Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Here it is, day 3 of my excursion to Vietnam. It has been pretty damn cool so far. I got in Friday afternoon around 3pm. I had my first Korea-in-Vietnam moment while getting a cab from the airport: the taxi driver insisted on pointing out my relative girth (you just can't get away from it).

Anyway, I'm staying at the Le Le Hotel (recommend it highly) in the Pham Ngo Lao area of Saigon. For $20 a night you get all the amenities, plus a really great location from which to explore the city. The first day I just wandered the neighborhood near the hotel, had a couple of beers and turned in fairly early.

The next day I was up at 6 am, showered, had a cheap breakfast of greasy eggs and bacon (I had Vienamese noodles (pho) for breakfast today, and I'm sticking with that from now on), and went of exploring. The Lonely Planet guide suggests a walking tour of the sites, and I decided to do that. I made my own version of the tour (meaning I got lost several times) and eventually found the Independance Palace, the History Museum and City Hall. The history museum was fairly interesting with different photo displays and artifacts. There is of course, a very pro Vietnam slant to all the displays with their references to imperialists, valiant comrades, and what not. The one thing that troubled me was the gift shop. This is because they sell many vintage zippo lighters as well as US military dog tags. Somehow I just don't think these things were willingly donated for the edification of the museum. How supremely odd it would be to actually buy something like that?

After checking out the Independence Palace (which by the way has a very uninteresting tour through the underground bomb shelter) I was waylaid by Sit the cyclo driver. Now Sit is a very persistent guy and if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd been walking around for about 4 hours in the heat (oh yeah, IT'S FUCKING HOT IN VIETNAM), I would've blown him off.

Now the next place I was going to go was the War Remnants Museum. However, Sit told me that the place was closed from 11-1:30pm, and it being almost noon, recommended a place for lunch (he probably gets a commision from the lace, but I don't care; i was hot, thirsty and hungry). The food was cheap and filling, the beer was cold, and Sit was quite companionable company. After lunch, Sit took me over to some Buddhist temple which was interesting enough if you're into that kind of thing. After the temple, I decided to leave the museum until the next day (I'm heading there after I finish this) and went back to the hotel for a shower and a nap. Sit, as pleasent and knowledgable a guide as he was, then of course tried to stiff me for the cost of the ride. Now I know that pedalling my fat ass around town is no mean feat, I still was not going to pay him the $40 he wanted. I managed to talk him down to a reasonable price (actually, the dickering back and forth was kind of fun). I still probably over paid him, but I am fat and it is damn hot. LOL

After a 4 hour nap, I headed out to find some food and a comfy bar to have a few beers. In this I succeeded quite splendidly, Having a wonderful chicken stir fry at a place called Eden Cafe and then playing pool (kicking ass I might add) and meeting people from damn near everywhere at Go Go2. The shock came later that night when I wandered back to my hotel to find it shuttered and locked up tight! Perturbed somewhat by this turn of events, I went down the street to another cool bar I had stopped in (Cyclo 163) to ask what one does in this event. fortunately, the solution was a simple ring of the doorbell, and after 5 minutes I was happily in the shower and on my way to a very sound sleep.

That is all for now. I'll have another update in a couple of days.

PS: Why can't students just accept their grades and quit whining like little babies. I only planned to come online to write this but nooooooooo. I had to spend 20 minutes answering emails from students as to why they got such and such grade. Grrrrr.