Xin chao (pronounced sine jow) everyone! I'm going to try really hard to keep this brief as it's getting late and we're in an internet cafe. We have been in Saigon or HO Chi Minh City as it's known to most Americans. We arrrived here Monday morning on the train at 4:30 am and had a taxi bring us to a guesthouse just south of the backpacker district. Our room is sparse, no windows, but has aircon, is clean and only $12 per night. We slept a couple hours and then hit the town. It's been in the high 80's to low 90's with 85-90% humidity. Basically within 10 minutes of walking you're dripping and your clothes are sticking to you. We walked all over Central Saigon seeing a huge market, antique district, Notre Dame Cathedral, the French colonial style postoffice, parks, etc. We visited the Reunification Palace, now called Independence Palace which is basically where the American War (Vietnam War for us) ended; the War Remnants Museum which is mainly photographs depicting the atrocities of the war. This was incredibly fascinating and sad. We went to a beautiful pagoda as well. The traffic is absolutely crazy here - hundreds of scooters and motorcycles in the streets. The streets are wider than in Hanoi, so it takes more guts to just step out there and wade through it. We've taken a motor taxi a couple times. I really love them and think NYC should incorporate them - a much faster and cheaper way of getting around. For you NYers, figure taking a taxi from Houston Street to 14th Street and across town for less than $1!!! It's surprising there aren't more accidents though with how they drive.
Tuesday we hired a taxi for the day to take us NW of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple. The Cu Chi tunnels are where the Viet Cong built an underground tunnel system back in the 40's and expanded it during both the Frenc and American wars. It frustrated our army so much that they eventually carpet bombed the area. It's pretty touristy now, but about 3/4 of the way through we came upon a tunnel that we could crawl through with a guide. They've widened them and made them a bit higher for tourists, but we still had to walk through stooped over and even had to crawl at one point. The Cao Dai Temple is the craziest structures of architecture you've ever seen. Almost puts Gaudi in Barcelona to shame. This religion incorporates several different religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Confusionism. We got to see the end of a ceremony and then walked through the main temple.
Today, Wednesday, we went to Cholon which is the Chinatown district of Saigon. They have a huge market, which parts of it for us felt very similar to Canal street. They also have several beautiful pagodas that we visited. Very ornate places and coils of incense on hanging from the ceilings.
Tomorrow we leave for Cau Duc which is a border town in the Mekong Delta next to Cambodia. We'll take a 6 hour bus ride there, stay overnight and then take a boat up the Mekong River to Phonm Pehn, the captial city of Cambodia. The next day we'll make our way to Siem Reap where the temples of Ankgor Wat are.
Have I said how hot and sticky it is here? We do have similar weather in NYC, but we usually don't walk around all day in it wearing t-shirts and pants - usually shorts or skirts and tank tops. We have seen lots of people wearing tank tops and since it's more of a cosmopolitan city it's more accepted, so I did wear one yesterday. But you have to cover up your shoulders when going into pagodas and temples. But, we haven't melted yet! Still having delicious and cheap food everywhere we go - pho, Vietnamese sandwiches, fish and rice, chicken and rice, fruits, some veggies, sweets. Lynn absolutely loves the coffee with condensed milk - iced or hot.
So much for briefness! More in a few days - love you all!
