After a nice farewell breakfast with my new friends from Da Nang, I got on my Jetstar flight to the 'big city' -- Ho Chi Minh City. I didn't know what to expect but lots of people and lots of scooters, which also means lots of honking! :)
And I was exactly right ..... HCMC has about 8 million people and the moment I stepped off the plane, I felt the heat and heard the honking.
I got a taxi cab to my hotel downtown ($6) and dumped my stuff in the room ready to get some lunch at the nearby small market since it was about 12 noon. I ended up sitting down next to a very sweet young lady who had very good English. I liked what she was eating and ordered the same thing. We started chatting and she helped me order. I learned she was a professor at a local university in sociology. She ended up treating me to my meal and that was only after I got her to promise me we would meet at the same place for lunch on Friday. By the way, we ate a cold noodle salad topped with greens, and a marinated pork skewer from the BBQ. Also, a 'summer roll' with shrimp but of course, I have no idea how to pronounce it in Vietnamese.
My friends in Da Nang are studying Vietnamese and I looked at their text book this morning. I thought Chinese was hard to learn with 3 tones but the Vietnamese language has 6 tones!
Anyway, after a delightful lunch I headed to scouting out some prices for my next few days of activity. I ended up getting my tours booked with the same lady and company whom gave me a 10% discount because she said it was a "Happy Woman's Day" special. (I've never heard of the holiday??!!!)
So tomorrow I will do a one day Mekong Delta full day trip, Tuesday 1/2 day Cu Chi Tunnels trip, then Friday afternoon get a 6 hour bus to cross the border into Cambodia heading to Phnom Penh.
I walked and walked and walked today, and most importantly, learned a great deal more about this country, especially its war torn history. The first stop was visiting the Reunification Palace (Government House) which is well known for the first communist tanks in Saigon crashing through the front gates in 1975. American's tanks bulldozed the front gates. Everything is exactly how it was the day those tanks rolled in.
After that, I headed to the War Remnants Museum. 3 floors of some deep history including a whole level dedicated to various propaganda from the different countries all over the world protesting against the USA's decision to go to War with Vietnam. Very interesting indeed....There were real US army tanks, bombs, planes, chinooks and more on display. A huge exhibit of real journalist photos taken during the way, tributes to the journalists killed in their profession, an exhibit on the Agent Orange effects, the ruthless 'tiger cages' which prisoners were put in on Phu Quoc island plus much much more. I think I spent about 2 1/2 hours learning in this museum with tears welling up in my eyes often.
O and my statement about not meeting any Americans on my trip so far...Yes, well definitely not the case any more....they are everywhere here in HCMC :)
I wondered through the big Ben Thanh Market after that where again anything and everything you can think of can be purchased. Lots of 'fake' clothing too which I am tempted but resisting well to buy.
My highlight of the day though was at 5pm and meeting up with dear HPA friends David Doty and his two sons (whom I haven't seen for 3 years!) Mum had a meeting at school so couldn't make it but I was spoiled to be treated to an Indian dinner together (which was really really good too!). I will have a little adventure on my hands and try to get to their apartment on my own via taxi on Wednesday afternoon. I look forward to staying with them on Wed. and Thurs. night!
Sore feet...maybe I should check out the blind massage school down the road to treat myself...it's meant to be amazing!
One word for this city === ELECTRIFYING!!!!
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