We bought two baguettes and boarded the bus in Phnom Penh. The estimated travel time was 6 hours. I dreaded being on the bus for hours longer after I realized how slowly we were making our way out of the city. Leaving the border was a lot different than entering it. We crossed through into Vietnam and enjoyed the cheesiness of the movie "Armageddon" for the last 2 hours.
The bus dropped us at a park in the downtown area of Saigon and we were immediately greeted by a guest house owner who showed us our future accommodations. We walked through a hidden alley off the main road and it's almost like we were transported to another world. Just steps away, thousands of motorcycles roared by, honking and swerving and we were safe and sound in our relatively quiet house.
We went for Phở in the evening and explored our neighboring streets. To me, it's a little unnerving to be walking around in the street with motorcycles and cars honking and racing by. There really isn't another choice when the sidewalks are filled with food carts, vendors, and parked bikes. I'm just getting used to their money system, the dong. It's about 20,000 dong to $1.00. Baguettes and cream puffs are aplenty here as the colonization of Vietnam by France has deep roots here. A street above the alley lies a backpackers heaven. There are low-budget guest houses, cheap t-shirt shops, and food for around $2.00. We found a wonderful place to get beer in the evenings and usually only manage to spend around a dollar or so.
Our wonderful meal the first night in Ho Chi Minh
Yesterday, we visited the War Remnants Museum and saw, firsthand, how truly awful and unnecessary the violence from the Vietnam War was. There were US Army planes and helicopters, anti-war propaganda galleries, gruesome black and white pictures depicting the war from the Vietnamese point of view. For a moment, I was embarrassed for my country in that time period. On a lighter note, on our way to the museum we stopped in a park and had a seat to consult the map. A Vietnamese guy came up to us, bent down and told us he would clean our shoes. We both politely said no but thank you and he proceeded to take off my sandals. We both (more harshly) said no and asked him to stop. He didn't seem to care and began clean my sandals vigorously with a tooth brush. It was slightly irritating...okay, I was pissed. He wanted money in exchange for his services and I was really put off.
Outside at the museum, U.S. Army Tank
One of the anti-war propaganda posters from the museum
Cleaning my sandals
The locals are friendly, yelling "moto!" every couple of steps and offering directions to various hot spots. The unofficial mode of transportation here is definitely the motorcycle and it's surely not uncommon to see families of 4 zooming by. I had a good friend in college who is from Vietnam. Khanh currently lives in Seattle but has put me in touch with his family who lives north of Saigon on the coast. I hope I can meet them!
Bicycle filled with fruit on the sidewalk
Vietnamese coffee slowly dripping over condensed milk
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