I want Chicken I want Liver…Vietnam, Vietnam please deliver!
Goooooooooooooooood Morning Vietnam! Ha Ha…I’ve always wanted to say that from Vietnam. So I’ve finnally arrived in Vietnam, what a lovely place. Took a bus ride from Phnom Penh all the way to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City for $4. Sadly enough there were no Cambodian Karaoke Music Videos on this bus. Crossing into Vietnam was probably one of the most painstaking processes you could ever imagine. Finding a bloody pen to fill out the immigration forms was a 20 minute process. Maybe because it’s a communist country they have to share pens equally throughout the country. After clearing the border and being allowed in we finnally arrived after about 8 hours of traveling. Saigon moves at a pace that would make your head spin. Motorbikes outnumber cars at least 10 to 1. Crossing the street is like walking a tight rope over the Grand Canyon without a safety harness while wearing a speedo. After sever near collisions I decided to walk across the street with my head down without looking. This makes it easier and less scary and it makes you feel like moses as you part the sea of motorbikes. Me and Andy went to the War Remnants Museum yesterday. It is a collection of U.S. planes, tanks and helicopters all leftover from the war. It is a pretty one sided depiction of the war…surprise surprise. Sadly enough I don’t know much about the war, I think it’s partly because I was absent the day they taught the Vietnam war in school and also because I think that America doesn’t want to teach and educate it’s people about a war that was so controversial and ultimately unsuccessful. This museum is littered with photos of people who are either being tortured by American soldiers or of people who are suffering the effects of the napolm and agent orange that was dropped by America all over the Vietnam countryside. I know that if I went to a Museum in the U.S. dedicated to the Vietnam war I would probably see a different story, probably not an entirely true one but different. I’m sure the real truth behind the war would fall somewhere in the middle of what each country would depict. Either way, these museums are not watered down, they are harsh, cold, and depict some of the most horrible images you could imagine. On display in glass jars are siamese babies with defects from the toxic chemicals dropped…it’s tough to look at. There are photos of american soldiers crowded around a hole in the ground filled with bodies that have dirt all the way up to their necks. There is a photo of an American Soldier smiling as he picks up the head and a few remains of a Vietnamese person who was just shredded by a bomb of somekind or a landmine. There is a photo of an American tank riding down the street with two people being dragged from behind. These images may never leave my head you just have to wonder what people are thinking when this stuff is happening. What’s even worse is knowing that it is still happening today in Iraq. Now i’m gonna sing a song:
“War…huh…what is it good for? Absolutly nothing…say it again.”
Ok, sorry, enough of that.
All in all Ho Chi Minh or Saigon is a nice welcome into Vietnam. Like any big southeast asian city it is filled with people trying to sell you anything. Our first night we were solicited by a 4 year old girl. It was 10 o’clock and we were sitting outside at a bar having a beer. She walked up to us with her pajamas on with a pack of gum she was trying to sell. She spoke very good english and had the sense to negotiate the price. I have several cousins around this age and it’s hard to understand how parents here can let them do it, but they do and it works.
Traveling through all these different countries pretty much makes you a currency exchange expert…or at least it should. You are constantly dealing and negotiating rates and paying for things in American, mostly in Cambodia and recieving local currency as change. When I arrived in Vietnam I headed straight for an ATM to get cash. Unlike Cambodia which gives you american dollars from the ATM, Vietnam gives you their currency which is the Dong…yes, the Dong. So I put my card in, pushed my passcode and was given the option to take out the following amounts of money:
– 100,000
– 500,000
– 1,000,000
– 1,500,000
– 2,000,000
After several seconds of trying to do the math in my head i figured that 100,000 would surely be enough. So i pushed the button and one bill came out, it was a 100,000 note. Off to the bar I went with Andy. We sat down and got a beer and the beer cost, 20,000. Oops! Basically I had taken out about $8. My bank also charges me $3 to use the atm internationally…not good. The next day I went to the ATM and took out 2 Million Dong, it is absolutely crazy to think that I took out that much money from an ATM, i felt like i was Donald Trump or something. 2 Million is about $130 U.S.
So tonight me and Andy are heading out of town on the overnight bus to Nah Trang. It is north of Saigon on the coast. We have booked a boat tour to do some snorkeling and to visit some islands. I also hope to do some diving here as well. From there we head north to Ho Ain, and then to Hue before arriving in Hanoi, my final place of departure in SE Asia before i fly to Hong Kong. I pushed my plane ticket back a few days out of Hanoi to give myself a few more days. The one advantage of booking with a travel agent is the ease in which you can change your ticket. It took me about 5 minutes in a Cathay Pacific office, that is my airline, to change it, and it cost nothing…very convenient.
I’m working on getting some photos up so you can check the photo site and hopefully i can get a few up. Hope all is well with everyone and please for crying out loud send me some freaking e-mails.
Tags: Cambodia, Currency, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Vietnam
Gagnonius
Vietnam…..a good example of what happens when an oppressive leader can’t let go of the power grip for the good of his people….also a good example of what happens when you draft civilians into a war zone. War is still a terrible beast but these days for the most part our service members remain professional….there are and will always be those few though.
Brian just walk around and call everyone you meet charlie…it’s very respectful….
Going to take a walk down the Ho Chi Minh trail?
Bri,
I’m fascinated to hear the stories from Vietnam. What a complex history we have there, not to mention their own history and culture.
Keep the stories coming. We have much to learn about our impact on that country after our invasion. I would love to know what people think about the U.S. more than 30 years later….
Love, Jeffb