Ho Chi Minh City
We decided to take ourselves on a walking tour of Saigon today. After our journey from Cambodia yesterday, we also decided not to rouse ourselves too early. In the place we are staying, breakfast and dinner are included, so we popped downstairs around 12 for brekkie. After this we started off.
HCMC is massive. It has over 6million people in it and most of them drive a moto. It doesn't really have a central point - the Saigon river is there, but is used mainly for industry and not as a focal point for the city. Because of this, it it kind of hard to get your barings. Luckily we had our Lonely Planet to help us out! We went into a large covered market and were very soon accosted by sellers encouraging us into their stalls. Toby had said he was only going to the market because it was part of the walking tour, but in the end it was he who was buying stuff and me hanging around waiting. Was very strange, given his claim to hate shopping. The stall owners where Toby was buying a t-shirt were very interested in us, coming up and looking closely at my necklace and bag (Katie, they were very impressed with your Croatian handbag!). We were obviously the most interesting thing they'd seen that day. They were really lovely and as we were leaving, one of the girls hugged me from behind and asked me to stay (lovely as she was, I still kept an eye to make sure her hands were around my waist and not in my lovely bag!) . Toby made a vain attempt to sell me to them for a few thousand dong, but before you think he values me highly, note that there are 20,000 dong to the euro.
We spent the next few hours wandering around museums and drinking iced tea, now our favourite drink. The War Remenants Museum, once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, was really interesting, showing the history of the Vietnamese War (or American War, as it is known over here) and all the horrors committed on the Vietnamese people. There was a very interesting section of photographs taken by photographers from around the world who were later killed in battle. Some show the very last picture taken by that photographer before he was killed and they are amazing pictures. There is a very graphic section on the war crimes committed by the Americans and tanks and helicopters captured during the war.
By the end of our walk, however, I was no more enamoured with the place than when we started. It doesn't have all that much to recommend it really. Am looking forward to getting out of here and experiencing a different side to Vietnam, as I can only hope that this is not all there is to it.
HCMC is massive. It has over 6million people in it and most of them drive a moto. It doesn't really have a central point - the Saigon river is there, but is used mainly for industry and not as a focal point for the city. Because of this, it it kind of hard to get your barings. Luckily we had our Lonely Planet to help us out! We went into a large covered market and were very soon accosted by sellers encouraging us into their stalls. Toby had said he was only going to the market because it was part of the walking tour, but in the end it was he who was buying stuff and me hanging around waiting. Was very strange, given his claim to hate shopping. The stall owners where Toby was buying a t-shirt were very interested in us, coming up and looking closely at my necklace and bag (Katie, they were very impressed with your Croatian handbag!). We were obviously the most interesting thing they'd seen that day. They were really lovely and as we were leaving, one of the girls hugged me from behind and asked me to stay (lovely as she was, I still kept an eye to make sure her hands were around my waist and not in my lovely bag!) . Toby made a vain attempt to sell me to them for a few thousand dong, but before you think he values me highly, note that there are 20,000 dong to the euro.We spent the next few hours wandering around museums and drinking iced tea, now our favourite drink. The War Remenants Museum, once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, was really interesting, showing the history of the Vietnamese War (or American War, as it is known over here) and all the horrors committed on the Vietnamese people. There was a very interesting section of photographs taken by photographers from around the world who were later killed in battle. Some show the very last picture taken by that photographer before he was killed and they are amazing pictures. There is a very graphic section on the war crimes committed by the Americans and tanks and helicopters captured during the war.
By the end of our walk, however, I was no more enamoured with the place than when we started. It doesn't have all that much to recommend it really. Am looking forward to getting out of here and experiencing a different side to Vietnam, as I can only hope that this is not all there is to it.
posted by Dee @ 6:50 p.m.
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