Vi-et-Nam! 🇻🇳 Vi-et-Nam! 🇻🇳

NIght bus! From the sleepy beach town of Sihinoukville, Cambodia to The Big City — Ho Chi Minh City.  Should be a 12 hour bus-ride aboard a comfy sleeper bus.  Great way to get to the next spot while saving money on a hostel, since I could sleep on the bus.

I was impressed with the setup of the bus – nice stretched out reclining seats with a fuzzy blanket, pillow and individual light and air vents.  Sweet!  I got all comfy, took an Ambien and fell asleep.

Little did I know that we were changing buses in Phnom Penh and was rudely awoken at 1:30am to do so.  Unfortunately, the transfer bus was unavailable and wouldn’t arrive until 6 am…so the bus station attendant (or whoever he was; it’s amazing how you just follow people that instruct you to do so!) herded the 10 or so of us up 4 flights of stairs above a furniture store, hustled us into a room full of lawn chairs, and told us to go to sleep and that he would return at 6 am to retrieve us and put us on the continuation bus.  Seriously?  WTF?? Here we all are in the crazy fourth floor furniture room, hoping to get a couple of hours of sleep…

At 6 am we boarded the next bus for 6 more hours of travel to arrive in HCMC.  We finally arrived at the bus station.  One of the girls on the bus offered to share a taxi with me to District 1, the backpacker’s district, where we were both staying.  I needed to get Vietnamese money so told her I’d be right back and I started down the street in search of an ATM.  Six different, non-cooperative ATMs and 4 blocks later in the 90 degree heat, I decided not to head back to the bus station to share a taxi, and after an iced coffee served by an extremely helpful young man in the coffee shop, I took a cab to my hostel.  I felt terrible about leaving the girl at the bus station, but figured she’d understand that I got waylaid and couldn’t get back.

My hostel was in a maze of back-alleys and a warren of small, crowded streets behind the main thoroughfares of Saigon in District One, sort of the ‘downtown’ area.  I unpacked my stuff in my private room at Ngoc Thao Guesthouse and set off to find something to eat.

I chose a nearby restaurant and ordered a noodle bowl and as I was eating, the girl from the bus station spotted me and hollered out for me. She had been worried about me since I hadn’t come back and was glad to see I was safe.  I felt terrible about leaving her hanging, and bought her a beer to make up for it.  Justine was from Paris, and was a sound engineer for a big fat hip-hop artist that was extremely popular in France – Svinkels, aka Gerard Baste.  We decided to spend the rest of the day together and wandered around the crazy busy city.

HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) is also still known as Saigon, even though the name was changed in 1975 when the North Vietnamese troops captured the southern city of Saigon.  With a population of over 8 million, and probably 7 million scooters!, this place is crazy busy, a whirlwind of traffic, horns, people, and energy.

The money here is “dong”, and it takes 227,000 dong to equal ten American dollars. It’s fun to go to the ATM and withdraw 5 million dong and feel rich, even though it’s only $220 USD.

“Hello” is “sing jaow” or usually “hello” and “Thank you” sounds something like “come on”.

Speaking of traffic and horns – never have I heard such a cacophony— so many blaring, beeping, noisy, incessant, clamoring, resounding, bleating, blasting, trumpeting, honking, tooting horns in all my life.  It’s non-stop.  24/7.  All day.  All night.  And the traffic!!!! There are no rules here -no traffic lights, lanes or regulations.  It’s every man (or scooter!) for himself.  Crossing the street is an act of faith.

You.

Just.

Go.

Like the video game Frogger. 🐸.  I’ve been told the scooters won’t hit you; they have no money.  But don’t step in front of a bus or a car; they have insurance and money and won’t hesitate to run you over.  There aren’t even rules about oncoming traffic driving in opposite directions.  When I tell you it’s crazy, it’s crazy!!!

Justine and I spent the next few days discovering the city together. Drinks on the rooftop, being silly in a park full of sculpture.  Massages by blind ladies.  Street food.

We visited the War Remnants Museum and the photojournalism display of the Vietnam War (referred to here as “the American War”).  The photos were incredibly disturbing, showing napalm, rioting, mass murder and destruction of women, children, cities, villages and terrain.  Learning about how the USA completely disregarded the Geneva Convention and entered into war with Vietnam was so disheartening. It seems that governments and those in power just pretty much do whatever they want – whether it’s then or now.  A very powerful exhibit in a well curated and well organized museum – a must see.

Later that night, we ran into the rest of the crew from the furniture store sleepover – crazy!  We joined them for (many) beers and many laughs as we tried to sort out what had happened.  So fun to connect with travelers from Uruguay, Paris, Chile, Barcelona and Germany.

Vietnam’s U23 soccer team had made it to the semi-finals for the first time ever.  Actually, the first time ANY Southeast Asian team had made it this far and they were going NUTS!!!  When they unexpectedly won the game against Qatar, the entire country went berzerk!!!! There was celebration and joy in the streets like the USA has for the SuperBowl! Streamers! Horns! Fireworks! Honking (even more than usual!) Pots and pans were crashed together! Banners, balloons, Vietnam flags, confetti and more.  It was completely insane and sooooo much fun to observe!  Hopefully the video below will load and you can get a glimpse of the madness, joy and exhilaration the city experienced.

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I was trying to get together with a friend of my friend Julia’s that night but it was absolutely impossible to get a taxi or a scooter to take me there.  Everyone was too busy celebrating!  We rescheduled for the next night…

I toured the Cu Chi Tunnels outside of HCMC.  These are a 3-level maze of underground tunnels created over the years during the War so that the locals could hide, attack the US soldiers as they came through the jungle, and meet to discuss their next moves.  There were dining halls, meeting rooms, and more.  The tunnels were created for the slim Vietnamese, and although we were allowed to go through one portion of the tunnel – that had even been widened for visitors – it was claustrophobic, tight and pretty freaky.  I bailed out after about 130’ of stooping, hunching down and shuffling through the underground maze.

We were shown different torture traps, meant to capture the US soldiers unawares.  Spikes, nails, and various ingenious swinging tourturous devices were demonstrated.

Finally met Maggie, Julia Sharp’s bestie.  Maggie has been living in Saigon for the past year, working at a craft brewery.  She and her co-worker  Pete (from Chicago) met me for drinks and we had a great time talking about Vietnam, relocating and future plans…

What a great city – thrilling, exciting, energetic and exhausting! Justine headed home to Paris and I was off to discover the beautiful city of Dalat.

Meet you there –

 

Lose yourself until you find yourself.                                                        – Unknown 

 

(Thank you Callum Foot for the technicolor photo of Ho Chi Minh City celebrating the U23 football (soccer) win!)