First time I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, this communist country. Communist sounds scary, eh? But it was all right there. :)
First impression was good. On the bus, I didn't have no idea where Pham Ngu Lao was, the backpacker area, so I asked old couple on the bus and they kindly told me everything they knew. And when I had to pay, I didn't have small money, so there was a lady who paid for my ticket. :)
I was alone. I missed Ed and my friends in Bangkok. But yeah, when you travel alone, you never be alone. I met some people just some hours after I arrived. They showed me almost all Saigon within a day. They took me to the upper class restaurant (yuck! I didn't like it!), to the Spanish Bar (fucking good!), and to the place for lower class and yeah budget traveler. hehe... They told me to move from Saigon, five days in Saigon was too much they told me. But I didn't like to move to one place to another without knowing anything about it. I don't like to just have a look, I want to see, to know more, to understand.
When I moved to dormitory, I met Damian, my room mate. We did lot of walking, talking, laughing, eating (oreo creamy shake was very good!). We also met Lisa, Liesl, and Laura through Kirsti. I told them about the Spanish Bar and we wanted to go there. But stupid me, I didn't know where it was, I didn't even remember the name. So we did an adventure to find the Spanish Bar. Walked down the street, asked people, with map in our hands. But still we couldn't find it! So we ended up at Sheraton Hotel! On its 23rd floor! It was good there, but our outfits were totally didn't fit for that place! We wore t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops! hehehe...
Tour? No More!
Cu Chi Tunnels and War Remnants Museum must be two of the relic of Vietnam War. People there always asked me, "have you been to those places?" I answered, "not yet", "why not?" they asked me back. Ooh! So I had to go, eh!? I didn't feel like going, but ok because my friends wanted to go to Cu Chi Tunnels, so I joined them. With a tour! Jeez!
I think it would be the first and the last time I took a tour. I felt like stupid following one guy instruction to do this, to do that! No way! Cu Chi Tunnels was interesting actually. But since we went there with a tour, so when we were crouching the tunnels, we could only crouch straight heading to the hospital bunker. Along the way, there were many other ways, left, right, I really wanted to turned left or right, but I couldn't! Oohh....
I didn't go to War Remnants Museum, haven't got time. Well, next time maybe. But I think next time, I want to do Vietnam trip from south to north... I'll see.
Crazy Traffic!
I thought Jakarta's traffic was the most fucked up! But then I found out that Saigon's was even worst! Horrible!
Too many motorbikes (but many Vespa LX there). They didn't follow the rule. They went wherever they wanted. Sometimes they didn't even stop in the traffic light! Crossing the street would never be this challenging, 0r most suitable word, frightening! hehe.. Two thumbs up for them who can ride motorbikes and handle the traffic there. :p
So Damian and I wanted to hit the traffic! Damian's friend, Patrick, just bought a motorbike. So we wanted to do test drive, quite reckless though, because we didn't use helmet, didn't have driving license and paper motorbike. We rode down the street trying to find the Spanish Bar, but we couldn't find it. We found a Cathedral and a big park instead.
In front of the Cathedral, there was a Mother Mary statue and people were kneel in front it, praying in the night! Wow! Real life of Saigon aside of the backpacker area. :) But I kinda regret haven't got the chance to enter the Cathedral. It looked magnificent and I never entered churh before. hehe..
But we were lost. We didn't know the way back home. And it was hard to ask for direction, because almost nobody spoke good english. :( We tried our luck, but the police pulled us over! I told you we were reckless. They didn't speak good english either. Before they wanted to take the motorbike, of course we couldn't let it happen! Patrick just bought it 30 minutes ago! So after some bla bla bla discussion, they asked for money, 500.000 Dong! We didn't bring so much money at that time, we only had 170.000 Dong. We showed them all the money that we had. And they only took 100.000 Dong and let us go. We even asked them for direction before we left. hehe...
After that accident, we laughed all the way home... And it was my last night in Saigon.
More picture from Ho Chi Minh City
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