ho chi minh city

Arrived in HCMC in the sweltering heat. On the journey I hooked up with a girl from Windsor and shared a room together to cut costs. Nothing more. My first impressions of Saigon (the locals still call it so) didn't match my expectations. It hasn't got the hustle and bustle of its northern counterpart, Hanoi. It's busy but didn't appear to have the same frenzy of Hanoi. The streets are wide, the city itself nicely laid out, and it feels spacious. There are just as many crazy moped drivers, steering through the traffic with suicidal abandon but it never seemed to reach the same concentration as Hanoi. By my estimation, that's over five bikes per square metre. Then one must consider how many people are on the bike. Driver, wife, kid, grandma. Possibly a chicken hanging by its legs off the handle bar too.

I was expecting more from the place. Maybe it was the company!! More on that later. There were many things to see and do. Visit the chilling war museum. A place where they aren't afraid to show horrifying photo's of napalm victims, kids disfigured by agent orange and mutilated bodies of villagers murdered by rampaging GI's. There is the Unification Palace (formerly the Presidential Palace of the puppet government of South Vietnam) where the NVA tanks crashed through to mark the end of the war. There are many beautiful churches and temples. Plus peppered throughout the city are the remnants of French Indo-Chinese architecture and some are very impressive.

The Chu Chi tunnels were a highlight. A complex of 260 km of underground tunnels built by generations of Vietnamese resistance fighters. It reached its height of fighting effectiveness against the Yanks. I crawled through a 100 metre stretch and it was quite scary when the women in front on me started freaking out after only a few metres in the cramped, dark passage. These tunnels (enlarged for westerns) are still tight and I was fearful she would rush at me toward the nearest exit. The trouble being that there was no way she could pass me without me turning around and pushing against the twenty or so people behind me. In a way, she ruined it for me. I had always tried to imagine what it was like for these subterrean fighters. One of the first books I ever read was called 'the tunnel rats" and I was about 11 years of age. It intrigued me. Instead rather than try to envisage all those people who lived down there, I was just panicky about what the freak in front me of me would do next. Maybe this explains why I bought two dozen bullets for my AK-47 on the shooting range later on!

At least the beer was nice and cheap in Saigon. The most popular places are the pavement cafes where you can gulp beer and exhaust fumes at the same time. Everyday, beering. Oh, my company......this lady had some hang up's. One time I offered to carry her backsack up four flights of stairs but she refused. Then went on and on about being an independent woman!! Then she told me she had a hatred of everything fish. Looking at them, smelling them, eating them, swimming with them and so on. There is actually a phobia, look it up. The worse of all was when she ordered a 'Pho Bo' which is a beef noodle soup and complained bitterly of it tasting of beef. I figured it best to lose her as soon as possible.

Then I met larry, a Hong Kong-Canadian bloke, which was good timing. The next day I was to take the Mekong tour for three days with the end point in Cambodia. I really enjoyed this journey. It was like I was looking for Marlon Brando heading up the delta. The landscape is lush and beautiful. One night, we stayed in some bamboo, wooden houses beside the river and watched the world go by. There were lot of other nice people on this tour too. Beer and good company. It was a very pleasant way to end my Vietnam visit.