffee yet! Oh my goodness, how could I have forgotten?! I swear 50% of my body was made up of Vietnamese coffee for three weeks! It won't come as a shock to you that I bought 4 bags of the stuff and the special filters to go with it, and sent it home! (Sending a parcel home was ANOTHER adventure in itself, as it took me an hour to fill out all their crazy communist forms...I can't remember how many times I rolled my eyes!)
I know I'm really behind on these blogs, but I'll continye to try and get up to date! The next ones coming are:
The Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Siem Reap, Cambodia &
The flooded road to Bangkok.
**Look at BOTH pages of pictures and leave me comments! (Yes, I
mean YOU!)**
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Jenn
non-member comment
How heavy is your pack?
No, seriosuly, how heavy is it? I know you did all sorts of awesome things and met all sorts of people, but I need to focus on the last picture. Now I know who can pack an elephant into a suitcase. The coffee part sounds good too. Mmmm coffee, I can almost smell it from here. Can't wait til the next installment.