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June 18, 2005

The heat in Southern Vietnam

From the Mekong Delta area we found our way north-east to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city). Saigon is the craziest city that we have experienced thus far on our trip. The shear number of mopeds on the roads is outrageous and they zoom up and down the streets heading every direction, lanes make no difference if someone is in your way. This is different than in Cambodia where there are many, many motos on the roads and they travel at relatively slow speeds so that they can slow down and adjust their course so that you can cross the street, here in Saigon they go as fast as they can and you have to hope that they don't hit you.
At this point in our trip we were both feeling a bit exhausted. The heat and humidity alone are enough to break anyone, add to it the fact that we left San Diego a year ago and have been living out of cars and backpacks for 365 days leaves us road weary.
We planned to spend a few days in the city, mostly planning our weeks in Vietnam. Here, everyone wants to sell you something 'for a very good price'. We step out of our hotel onto a busy street, across from 'the peoples park' and immediately we are accosted by moto drivers asking if we want a ride...and if not, they offer you mary-juana or opium under their breath, young girls carrying a stack of 30 books all photocopied versions of the backpacker favorites and lonely planet guide books, old women sitting on the sidewalk with piles of exotic fruits for sale, 'handmade crafts', and lots of cheep plastic crap imported from China is offered and pushed on you as you walk down the street. Some days it's tough to keep smiling, and saying no. The times when we say yes, and look at someones books or plastic trinkets are the best. We try out our 5 words of Vietnamese and they practice their English. The people here are very friendly, and not just the people who are trying to sell us something. The women especially are very friendly to other women, they often grab my arm as I am talking to them, they want to compare their skin tones to mine. Here, light skin is considered superior to dark skin, all of the women wear long pants and long sleeves with gloves at all times when in the sun, they also wear the large cone-shaped hats with handkerchiefs over their mouths...they are appalled at us in our tank-tops and skirts with brown skin.
I had been having some digestive problems before we arrived in Saigon and in an effort to avoid re-living the episode I had in South America with intestinal bugs I decided to hop onto the back of a moto and have them take me to china town to get some prophylactic herbs. My moto driver dropped me right in front of an herb store.
In the cities here things are organized by department...what I mean is, if you want an herb store, you go to the herb store street, and there is where you'll find 20 or 30 of them lined up. If you want car parts then you go to that area of town...it's all pretty brilliant!
Anyhow, so I hopped off of the moto and headed to the herbal pharmacy, the sights and smells were familiar, so with confidence I walked up to the counter, said xin chao (hello) and then asked (in English) if they spoke English..the woman who was in her 50's smiled and waved me away. I followed the same pattern in 3 more stores, getting waved out of all of them. Finally I found one where a younger man was working and he spoke some English, along with my phrasebook we were able to come to an understanding about what I needed. Hurray my mission was successful!
From here we have booked a 16 hour train from Saigon to Danang, we are heading to Hoi An, the city famous for it's numbers of skilled tailors. They boast that you can have a tailor made suit made in 24 hours!!!

Posted by Jim & Lisa on June 18, 2005 03:16 AM
Category: Vietnam
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