Saigon

January 14th-17th, 2009
Saigon, AKA Ho Chi Minh City, well officially called Ho Chi Minh actually, but still called by its old name by most people. Saigon was an enormous and heavily populated city just like Hanoi. I think it had everything to do with being prepared for it, but we enjoyed this city more than the capital to the north. As many or more motorbikes zoomed by, but we confidently threw ourselves into it like old pros by now. We have learned how to "Just Say No to drugs," and how to avoid eye contact with every type of tuk tuk and salesperson. We were screwed royally by a taxi cab recruiter guy who instead of taking us to the hotel we asked for when leaving the airport, attempted to have us dropped off in some dark back alley ghetto with no other options but to stay at the guesthouse there. This would give him some commission money. We weren't falling for this. I held onto my backpack for dear life playing tug-of-war as they tried to take it, not getting out of the car. Chris, who was HUGE compared to everyone in this situation, yelled at this scrawny little jerk about how unimpressed he was. Once the guy saw this was not happening he gave the piece of paper with the proper place on it to the cab driver. We made it and besides being really rattled about the whole deal, were fine.

We spent our days walking for hours, checking out the sites. We toured the War Museum and the Reunification Palace. This was the headquarters for the Southern Vietnam Government. On April 30th, 1975 the Northern Vietnamese Communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, (Uncle Ho) stormed in with two tanks, officially taking over power.

We sat in a park and watched locals play badminton and shuttlecock (a weird variation of hackey sack....we picked one up to play along our travels). During our walks we saw that every street, sidewalk, and alley are all crammed and using every square inch! We realized that we could shop, sleep, eat, drink, and party somewhere new every day for several years and still not see everything. We did a little of all of these in the few days that we had. A highlight was a place that overlooked a lot of the downtown in District 1 where we stayed.

Some friends took us to a great local place and we tried Bahn Xeo. (bun say-oww) It's a crispy pancake filled with shrimp and some veggies that you wrap in mustard leaf with basil and dip in a fish sauce. Sounds weird but it was unreal. We also had the biggest prawns I've ever seen, like the size of crabs or lobsters or something! There was a pub around the corner that we sat outside at enjoying the action passing by till the late hours of the night.

We headed out one day to visit the Chu Chi Tunnels that the Vietnamese living in this region used during the Vietnam War used to fight off the US, trying to protect their lands as this was a key place so close to Saigon, that needed to be conquered in the war. It was truly amazing. They were brilliantly designed with ventilation, kitchens, pathways, booby-traps etc. Very cool, but very one-sided. The documentary film at the beginning called their war heroes, "American killing heroes'', and called the Americans "crazy devils".... a little biased.

We also shot AK-47's and M-16's (guns)... pretty scary but cool at the same time.... well that's all for now...trying to keep it short but its not working out so well! lol On Saturday, we hopped on a bus to Cambodia and are here now..... ttys

The largest prawns ever!

Saigon Traffic

A hideout hole at Chu Chi Tunnels

Me debating shooting the M16 lol

Chris giv'n er

Crawling around in the tunnels

Reunification Palace

Getting our bearings

The view over district 1