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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Landed in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)/ Saigon right on time, cleared customs super-quickly, our bags were coming out on the carousel just as we entered the baggage pickup area, and Michael and Eija were waiting to greet us as we stepped into the arrivals hall. Good evening Vietnam!
This cheered us up no end as we’d been in a lousy mood leaving Phuket. Firstly checking in our baggage was quite stressful: We’d packed and re-packed our bags and weighed them at the hotel to make sure we weren’t carrying excess as Air Asia only allows 15 kilos. After packing as much of the heavier stuff as possible into our hand baggage and wearing as many layers of clothing as we could bear, we got them down to just under 16 each which we were pretty sure would be OK. At the airport we again found some scales and double-checked the weight, but upon check-in were told that we were both 2 kilos overweight. Eek! We kicked up a polite little fuss, protesting that the airport scales we had used 30 minutes ago read differently. The check-in girl fortunately took pity on us and allowed us to triple-check on another set of scales. We were still a bit over but she let us off without charging for excess. Phew!
Then our luck ran out. We learnt an expensive lesson at passport control – we’d overstayed our visas by 8 days. Arrgh! For some reason we’d thought we were allowed 90 days and never thought to check until passport control pointed out the bit on the stamp in our passports that says clear as day that they were valid only until January 29th. Duuuh! An 80 quid fine each. Ouch. Definitely checking our stamps thoroughly from now on.
But back to Vietnam…
It was great to see Michael and Eija at the airport. They’d booked us into the (very nice) hotel they’re staying in and a cab was waiting to take us there. After dumping our bags went for a wander around the local area. The whole country is gearing up for Tet, the new year celebration taking place on February 15.There’s a park near our hotel full of vendors selling an impressive array of plants and flowers – all sorts of bonsai trees, fruit trees, orchids, massess of yellow chrysanthemums (yellow is a lucky colour here), and even animal-shaped fruit sculptures, all for Tet.
By the time we’d had a good catch-up over a tasty Vietnamese dinner of rice noodle shrimp spring rolls and noodle soup in the market, followed by a drink in a local bar, it was gone bedtime so we headed back to the hotel. There Michael and Eija presented us with a mini suitcase full of stuff from home. We’d asked for a few bits and pieces – the most important being proper some tea bags and some sunscreen (the stuff they sell here all has ‘whitening’ stuff in it, eurgh). We now have a selection of over 500 English Breakfast, Earl Grey and Chai tea bags, and about 5 litres of Factor 30. Also a load of goodies including chocolate, licorice, Hobnobs and M&S Percy Pigs which should keep us going for a while (thanks parents and Elisa! x).
After a good night’s sleep (dreaming about opening up an English tea shop with a tanning salon on the side in Saigon) we had breakfast in the cafe next door, Michael advised us on where to go and what to see in HCMC, and we set out to explore the city.
First impression of HCMC: motorbike madness! There are about 4 million scooters and motorbikes in Saigon and they rule the roads, and the pavements, in every direction. They flow like a liquid, filling in every nook, cranny and gap in the street. People carry everything on them – we’ve seen them piled high with shopping bags, suitcases, rucksacks, crates of eggs, clementine trees, full length doors, boxes of foodstuff, and entire families. A family of five squeezed onto one bike is the record so far.
Road markings don’t count here so cross a road one must take a deep breath, step out into the road, make eye contact with the oncoming traffic and hope they manouvre round you. Seriously – being a pedestrian in this crazy city is an extreme sport.
We’ve so far survived almost 24 hours in HCMC so so far so good…
First sightseeing was the War Remnants Museum, formerly named the Museum of American war Crimes. A real eye-opener. We knew the Vietnam War was an atrocious affair – seen Apocalypse Now a zillion times, been reading Dispatches, etc etc, – but nothing prepared us for this. The museum documents the brutality of the war, the hideous torture and sickening human rights abuses that took place, and its legacy today – not so many years on.
Outside the main museum building are replicas of the ‘tiger cages’ used to torture Vietcong prisoners, a French guillotine introduced to execute them, and a collection of retired artillery pieces. Inside – US planes, choppers and tanks. Inside the main museum building there’s an incredibly moving collection of photographs, ‘Requiem’, taken by 134 war reporters killed covering the war; heartbreaking pictures of the masses of victims of the war – victims of torture, and those born with horrendous birth defects caused by Agent Orange and dioxin; an exhibition of international solidarity with the Vietnamese people and against the War, including pictures of demonstrations held in London; and a ‘War & Peace’ children’s painting collection.
It was an emotionally exhausting but hugely worthwhile visit and has definitely given us a deeper appreciation of the absolute horror of war and the impressive resilience of the Vietnamese people.
Then took a stroll past the Reunification Palace and through to the old French/government quarter where the red brick Notre Dame cathedral, the beautiful central post office building, and the Peoples Committee Hall with the statue of Ho Chi Minh himself infront all sit.
Carried on down to the riverside, looped back up to the HCMC History Museum where we spent a bit of time looking at the displays housed in the pretty Sino-French building sitting in the grounds of the botanical gardens and city zoo, then to the Ngoc Hoang pagoda, or Jade Emperor pagoda, a functional Cantonese temple filled with colourful papier mache statues of both Buddhist and Taoist deities.
By that time we’d worked up quite an appetite so made a final stop at the bustling Ben Thanh market for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel. Had a rest, Skyped home, watched some telly (such a novelty after a month of no telly), popped out for dinner at a Mexican cantina of all places, re-packed our bags, and are now all set for a 6.30am wake up call and a 36 hour bus ride to Hoi An in the morning.
from: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ristohannah/1/1265565992/tpod.html
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