Aghh Saigon where to start with this city!? A far cry from Koh Tao but nonetheless an experience.
The traffic is unbelievable!! The volume of moped and motorbikes is astounding -all honking their bleeding horns together and continuously!! We jumped in our taxi and were at once submerged amongst this sea of enigines and noise. Absolutely crazy. There are no apparent lanes nor rules of the road! Each to their own and whole familes piled onto one bike - unbelievable.
We arrived at our hostel whcih was situated in the backpackers area so it wasn't long before the three of us made friends and found a bar! Or was it the other way around?!
The first thing that struck me was how many homeless people there are, not just down and out poor but disabled too - victims of birth defects or victims of landmines. I've never been anywhere before where from the moment you step out on the street people are trying to sell you something or beg for money. It's constant - and also very sad.
We got up and made our way to the Reunification Palace on the first day. It was more interesting than impressive and gave us a bit of background to what shaped this city historically. It certainly made me eager to learn more about the Vietnam War and the history of this country. After that we took the long way home wandering around the streets and through markets. Our biggest task was crossing the road, one that Grainne in particularly dreaded, the sight of traffic lights made her giddy with delight! A large roundabout in the centre was a sight to behold! When we came upon it we stood there for a few minutes looking at it wondering how the feck we were going to cross it! It's a case of walk out into the traffic and don't stop, which I nervously did with Grainne gripped onto my arm. We wandered back through a park on the other side of the roundabout where Vietnamese women were out in force doing some form of aerobics and the men were playing hackysac.
That night we ventured further afield. Had a pleasant meal followed a by a quick stint in an Irish bar - merely for research purposes! Then whilst running to escape the rain we stumbled upon a teeny bar called Insomnia. It wasn't long before we got chatting to a Vietnamese lady who turned out to be the owner. We had a great chat with her about her life story. I found it really cool to chat to someone one to one who had a little more something personal to offer about the history of Vietnam.
Our last full day we went to the War Museum. I was interested in seeing whether it was as gorey and full on as we read about. The answer is yes. We left there in a fairly sombre mood afterwards. The first part of it has the most amazing pictures that were taken during the war. The were unbelievable for what they portrayed and the fact that someone was there in such an extreme situation taking pictures. The latter part of the museum had pictures of deformed babies and actual foetuses in a glass box, all a consequence of indiscriminate agent orage/napalm blitzing during the war. After that it was information and pictures of torture methods. Pretty harrowing stuff. Large tanks and huge bombs occupied the front yard. It was all very in your face.
A slow stroll afterwards brought us back to the crazy roundabout and into a market. Gra and I indulged in some retail therapy. It wasn't long lived with James in tow, his enthusiam wore off fairly quickly (although he did delight at some skinned headless AND STILL MOVING frogs in the food section) . Afterwards we feasted in Pho 20000 a noodle restaurant that Bill Clinton ate in so we decided to honour them with our presence. After an Italin meal in Good Morning Vietnam we called it a day since another early rise awaited us the next morning to begin the journey up the Mekong and into Cambodia.
The traffic is unbelievable!! The volume of moped and motorbikes is astounding -all honking their bleeding horns together and continuously!! We jumped in our taxi and were at once submerged amongst this sea of enigines and noise. Absolutely crazy. There are no apparent lanes nor rules of the road! Each to their own and whole familes piled onto one bike - unbelievable.
We arrived at our hostel whcih was situated in the backpackers area so it wasn't long before the three of us made friends and found a bar! Or was it the other way around?!
The first thing that struck me was how many homeless people there are, not just down and out poor but disabled too - victims of birth defects or victims of landmines. I've never been anywhere before where from the moment you step out on the street people are trying to sell you something or beg for money. It's constant - and also very sad.
We got up and made our way to the Reunification Palace on the first day. It was more interesting than impressive and gave us a bit of background to what shaped this city historically. It certainly made me eager to learn more about the Vietnam War and the history of this country. After that we took the long way home wandering around the streets and through markets. Our biggest task was crossing the road, one that Grainne in particularly dreaded, the sight of traffic lights made her giddy with delight! A large roundabout in the centre was a sight to behold! When we came upon it we stood there for a few minutes looking at it wondering how the feck we were going to cross it! It's a case of walk out into the traffic and don't stop, which I nervously did with Grainne gripped onto my arm. We wandered back through a park on the other side of the roundabout where Vietnamese women were out in force doing some form of aerobics and the men were playing hackysac.
That night we ventured further afield. Had a pleasant meal followed a by a quick stint in an Irish bar - merely for research purposes! Then whilst running to escape the rain we stumbled upon a teeny bar called Insomnia. It wasn't long before we got chatting to a Vietnamese lady who turned out to be the owner. We had a great chat with her about her life story. I found it really cool to chat to someone one to one who had a little more something personal to offer about the history of Vietnam.
Our last full day we went to the War Museum. I was interested in seeing whether it was as gorey and full on as we read about. The answer is yes. We left there in a fairly sombre mood afterwards. The first part of it has the most amazing pictures that were taken during the war. The were unbelievable for what they portrayed and the fact that someone was there in such an extreme situation taking pictures. The latter part of the museum had pictures of deformed babies and actual foetuses in a glass box, all a consequence of indiscriminate agent orage/napalm blitzing during the war. After that it was information and pictures of torture methods. Pretty harrowing stuff. Large tanks and huge bombs occupied the front yard. It was all very in your face.
A slow stroll afterwards brought us back to the crazy roundabout and into a market. Gra and I indulged in some retail therapy. It wasn't long lived with James in tow, his enthusiam wore off fairly quickly (although he did delight at some skinned headless AND STILL MOVING frogs in the food section) . Afterwards we feasted in Pho 20000 a noodle restaurant that Bill Clinton ate in so we decided to honour them with our presence. After an Italin meal in Good Morning Vietnam we called it a day since another early rise awaited us the next morning to begin the journey up the Mekong and into Cambodia.
No comments:
Post a Comment