Ho Chi Minh is a fun place to be. There's really nothing like it -- crossing the street is a dance with death, a tense tengo with the thousands of motorcycles that take the place of public transportation. I stayed at my friend Tu's place, which has a gorgeous view of her neighborhood.
And there's a market right outside where she lives! So cool. Stepping foot out of her house, you have no choice -- life just bursts forth in front of you. I love it.
Tu had to go to work in the morning, so her work friend was kind enough to show me where the Notre Dame Cathedral was. From there, I spent the day wandering in the area, appreciating the pretty French-ness of the Post Office and the city hall courtyard. I also bought a fabric painting from a streetside vendor off an impulse; it reminded me of the video for M. Ward's Chinese Translation, a song that brings me much joy. Stepping back, it was all a bit strange, going from SEALNet mode to lonely tourist mode in less than 24 hours. But while it was a bit lonely walking through foreign streets, such feelings were tempered by good ol' fashioned curiosity in what Ho Chi Minh had in its warm wings.
Later I met up with Tu again to have lunch near the Ben Thanh market, where we caught up a bit on each other's lives and SEALNet. Once we finished lunch she dropped me off at the War Remnants Museum, which is dedicated to the Vietnam War and its aftermath. It was a really moving experience just walking through the Agent Orange (AO) exhibits; it's hard to believe that a single toxin can do such terrible things to human beings.
After the museum I took whatever energy I had left and moseyed on over to the Reunification Palace, where I'm told the president used to live during the American occupation. It's pretty well-preserved -- a slice of 60's American tastes and tendencies smack-dab in the thick of Ho Chi Minh. But by the time I got there I was pretty exhausted from the day's wanderings, so I took a quick peek around and had a siesta in a nearby cafe.
I had to get up sometime though, so I decided to head back to the Ben Thanh market just to say I had walked through it. No lie -- this place has everything: veggies, meat, clothes, ceramics, all the gifts/potential souveneirs you can think of. Alas, I didn't have space in my luggage for some take-homes, so I decided to jet and wander around the surrounding area.
With the help of a kind (or pitying, dunno which) Vietnamese lady, I managed to cross the turnaround of death twice (!!) and did my fair share of people-watching. The nice thing about Ho Chi Minh is that there are lots of open spaces (parks, courtyards, etc.) to break up the craziness of the urban landscape. So for every couple of hundred motorcycles, there's a bunch of people dancing it up in a park.
But by then it was getting kind of dark, so I caught a taxi back to Tu's workplace. Unfortunately it was a private company (my hypothesis), so I was ripped off major -- the fare was about VND 880,000, but I managed to only pay VND 500-600k. Still, that left me virtually broke. With my tail between my legs I holed up in a nearby yogurt place till Tu came to fetch me.
We then went over to a classy joint called Serendra, where we listened to 80's Vietnamese ballads. It reminded me of the cheesy but uber-romantic Original Pilipino Music (OPM) ballads that I grew up with. Afterwards we took a taxi to find some Vietnamese sandwiches (neither of us had had dinner at that point) and then headed back to her place to get some rest. In the morning Tu took me around a few coffee shops before seeing me off to the airport for my flight to Hanoi.
I really enjoyed my brief time as a tourist in Ho Chi Minh. While I had to learn a few lessons the hard way, it was fun proving to myself that I could make it through a day in Vietnam alone (beyond that, who knows :P ) I miss Ho Chi Minh already and hope to be able to come back someday; perhaps SEALNet will allow me that chance in the future...
