Nov 5 – Saigon
After having a nice breakfast of Bun Thit Nuong (grilled pork vermicelli) we caught our bus to Saigon, although it has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City for close to 40 years most still call it Saigon. The bus ride took about 6hrs and was very uneventful. I read, fixed pictures and slept through it. We arrived in a humid and hot city. We set off looking for a hotel and checked out a few before settling on one. Not picking the first place can be the hardest part because you walk up and down the stairs with your pack on in the heat and you are sweating buckets doing it. We picked one that actually had a double bed, not two singles pushed together, and enough room to swing a cat. The stair were near Western standards which was one of my conditions, I think I bumped me knee going up one set and scraped my heel going down another the stair case was so narrow. They were asking $12 with A/C but we got the room for $10 with A/C. Yay bartering. After settling in we set off for a late lunch. We were hankering for Mexican still so we stopped just down from our hotel which cooked everything under the sun. Or Mexican craving was mildly satisfied with mediocre food. Beau had enchiladas, one was supposed to be chicken and one beef but he got both chicken, and I had burritos which were deep fried, both were supposed to be chicken but one ended up being beef. We checked out some tour offices that offered trips to the Mekong, we are trying to figure out the best way to do the Mekong and get to Phnom Penh. While in one tourist office it started pouring, we noticed the sky looking pretty black but unfortunately our umbrella was left behind at some point. Sadly this rain was not like the others we had because it continued pouring. It left up a little for us to dash back and forth across the street. We went into a bar for some drinks while we waited for the rain to clear and ordered some draft beer. It was awful, completely flat, we actually walked out Beau was so disgusted. The next bar we went into had beers for 45000d the ones we normally pay 10000d for so we left that one too. After checking out a few more tour offices we found a restaurant with relatively reasonably priced food and beer. While there we caved and bought a new umbrella from a street hawker, I swear they just pop out of the woodwork with their umbrellas and ponchos when it starts to rain. We had pizza and beer and then headed back to the hotel with our new umbrella to keep us dry. I hope the weather is better tomorrow as we want to do a walking tour of Ho Chi Minh and check out the street vendors for dinner.
Nov 6 – HCMC Walking tour
We were the typical tourist today following our guide book around the city, luckily it wasn't raining this morning especially since our guide book is on the I-Pod. Our day started off at the Ben Thanh Market where we had some fairly cheap food. We ate our favourite Bun Thit Nuong but it was 35000d when we were paying 20000d in other cities but it was cheap compared to the other options. Afterwards we headed to the Fine Arts Museum. We had a leisurely stroll around the exhibits which had a mixture of modern art, war art and early 20th century art. Some of my favourites are the lacquer paintings. I wish I could get some sort of lacquer painted souvenir but they are all too big to cart around. Next we followed the map to see a street market, we picked up toothpaste and soap, and on to see the Municipal Theatre and some fancy hotels. Since it was pretty hot and humid out we kept looking for somewhere to stop and get a coffee. Typically a regular coffee should be 10000d but we kept seeing it for 40000-50000d. After checking out several coffee shops we caved and sat down in one. We ordered some fruit smoothy drinks and they were amazing! I had mango and Beau had peach guava definitely worth the 40000d each especially with the A/C. Our next stop was the War Remnants Museum which was very sobering. There were tanks and aircraft outside the building as well as some mock prison cells. Reading about the atrocities committed against the Vietnamese people by the Americans was eye opening. I had never really known much about the Vietnam/American War before today. It was an interesting and horrifying museum. After we finished we had a late lunch at a restaurant down the street and then headed back to the hotel for a little nap. I think two months of travel is starting to catch up to us. We booked our Mekong Delta tour and exchanged some money into US dollars. Cambodia and Vietnam will both except it and we need the American money to pay for our Cambodian visas. It was starting to spit again but we found a reasonably priced restaurant a couple blocks away. While we were eating there was another down pour luckily it had stopped raining by the time we finished dinner. We are hoping for clear weather while in the Mekong.
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| War Remnants Museum |
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| War Remnants Museum |
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| War Remnants Museum |
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