Next, we had a 6 hr bus ride to Ho Chi Min City. We got on the bus, and were pleasantly surprised to see it was a sleeping bus of sorts. Much better than the Cambodian ones. A little weird, but pretty comfortable once you get used to it! Unfortunately, in Vietnam they like to play terrible music videos the whole time, and the volume was too high to sleep. Can't win 'em all.
We finally arrived in Ho Chi Min in the late afternoon, and headed to the backpacking district downtown in District 1. It has tiny, narrow alleyways jam packed with tiny hotels and guesthouses. We found a hotel room for 16$, dropped off our bags and went to have a beer. The alleyways open up to a normal sized street, which in the evenings is converted to a street bar of sorts... The road stays open, with scooters and cars driving through constantly, but little hole-in-the-wall places put out plastic chairs on the sidewalk and into the street. Beer is bout 50 cents... Very little overhead cost, I guess.
We hung out and met some cool people from Germany, South Africa, Denmark, and even Montreal! Ended up staying late into the night.
The next morning (ok...afternoon) we went to the War Remnants Museum. It was pretty heavy. The museum mostly consists of 4 stories, each wih of rooms full of photographs. Some are well known, were featured in Time magazine and such. Others were terribly graphic and I'd never seen them before. For example, this one really got to me. It's a picture of 4 US soldiers posing with 2 decapitated vietnamese men.
The caption reads, "The above picture shows exactly what the brass want you to do in the Nam. The reason for printing this picture is not to put down G.I.'s but rather to illustrate the fact that the Army can really fuck over your mind if you let it. It's up to you, you can put in your time just trying to make it back in one piece or you can become a psycho like the Lifer (E-6) in the picture who really digs this kind of shit. It's your choice."
There was also some crazy propaganda posters. This one features Nixon riding a B-52 bomber, waving a nazi flag...?
There were rooms dedicated to the effects of agent orange and dioxin, which were incredibly difficult. I had to leave after awhile actually, it was just too much.
Outside of the building were American planes, tanks, boats, etc. I wasn't sure how I felt about them after seeing all the destruction inside.
We left the museum feeling pretty solemn. But in the streets of Saigon, the action never stops. Dodging scooters quickly took our minds off things. Definitely the kind of place that only has room for here and now - gotta stay focused.
We went to a market near the river and had some noodle soup, and decide to go up the Bitexo Financial Tower, by far the tallest building, and watch the sunset. It was beauuutiful.
I ordered a Saigon fizz. It was delicious.
We met a couple from Alaska who are bicycling through Cambodia and Vietnam for 3 months or something. They were totally great and we got along quite well. We all went out for dinner afterwards, and then back to the street bar for another crazy, fun night. We are paying for it today - my activities today were limited to eating a cheeseburger in my hotel bed. This evening we did go out and have some great pho, but now we are back "home" again, packing up our stuff and enjoying the air conditioning. Tomorrow morning, we leave on a 6 hr bus ride to Miu Nee. Back to the seaside!
Until next time,
Jessica
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