Day #1

Well, I’m here! Saigon is pretty cool o far, although getting here was a huge pain in the ass. I was late leaving Chicago, and then we had to made a detour and stop in Beijing to re-fuel due to weather in the Pacific. This caused a 15 hour flight to be more like 19 hours. Then I had to sprint to get into the connecting flight, because it was leaving about 10 minutes after my first flight landed. I made it! Unfortunately we sat in the runway for over an hour, so my sprint, while necessary, seemed like a huge waste.

Anyway, I am here, and digging HCMC (Ho Chi Mihn City). I saw the “American War” Museum, which was cool, but crazy bias, and totally against the US. It was just a monument to anti American propaganda. Then I saw Independence Palace, which is where the communist regime set up after the US left. After this I just kind of walked around. The Architecture is kind of cool; its Asia meets France, which makes sense. Everything kind of reminds me of Chengdu. It has some big buildings, and a lot of commerce, but it isn’t as western as the east coast of China….which is obviously kind of cool.

As I walked I took a break, and ended up meeting this local guy named Hi. He introduced me to his friends, and after chatting for a few minutes they invited me to play a card game with them. It was called Tien Len... or so I think, it was hard to understand. The game goes in a circle, where you put a poker hand down and it goes around the circle seeing if anyone has the same hand (pair, triples, straight of any number of cards greater than three, single card) but a higher version of it. If no one does, you can put down another hand. First to get rid of his cards wins. The odd thing was that if you only a put single card, a 2 is the highest don’t ask me why, but those are the rules. Anyway, it was really fun, and something I’ll being back with me.

The traffic is nuts! There are no signs, much like china its all a big jumble. You take your life in your hands every time you cross the street, so I hope I don’t die I guess…..it really isn’t safe.

As for the food, its cheap! I had lunch for $.40, but as a big fat American it was a little small. It also was kind of plain. Just noodles in a broth with a leafy green vegetable. Nothing else in the soup. I could have used variety. So, for about $1 I went to another place 3 or 4 hours later and had some rice noodles with all sorts of crap in there. I think I’m going to lose a ton of wet, because all the food is so health. Where are the hot dogs? I’m also walking a ton, so the 219lbs I left at should come down quite a bit.

Tomorrow I have a half day here in Saigon, and then I head to Hoi An for 2 nights, so that should be much smaller, slower, and authentic.