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Saigon - Saturday 1st December
Good morning Vietnam! We arrived in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as not that many of the locals call it after another bottom-numbing 7 hour bus ride. Our crossing over the border went smoothly, and we checked into a small family guesthouse up a winding alley within about half an hour of arriving.
Our first impressions of the city are good - it's buzzing with hundreds of motorbikes and mopeds, is far more developed and cosmopolitan than anywhere we've been since Bangkok, yet still has women with baskets on poles over their shoulders and conical hats plying their wares along the streets. We also feel far safer and more secure than we did in Phnom Penh, which is a relief - the only hassle we encounter is from booksellers with two metre piles of books balanced on one hip, held together with elastic bands; and the odd moto and cyclo driver trying to take us on a tour of the city - each insisting that they are better than their rival. We are also enjoying being able to read the script here - the first of our travels - even if we can't understand it.
Our first lesson is in the Saigon shuffle - watching the way that the Vietnamese cross the road... it's an artform and we're working on getting the hang of it. It involves crossing very slowly, whilst giving as much eye contact as possible to the approaching swarm of motorbikes, in the hope that they will steer gently around, rather than through, us. It's a bit like a low-tech, real-life version of Frogger.
That mastered, we set off on a Lonely Planet prescribed walking tour of the city. Unfortunately, our first attempt was on a Monday - which in Vietnam is the closing day for most museums and attractions... not that we're in any rush, mind - our visas only had a few days left on them when we arrived, so we've applied for a one-month extension, which will take ten days to come back.
Undeterred, we decide to explore anyway, and leave the museums for another day. Walking around, we get our first taste of Christmas - children in full Santa outfits (minus the beard, but with the addition of red and white slippers), polystyrene snow on the shopping centres, and big displays and Christmas lights outside the larger hotels and most of the shops.... whilst we're both grateful to have missed out on the post-August in-your-face festive run-up in the UK, it's nice to have a taste of Christmas at home, Vietnam-style - especially when it's 30 degrees outside!
We walk past Pho 2000 - a noodle shop that has doubled its prices following a visit by Bill Clinton once-upon-a-time; we admire the retro 1950's Rex Hotel, where many of the GI's stayed during the war; take in the Cathedral and theatre, and visit the French-style Post Office - a grand old building, where a statue of Uncle Ho overlooks the stamps for sale and beautifully carved phone booths.
We have evening drinks on a bar right on the corner of a junction, where Dave is happily occupied taking long shutter speed pictures of the motos whizzing past. I pass the time by spotting what we have christened 'Mankinis'... peculiar to men, it involves either tshirt, vest or shirt being rolled up to just above the belly and a proud stance where aforementioned belly is pushed out as far as it will go. It's like the South-East Asian equivalent of mullett spotting for us, and is very popular attire with drivers of any kind.
On our second bash at the walking tour, we stroll through a park filled with communist-style sculptures - the Communist influence is obvious in a lot of the architecture here too - before heading up to the Reunification Palace. This is the place where the Tanks stormed in at the end of the Vietnam War... although we quickly learn that the Vietnamese refer to it as the American War.
Next stop was a tour of the War Remnants Museum - we took in some pretty gruesome war photos and stories. It's hard to understand why so many civilians were targeted, and shocking to see evidence of the lasting effects of Agent Orange amongst too many other weapons of war.
We scuttled round an art museum, although we admit that we spent more time looking out from the balconies than we did at the art - it was all very same-same!
After indulging ourselves at Fanny's Ice Cream Shop, we made the (possibly sugar induced) decision to fly to Hong Kong on 27th December, and to try to get to Beijing and maybe Xian (home of the Terracotta Warriors) in the new year before we head back for our second visit to Thailand before Australia... a bit more travelling than we had first thought, although we're enjoying the flexibility we've planned into our travels.
Our next outing is to Chinatown - we travel there on Cyclos (like being in a pushchair with a chap behind you peddling a bike to crawl your way along the roads), and are predictably dropped off in the wrong place... although the drivers are very sweet about it! We wander through the spice shops, selling birds nests, dried seahorses and something that smells really, really bad. The Chinese influence is very pronounced here (not really a surprise), and we enjoy spotting hairy moles (it's good luck to grow the hair as long as it will go if you have a mole with hair on on your face... I'm not sure it would catch on in England!). We watch the shops making the heads for the dragons, presumably in preparation for Chinese New Year in January/February, and admired the paper lantern shops.
We also visited our first pagoda - nothing like the quiet sereneness in the temples of anywhere we've been so far. The intricate, delicate, Chinese style architecture and decoration is not matched by the hustle-bustle inside - everyone is chattering, praying, laughing and burning incense - accompanied by pictures that look like stills from the tv show Monkey! on the walls and choking smoke from the coils of incense hanging from the ceiling.
Back in the city centre, we visit a history museum (exhibit of note: a 60 year old mummified woman they'd dug up by accident!), and stumbled into the Botanical Gardens, where we were treated to an afternoon long entertainment extravaganza. There were tens of young families watching the stage avidly as a boyband (unenthusiastic), fire-dancing-hula-hooping girl (dancing to a really, really rude english song!), and various comedians and ballad singers roamed the stage. We sat at the side, and I think we enjoyed watching the reactions of the audience as much as we did the show - old men were dancing about in excitement like little boys!
Nearing the end of our stay in Saigon, Dave spent a morning at the CuChi tunnels, although he'll tell you about these later... I had a busy morning enjoying a lie in and pottering about the shops, and then we both picked up our freshly renewed visas, in readiness for our bus to Dalat tomorrow...
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