Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So I haven't had a chance yet to write since being in Vietnam. I could blame the busy city, the good friends we've met or be totally honestly and put it down to the fact we've drunk more alcohol since being in Ho Chi Minh City than we have in the last two weeks. We've smoked shisha with the locals and in return had buckets of ice chucked over us in the middle of the main backpacking strip but I'll come to this weird sequence of events in a bit!
It was immediately evident when driving into Vietnam that it is a country on the rise. Heading towards a western capitalism culture in full speed it is dramatically more developed than it's neighbour Cambodia. It's the first time I've seen a McDonalds since Bangkok and we also saw KFC's, Burger Kings, Subways and enough Starbucks to give the whole city a caffeine overdose. There are unusually fancy hotels that look like they could belong in Mayfair and big brand names advertised on every street.
Although there is clearly money in Ho Chi Minh city, there is still unjust poverty and unfortunately a high crime rate towards tourists. On the first night we almost learnt the hard way when, after withdrawing a lot of money from the ATM, two men on a motorbike grabbed Franks bag from round her neck. Luckily Frankie reacted quickly and they didn't managed to take anything but we've heard a lot of stories about girls that haven't been so lucky. From then on we wore bumbags but were warned so much from locals that by the end of our visit we were just taking money out in our pockets.
We also learnt within an hour of being in Vietnam that they don't mind scamming tourists or taking advantage of our vulnerability. Definitely learning the hard way that we should have learnt what the currency and the exchange rate was before hand. Whilst our new roomie, and soon to be good friend Matt, gave us a quick lesson in the Vietnamese dong we realised we had paid the taxi driver £24 instead of £2.40 to drop us to our hostel from the bus stop and he didn't question it but merely chucked us out at the wrong street. To make things worse but laughable now, two days later we realised the bus stop was down the next street and he must have just circled the block for twenty minutes!
On the plus side Ho Chi Minh is a pretty cool city. There is always something going on in the streets and parks such as roller blading competitions, games of chess and aerobics and dance classes. They also have amazing art warehouses where you can buy beautiful paintings for next to nothing.
The city is well known for its motorbike culture and it's unexplainable just how crazy and manic the driving is! There'll be thirty motorbikes on a round about, all dodging and swerving each other, going up the wrong side of the road, jumping red lights! Me and Franks got a motorbike taxi to the War museum and it was so scary and dangerous but a massive adrenaline rush (sorry Mum!).
On the subject of the war museum, this was just as emotional as the killing fields in Phmon Penh. The current exhibition was of a famous Vietnamese photographers work exploring the still existing effects that the toxic chemical "Agent Orange" has on the still suffering Vietnamese population. During the war on Vietnam from the US so many terrible war crimes were committed against an innocent nation. The toxic chemical that was repeatedly poured over the country for four years, still today causes devastation. Miscarriages, birth defects and mental health issues are so common in Vietnam still today. What seemed wrong with this whole situation was that the American soldiers whom voluntary chose to fight but suffered side effects from the chemicals were awarded compensation yet the innocent civilians of Vietnam have received nothing. We also learnt of massacres within villages, babies who were killed and regular torture. It was all so sad and the events we learnt about were unnecessary. I truly admire the Vietnamese population for recovering from this so quickly and being able to forgive and build positive relationships with the USA so quickly.
- comments