HCMC Day 2 - And the hits keep on coming...

Well after a suprisingly good night of sleep, I decide to go out on my own and see HCMC. I just don't feel like meeting Gib today. I'll phone her when I get back and see if she can take me back to Ba Ba for a bowl of Pho and a couple beers.

There weren't a lot of items on my schedule to see in Saigon. I wanted to see the reunification palace and the war remnants museum and just see the buzz on the streets. Well, the buzz was constant because of all the motorcycles and scooters, I hailed a taxi to take me to the reunification palace. I had plenty of offers from people to take me on their motorcycle, but after wiping out on a scooter in college (and having to pick rocks out of my back side) and fear of having my back pack pulled away, the taxi was the best and quite a quick option.

The reunification palace:
 

I guess I was expecting more when I decided to tour the reunification palace. The building was the home of President Ngo Dinh Diem during the war and was breached in April of 1975 by Northern Vietnamese tanks. Replicas of the tanks are on the grounds of the palace.

During my tour, the large front lawn of the palace was being set up for some type of concert and plenty of musicians and technicians were around doing sound and light checks.

The palace itself was certainly frozen in time. The building was completed in 1966 and reminded me of some of the 60's era buildings on the UW-Madison campus. Access was only granted to certain areas of the building, but you were able to go on all floors, the roof, and the basement where they housed a small museum. The museum was interesting because it did house the flag that flew as the North Vietnamese were storming the palace and the flag that replaced it.

As a history buff, it was interesting to see the perspective of the Vietnamese in this museum. In the museum, you saw the perspective of a country struggling to unify in the wake of French and later American occupation. Among photos taken of significant events during the war, were quotes of Ho Chi Minh and other leaders of the Vietnamese Workers Party. After touring the entire building, I was a bit tired and with the eye issues, needed a rest. I walked out the gates of the palace and decided on my next destination.

Cyclo Fun:

A cyclo is a three wheeled taxi where the passenger sits in the front and the driver is behind. The cyclo can either be motorized through the cannabilazation of a motorcycle or person powered by using a bicycle. I was walking down the street trying to get my bearings and find the war remnants museum when I was approached by a motorcycle driver who offered to take me all around. I wasn't getting on a motorcycle. Not safe enough for me.

As I walked a cyclo driver approached and said he's take me on a tour of the city. I agreed and hopped in the seat making sure to secure my backpack around my leg to prevent theft. The tour was fine, but I screwed up. I forgot to negotiate where we were going to go, how long the tour would be, and most importantly, the cost. I was pissed at my self that I would let this happen and should have stopped and negotiated before going any further. I knew better having traveled in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Cambodia) and my own stupidity would be my undoing here.

No Cyclo fun:

After the tour, the cyclo driver took me to the central market, about a block away from the hotel. Here's where my own stupidity could have avoided the situation. Normally, no that's not right, always when you use these types of services (same as taking a tuk tuk in Thailand), you pre-negotiate cost and destinations. I negotiated destinations and figured that cost would be negligible. Imagine my complete and utter shock when the driver asked for $120 USD. No that's no missprint $120 f'n US dollars. Not being a stranger to negotiating in Asia I decided to see if I could get this down as there was no was in hell I would pay that. I countered with $50, a reasonable fare for his time and effort. He said that he had to work hard as I was very big; I couldn't disagree with that fact and I knew that he did work his ass off taking me around. I cursed at myself endlessly for being so stupid. I could have easily avoided this.

I countered again that $120 was a lot of money and that I would settle for $100 even. $105 was finally agreed upon with me cursing at myself the entire time. The driver was just doing what he had to do. I couldn't begrudge his greed. I should have negotiated the total cost before we started, but being tired and just wanting to cool down stopped me from thinking. I lost another round to the scam artist and was really annoyed with myself.

Ouch:

After getting gouged (I have another word that I'd like to use, but will keep this moderately clean) by the cyclo driver, all I wanted to do was get away from the driver and walk around the market. According to the guidebook I had, if you walk a measured pace across the street, motorcycles and scooters will go around you. Bullshit! I had a motorcycle run right into me. The guy was pissed off and I didn't have much to say except a muted 'sorry' as I go out of the way. Thankfully, no one was injured (well, my pride was) and I was able to laugh it off soon enough.

On to the market:

There was one item that I really wanted to find in Vietnam: snake wine. Snake wine is rice wine with yes you guessed it, a snake in the bottle. There are a bunch of other herbs in the bottle as well and apparently the wine is used for medicinal purposes. I just wanted the bottle for conversation purposes. I walked around the market for about five minutes and came up to a stand that had exactly what I was looking for. Bottle upon bottle were there of all sizes, some with a cobra in it, others with scorpions and if I recall, spiders too. I was after the bottle with the cobra though. Thoughts went through my head on what customs would say when they saw the bottle. I didn't care. I had to have it just to say, "I've got a bottle of rice wine with a dead cobra in it." I know. Completely childish, but still I made a mental note of the stand's location and decided to make my big purchase the next day.

 


Fee fie Pho

I called Gib and after apologising for blowing her off told her that I wanted to go back to the bar and have a good meal and a couple beers. All I wanted wass a bowl of Pho. Pho is a soup consisting of noodles, vegetables, and meat. It could be really anything (beef, pork, chicken, seafood), but I decided on beef and was not dissapointed.
 


When I was in HCMC the Southeast Asian games were taking place in the Phillipines. That night the city was all abuzz because Vietnam and Malaysia were playing a soccer match. I've seen a country shutdown before due to a soccer match. In 2001, I was in Dublin when they played a world cup qualifying match. The bars were packed and the country lost an entire afternoon's productivity.

The football match was at night so, not much productivity would be lost. Vietnam won the match and everyone went wild. Driving up and down the street on scooters with Vietnamese flags flapping behind; yelling, cheering, just celebrating a win and a finals matchup with Thailand.

After hanging out for a couple hours I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. I was going to the Cu Chi tunnels and wanted to get an early start. Problem was, everyone in HCMC was celebrating the football win and traffic was not moving. Imagine hundreds, no, thousdands of people on scooters and motorcycles beeping their horns in celebration. Absolutely insane. I got to about a block from the hotel and walked from there.

Outside my hotel room window 


 


My eye was still feeling pretty bad and I resorted to putting ice on it for relief. I was too stubborn to admit it, but I needed to see a doctor. I was going to have to cut my trip short and go back to Bangkok and see how the medical facilities were. I needed to get out of Vietnam.