First days in Saigon

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First of all, Ashlee and I are sorry for the inconvenience of starting a new blog. We could not access our old one from over here.

Both our cross pacific journeys went without problem. Infact, we both seem to have faired quite well, getting lots of sleep and still not feeling the effects of jet lag three days later.

Our first impression of Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) was one of chaos on our taxi ride in from the airport. This city is filled with motor bikes going in every direction at high speed. We learned today that there are 5 million motor bikes in the city alone. People#s diving style seems to be drive as fast as you can and make turns whenever you feel like it and then swerve to miss everyone else at the last second.

Our first full day was spent walking around the center district and seeing all the main sights such as the Reunification Palace, and the War Remnants Museum while attempting to cross streets without being squashed. It is really someting seing how this city has addapted to the changes that have come with the American involvement in the war and the reunification with the communist north.

Our next day was spent in the company of two cyclo drivers who toured us around the chinese district. Cyclos are like bicycled powered rickshaws. They took us to a variety of temples and pagodas from all different religions as well as a large chinese market. The market was absolutely emense and had everything you could imagine from food to textiles, electronics, pastic furniiture ... They were also quite good at pressure sales, this really is a country of buisness people dispite its official designation as a communist nation. We had a great dinner downtown on a rooftop resturant recomended to us by our hotel. We had wild boar and squid which we bbq-d ourselves at our table.

Today we joined a tour group and saw the Holy Coa Dia temple and the Viet Cong tunnels at Cu Chi. Both sights were amazing in their separate ways. The temple is the main sight of the Coa Dia religion, one tht incorporates all major religions of the world into one. It also celebrates education and knowledge. The temple itself is painted in bright colours and is made up of 9 levels with coresponding pillars to represent the 9 levels to heaven. The tunnels on the other hand seem to represent the 9 levels of hell. We were shown all the different wasys in which the VC hid the entrances of the tunnels as well as a wide assortment of booby traps and weaponry. They let us crawl through a short section of tunnel which had been enlarged for our North American size. They were about 80cm high by 50cm wide, quite claustrophobic.

We have one more day to spend in this crazy city and then we are off to the Mekong Delta in the South.

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Patrick and Ashlee

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Photos

Reunification Palace
Former palace of the south vietnamese president.

Comments

[Jaime]

Great pictures! Keep running from that jetlag... Take care, Jaime

[franny]

It's only your first entry and I'm already jealous. It sounds lovely you two. I bookmarked the page and will check back regularly!

[Justin]

Good start!
Howdy, just wanted to wish you all well with the trip. Off to a good start with the blog too. Cheers, Justin

[danica]

Sounds like you're having lots of fun! I'll send you an email ash, I just wanted to write on the board hehe! love dan PS I like your shirt, is that new?