Saigon!

Welcome to Vietnam!

I have been badly neglecting my blog. So much to write! Here goes:

I arrived in Saigon about 7 days ago. On the bus from Phnom Penh I met a Canadian girl named Jayne and we hit it off, so decided to travel together throughout Vietnam. It has been really fun to travel with someone else. A much different experience than what I have been doing so far. It is really nice to have a friend to talk to about what you see, feel, and hear while traveling. Also it is much more social in general. It is cheaper as well, since we split everything such as our hostel room, etc...

Saigon is absolutely fantastic! I love this place so much, and am definetally going to live here for an extended period of time someday. The Vietnamese people are incredibly nice and generous. I am so confused because while in Sihanoukville people said: oh my gosh, Saigon is horrible, you will get ripped off, it is dangerous, etc... But I guess everyone just has to find out for themselves, because I love this place.

It was off to a bit of a rough start in Saigon. Jayne and I settled into our room and then stepped outside to find a good place for dinner. The second we did this a 6 year old boy comes peddling up to us on his tricycle and runs over our feet and screams over and over to us: "You're white!! Fuck you!!" Wow, quite the shock that was for us. We were a bit confused, who in the world taught this little boy such horrible things!! Anyway, we walked down the street a bit more and see a 4 year old boy smoking a cigarette through his nostrils!! Even more of a shock! So, the first few minutes in Saigon were a bit rocky, but since then they have become much better.

A few highlights of the week:
-The zoo: We got to take pictures and play with two orangutangs! We also watched a snake ingesting a rabbit.
-Cu Chi Tunnels: I have very mixed feelings about these. The Cu Chi tunnels are this massive underground tunnel network where Vietnamese soldiers lived while the Americans had occupied the land above and were bombing it and napalming it, etc... There are three levels of tunnels and they stretch for hundreds of kilometers, all the way to the Cambodian border! We had a guided tour all day from this Vietnamese guy who fought in the war and I think went a bit mad. This made the tour even more strange. At the tunnels we got to walk through (more like crawl through) about 100 kilometers. It was incredibly claustrophobic and hot and sweaty in the tunnels, but quite interesting to go through. The thing was, the whole Cu Chi complex has been turned into a bit of an amusement park which I did not appreciate at all. I thought it was a bit grotesque. For example, if you want you can go to the shooting range they have put above the tunnels and fire and AK47. Also you can take you picture with a US tank, and watch motorized manequins of Vietnamese soldiers make bombs. I felt very uncomfortable there because everything just seemed to be a photo opportunity. In a place which I am sure has seen alot of death and suffering, this didn't seem right.
-Ben Thanh market: This is in the heart of Saigon, one of the biggest markets. At there market there is everything from food stalls, coffee beans, souvenirs, tailors, clothes, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, fish.... You name it, Ben Thanh has it.
-Water puppets: We went to a water puppets show last night. Water puppets is a traditional Vietnamese kind of theater. There is traditional singing and music which accompany the marionettes. It is a good look at Vietnamese tradition and culture.
-Motor bikes: Wow, I thought Phnom Penh had alot of traffic. Yeah right. Phnom Penh traffic is childs play compared to Saigon. It is completely mad. The number of motorbikes here is over the top. The streets are a continuous stream of bikes. Hiring a moto driver to go around town is an absolute must. A wild ride is an understatement!!!