Day 2?Waking around TP Ho Chi Minh

After meeting with Rylan (the progam's director) for a few minutes this morning, I decided to explore the city on foot.Armed with only 135,000 VND, I walked to the park just up the street from the guest house.Just as I sat down, people started walking up to me?asking me questions and wanting me to hop on the back of their motor scooter.I was very weary to trust anyone.However, I met this one guy name Dung, 20 years old.We chatted for a while in Vietnamese and finally when we ran out of things to talk about, he asked me if I would help him by some clothes?Little did I know that he was expecting me to buy them for him!Luckily I did not leave the house with very much money on me or he would be sporting a nice pair of jeans and shirt right now.I got away with buying him a pair of sandals and a T-shirt which only cost about $5.00 US.I had no idea how to get this guy off my back.I mean he was literally trying to make me buy him everything!So, when he asked me for 5,000 VND to use the restroom, I ditched him as fast as I could.(Say what you will, but it was the only way I could get rid of him.)

Now the rest of the day I spent by myself walking around the city, trying to figure out where everything is.And I was constantly bombarded with offers to ride on the back of a motor scooter or in a cyclo."Sir where you go?I take you there 3 dollar for 1 hour?anywhere you want to go?I show you around downtown very nice?"They just kept going and going and going.Finally I gave in to one guy.I think I gave him 70,000 VND.And I hopped on the back of his bike.He took me to some old Chinese Pagoda.On the way there he showed me around different parts of the city.I had him take me back to my place after that.

Then I ran into a girl from the other CET program.She invited me to lunch with some of the other students.We went to a little place close to the University.I had not eating since arriving in Vietnam, just had drunk water, and was not sure how my stomach would react to the food.Anyway, for $35,000 VND ($2.18 USD) I ordered a bottle of water and a plate of fried pork dumplings.They were mighty tasty.

After lunch, I went back to my room to cool off.My shirt was saturated from the humidity.An hour later, I was back out on the streets walking.I thought I would try hunting for a small should bag to carry thing in.I entered one store where there where already 2 white people looking for bags.The lady told them that it was 30 dollars for a big backpack.Once they left, I pointed to the bag I wanted and she quoted a price of $20.00.I then asked her in Vietnamese how much Vietnamese Dong and she said 120,000 (which is significantly less than $20.00).She told me to make an offer, so I only paid 100,000 VND for the bag.I might have gotten it for less if I wanted to talk here down, but I felt a little guilty only paying 6.00 for a good quality bag (North Face Brand) and it seems to be the real thing.

The rest of the day I just spent walking around the city.

I can't believe how many stores and restaurants there are here.Everything is so cheap and you can get pretty much anything you need!I thought I was going to a 3rd world country.