Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is quite the place. It was an all senses tour today as we made our way around the city to various sites. Because of our late arrival, we slept in, checked out the maps, and grabbed lunch at a little restaurant around the corner. It was quite good and not too expensive, and because they had a little grill set up, we could point at everything to order (a small, yet significant feature to seek when one doesn't speak the language). One mysterious thing though, was a yellow-greenish liquid we received without asking. Everyone else at the small street-side restaurant was Vietnamese and they were all drinking it, so we figured no harm and drank it. It had a slight tea taste, but mostly, as Danthemanstan observed, it was just like dirty water.

After lunch we headed to the Reunification Palace, which is where the VietMinh drove their tanks in 1975 and won the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, there seemed to be some official functions, so we couldn't go in. Honestly, it looked a lot like the older office buildings in West Des Moines. I guess its historical importance is what makes it a highlight on all the tourist maps. After that we went through the War Remnants Museum, which is the main museum in HCMC dedicated to the Vietnam War, as well as the war with the French which led into the Vietnam War (or American War as it's referred to here). Initially, I was struck at how small and simple the museum was. It has one main building, which had just a few displays and artifacts. Surrounding the building were many different US army bombs, tanks, a plane, and a helicopter in a garden/yard area. There was just one other building with recreated jail cells from a torture prison the French and South Vietnamese used in the beginning of the whole struggle. The museum was very interesting, with some pretty graphic material. Obviously, the VietMinh won the war, and thus control the country. As a result, the museum presented a much different viewpoint/perspective than almost all of my previous education and exposure to the Vietnam War. I was glad to have visited and think it was valuable to see a different perspective.

With the rest of the afternoon we visited a very disappointing Buddhist temple (maybe you need to be Buddhist to appreciate it, maybe not) and checked out the Saigon River. It's primarily used for shipping, so wasn't much to look at, but the park next to it was a good place to rest from a day walking in the heat and humidity. On that note, it's been great weather here, a bit humid, but I can't complain considering it's probably cold and gray in Changzhou. We got lucky in the evening, when the bus we more or less blindly jumped on took us pretty close to the restaurant to which we were headed. It was the guidebook's top pick for gourmet Vietnamese. My food was absolutely fantastic, the only downside being that the prices were also 'gourmet'. We continued our night of luxury by hitting up the rooftop bar of the city's nicest hotel. The view was great and we enjoyed our beers, which were sold at average to high US prices.

There were two really interesting things which I noticed today. The first is crossing streets. It's really one of those things which you have to experience to understand. Nonetheless, I'll try to describe the phenomenom. Motorcycles outnumber cars and buses by a large, large margin. The number of traffic lights seems much lower than it ought to be. So, more or less, the key is to walk slowly and consistently so the motorcycles can weave around you. I don't know how it works, but it does; we crossed many streets and were never hit and never waited very long to cross. My second observation is the incredibly large number of tourists or foreigners around the city. I have previously written about how I am pretty rare on the streets of Changzhou. But here it seems like there is a foreigner around every corner. Much of this is obviously due to the fact we are mainly in the tourist areas, but Vietnam and HCMC are also especially popular for Western tourists. One last thing of note is what I said about the sensory experience. The sidewalks and streets here are full of people and vendors selling and making all sorts of things. Fruit vendors, flower bouquet arrangers, sewing machines, and small noodle restaurants fill the sidewalks and where they aren't there will be a row of motorcycles parked, often with the owners posting up on the seat. It more or less pushes all pedestrian traffic onto the already hectic streets. All of this paired with the constant buzz of motorcycle engines gives the city a very distinctive feel.