Living the Good Life in Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam Trip - Day One

Tianne and I survived our first full day in Vietnam (April 30th). We actually got an early start to the day, which was surprising given the long hours spent travelling the day before. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel before venturing out into the wild streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

I say wild streets because the traffic looks incredibly uncoordinated and dangerous, but actually seems to work well once you get your head around it. Still, walking out in front of hundreds of speeding vehicles -- bikes, mopeds, taxis, buses -- can be quite nerve racking.

We left Pham Ngu Lao (the Backpacker District) at about 8:30am, loosely following the walking tour outlined in the Lonely Planet Guide to Vietnam. We started down through a park in the middle of the street to a statue of Tran Nguyen Hai on horseback. This is in the middle of an incredibly busy traffic circle (which also contains a bus station and a popular market area!) We took a stroll through a colorful outdoor market, and made a brief visit to the Saigon River waterfront. This could have been such a beautiful area, but instead reaks of raw sewage. We decided to pass on the boat tour.

We instead strolled through Long Khoi, the area with the higher-end hotels. There are some really stunning gardens and statues in this area. We also passed the Hotel De Ville, a former hotel that is now the local People's Committee building.

Our first real stop of the day was the War Remnants Museum. This was once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, but the name was changed so it wouldn't offend Chinese and Western tourists. I can't put it any better than Lonely Planet: "There are few museums in the world that drive homne so well the point that war is horribly brutal and that many of its victims are civilians." The photos were truly horrific, and there were also military craft, deformed babies (chemical weapons), scenes of torture, and examples of the experimental weapons used in the war. It was very interesting to learn about these U.S. military actions through the eyes of their victims. We took some photos because it is really hard to describe all of the horrific things we saw. But I have to say that we were both really uncomfortable taking some of them, and still haven't made a final decision about whether we'll share them with others.

The Reunification Palace was closed until 1pm, so we decided to grab ourselves some lunch. Tianne selected a very nice restaurant called Tib (pronounced "jib"), which was *very* difficult to find. Just when we gave up and decided to check out a spa to visit for our return trip to HCMC, we discovered the restaurant was down the same alley! The food was delicious (I had the bean curd with lemon grass and chilis). That said, I learned the hard way that I am going to have to find a way to express vegetarianism in Vietnamese... although, in fairness, who would have thought a "jackfruit salad" would have no fruit in it? At least Tianne enjoyed it. We are still trying to figure out which of the meats is a "jackfruit".

Reunification Palace, when we finally arrived there, was very interesting. April 30th (today) is actually Reunification Day in Vietnam. That is the day when the first communist tanks arrived in Saigon in 1975 and took over power from General Minh. The building had many beautiful and impressive rooms, but the basement was perhaps the most interesting aspect. It contained a military station that reminded me a lot of the Cold War Bunker near Ottawa (Diefenbunker).

We headed back to our hotel and stopped at Ben Thanh Market, which is one of the major market areas (and on that scary traffic circle I referred to earlier). Tianne had the great idea of getting an idea of what we wanted to buy and what the prices are in HCMC so we can be on the look out for better deals during our travels. Tianne also broke down with her first material purchase of the trip. I think she broke the bank at CDN $2.

We went back to the hotel for a bit, and then went to the Train Station to book our tickets to get to Mue Ne (we're going to Phan Thiet and will take a cab to Mue Ne beach). We're still not entirely sure about how we're going to get out of Mue Ne after we get there, but I'm sure it will work out. After returning by cab to the backpacker zone we treated ourselves to a 50 minute foot massage (about CDN$4) and went to a nearby restaurant called Allez Boo for dinner. The shrimps, green peppers and onions in coconut sauce was delicious, as was the Saigon beer. The vegetarian spring rolls were not.

The price of everything here still continues to surprise us. I'm carrying a calculator with me, which has been very helpful. 60,000 dong sure sounds like a lot of money... until you realize it is less than CDN $4!

We're not sure what the Internet situation will be like in the beach towns that we are about to head to (Mue Ne and Nha Trang). We expect to be in Hoi An by Friday. Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site that also happens to be very well known for its tailors. We are planning to get some clothes made (okay, probably many articles of clothing made) and do some major shopping while we're there. The current plan is to spend three nights in Hoi An after we leave Nha Trang.

Tomorrow will come very early for us (we have to be at the train station by 6am) so I'm signing off for now.