Exploring Ho Chi Minh City

---

Geo: 10.7592, 106.662

Laila and I flew into Hi Chi Minh City in VietNam from Bangkok, Thailand. On this trip we were only going to have a couple days to explore Saigon before we traveled into Cambodia. But we typically cram a lot of activities into each day, and the pace of this trip had not hit us yet, so we entered VietNam feeling optimistic about our short stay. Unfortunately, immigration took an unpleasant two hours, and, understanding that we did not yet understand their money, the taxi driver stole the equivalent of $40 right out of Laila's hands, even though the ride to our guesthouse should have been about $8. In Ho Chi Minh City there are more scooters (or motos) than I have ever seen in my life; hundreds of them, seemingly thousands of them zoomed down every street, filling the air with their constant buzzing noise, and endangering anyone who tried to cross a street. It was an overwhelmingly bad beginning; we were both tempted to just leave VietNam the next day, but the woman at our little guesthouse let us vent, and offered to call the police on this taxi driver. Unfortunately we could not remember what color taxi he drove or the name of his company, but I do think I could still recognize his greedy, lying face. Things looked a little better in the morning, even though we were still having trouble figuring out the money in VietNam.

We woke fairly early in the morning, and after wandering through the little warrens and alleyways that wind their ways through this part of Saigon, we had our first breakfast at one of the many little restaurants that can be anywhere and everywhere, that fill this city. The food in VietNam is wonderful! They know how to make faux meats, a treat from the rice and veggies we'd been eating every day on this trip, plus it is easy to find my favorite: fresh young green coconuts. Oh, we'd stay in VietNam just for the food!

With a fresh outlook after such a good breakfast, we headed out to find the Ben Thanh market; everyone in Ho Chi Minh City goes to this market. We were stopped by many tuk-tuks and scooters as we walked; apparently most people do not walk in Saigon. The Ben Thanh market is indoors, and enormous. We lasted only about five minutes there, as they were very aggressive sellers, and neither of us wanted to buy anything, nor did we enjoy being abused when we just wanted to see what made this market so special.

So we walked to Independence Palace, but it was closed for lunch. It was not even 11AM at this time, but one thing we had yet to learn about VietNam is that lunch lasts for at least three hours. It can be anywhere from 11AM to 3PM, or even 4PM, depending on circumstances we were never able to figure out. Because of the heat, at that point I just wanted to sit down a bit and find a little restaurant where we could get a fresh juice, or something refreshing to drink. But no restaurants were in sight. Because we are such quick learners, we checked out the hours for the War Remnants Museum, and decided to walk west to see the Xa Loi Pagoda while we waited for the museum to reopen at 2PM. The pagoda was also closed for lunch, but one gate to the grounds was open, and we really needed somewhere to sit down for awhile, so we went inside and sat down on one of the benches in the shade.

The Xa Loi Pagoda grounds are very peaceful; people come to sleep on the benches and in the shade of the trees there. Laila became a VietNamese and lay right down on one of the benches; I was more discrete and just dozed sitting up. (Before you make any judgements on our behavior, try walking the whole morning in a hot foreign city, full of noisy motorscooters who try to run you over, not being able to find anything to drink, or anything open for hours around noontime. You might then look on our actions a little more kindly.) It was a refreshing respite.

Around 1:30PM we roused ourselves and walked back to the War Remnants Museum, and spent the rest of the afternoon there. This museum's focus is, of course, from VietNam's point of view; they call what people in the US call the VietNam War the War of US Aggression Against VietNam. There are three floors full of horrible remembrances of that war; it is not an easy museum to visit. On one floor are stories and photographs of journalists who covered the war and were killed in it; many of the photos they took before they died are exhibited. There are actual weapons and pieces of weapons that were used, plus many photographs I remembered from those years. There are maps of places that were bombed, before and after pictures of towns and cities, pictures of women and children killed, politicians' stories told long afterwards of such immoral deeds that they committed during this war, photos of the very young men who were killed fighting this war, many more pictures and photographs and stories of the killing and destruction that was the War of US Aggression Against VietNam.

On the top floor are graphic pictures of some of the people damaged and destroyed by the chemicals the US used in VietNam. This was arguably the most disturbing because the deformities continue; even after two or more generations babies are still being born without limbs, or with two heads, or no eyes, or some other horrible, life-damaging deformities. By the third floor I was so worn out emotionally that I couldn't take in anymore. The War Remnants Museum is definitely worth a visit, but it is not for the faint of heart.

After we left the museum I wanted a change of pace, and to see the Cathedral Notre Dame of Saigon, so we walked east. The most amazing thing about this cathedral is that there are crossing guards to help church-goers cross from one side of the street to the other, a most useful service we didn't see anywhere else in Saigon!

At this point we were exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally, but decided to walk by Independence Palace on our way back to the guesthouse. After walking around 3/4 of the grounds to find the entrance, we were told to walk around to the other side (where we had already been) to enter, so decided that perhaps they didn't really want visitors this late in the day, and that maybe we really didn't need to see the palace. So we went in search of dinner instead, taking our lives in our hands trying to cross Ho Chi Minh City's crazy, busy streets as we wended our way back to our guesthouse.

---