Just when you think it can’t get any better, it does! We arrived very tired in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) after a 16 hour bus trip from Siem Reap. There is nothing better to wake you up than this city! With a population of 7 million (9 million people in the city at any given time with business people and tourists) and 4 million scooters on the road, this city is the epitome of chaos! We had been given a good hotel recommendation while in Thailand, so we booked in for four nights at the Duc Vuong Hotel. We have never stayed at a friendlier place and we got free breakfast and “family dinners” each day. Also, every Sunday they have a “Family Party” for all guests. We luckily were there on a Sunday so we were able to attend the party. It was by far the funniest thing we have ever seen! There was a lot of bad karaoke and dancing which made for an eventful night. It’s as if the Asian people get high as soon as the karaoke machine gets fired up. They turn into superstars who clearly watch waaaayyyy too much MTV. They were pulling out provocative Britney Spears-type dance moves and loved being in the spotlight. It was as if they were performing to a crowd of 100,000 in a huge stadium. As per usual, the volume of the karaoke was also at that level. This night was one of our highlights so far and we have videos to watch if we ever feel like we need to smile or have a good laugh.
We spent one day at the Cu Chi Tunnels where we learned all about the war and much of Vietnam’s history. There remain over 200km of underground tunnels that were built during the war to protect the Vietnamese people from the invading Americans. It became evident how clever these people were/are, as they made various traps out of bamboo and other homemade weapons. Their best defense in our opinions, were the tunnels themselves as they were made to only fit the Vietnamese. Believe us, there is no way an American could ever fit inside these things! One tunnel has been widened for Western tourists to experience, but even that was claustrophobically small.
We spent the other days touring around the city and although Saigon is easily seen on foot, the heat was too much for us. Even with the bit of walking we did, we were dripping with sweat within the first 2 minutes and had little energy to go any further. We decided then, we needed to find another way to see the city. Vietnam is the only place in the world that still uses cyclos as a type of transport. A cyclo is essentially a rickshaw, but instead of being pulled behind the bicycle you sit in the front. We were approached by an older man and although we declined at first, his charm got the best of us and before we knew it, we were cruising amongst the 4 million scooters on a cyclo. Mr. Hieu was a sweet man from Mekong Delta. He moved to the city to drive a cyclo and we later found out that this was also his home. He whisked us around all day in the sweltering heat and spoke descent English. We had a great day seeing the sights, although had a few scary moments when we found ourselves on the highway! We visited many markets and temples, but the best part of the day was when we took Mr. Hieu out for a couple of beer. We chatted more and learned about his family, his village and his life in the Mekong Delta. We have come to realize that it’s the experiences like this that we cherish the most on our travels. Before parting ways with Mr. Hieu, he wanted us to write a note in his “book of friends”. He was so grateful, as were we to meet him and spend the day with him. The next morning we were walking down the street and all we could see what this orange baseball hat running towards us and waving. It was Mr. Hieu! He was so excited to see us, as we were him. We went for a couple of more drinks and he took us to one of his friends “bars”, where we shared some Saigon beer with 4 old Vietnamese men! Mr. Hieu’s friend was a shoemaker by day and a barman by night. As he says “Mr. Shoeman in the day, sell beer in the night”. We had a lot of laughs and stumbled home talking about the funny things that had happened.
One other highlight of our time in Saigon was our quest to find the most impressive motorbike. For those of you who have been to the city or have seen pictures; you know this is no easy feat! They carry everything on their scooters, but we wanted to spot “the best”. While we still don’t think we’ve seen the best yet, I’ll summarize just a few items that have made our shortlist:
• A fridge. The driver had the fridge strapped to his body and to the scooter. If it went down, he was going with it!
• A kitchen table and chairs
• A variety of animals- ducks, dogs, pigs, rats, etc.
• A bamboo ladder. If you picture a typical extension ladder that one would have in their shed, multiply its length by two and you would get this ladder. The best part of it was that he wasn’t carrying it length-wise, but width-wise. It took up at least 2 lanes of traffic.
• Tractor tires. Wrapped around their bodies while driving, obviously.
• Flat screen TV
• Toilet paper. We still haven’t quite figured this one out because they don’t really use toilet paper here, but we saw many scooters with a block (2 metres high by 1 metre wide) of toilet paper.
We haven’t even mentioned the number of people they fit on a scooter yet. We thought for the first couple of days that the record was five…we were wrong. We saw six! We got way too excited when we saw them fly by, but we knew then that we had a new record. I’ll try to explain how it worked. There were two adults (assuming they were the Mom and Dad) and four kids. One kid stood in the front and held onto the speedometer area. The Dad drove, two other children sat between Dad and Mom (who was on the back) and Mom held a newborn baby in front of her (essentially sitting on the other children’s laps)! It is hard to explain, but hopefully you can get the picture. The kids were all suited up with their shades and their face masks on and cruised by as if it was a normal occurrence…which is obviously is. Who needs a minivan when you can all fit on a scooter? We tried to snap a few shots but they were always driving too fast. We also got a scare when we saw a few tourists get their cameras snatched right out of their hands or off their bodies, so we kept our camera hidden for a lot of the time.
All in all, we loved Ho Chi Minh City. It is definitely at the top of our list in terms of cities we have visited around the world. The chaos and the people seem to work so well together which makes for a very exciting couple of days! We are now off to the highlands where we will check out the mountains and countryside in Dalat for a couple of days. We then plan to head back out to the coast to veg on the beach for a break from sightseeing and touring around.
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