Today was our first full day in Vietnam. We had arranged a half day city tour, and our guides name was Nguy (pronounced Gee), but he said to call him Willie. He was an interpreter for the American soldiers during the Vietnam war and that's what the soldiers called him.
Our hotel is right on the Saigon River in a very beautiful district. It's very safe here and it has lots of shopping nearby. Willie picked us up at 8am and took us to the Chinese market in the Chinese section of town. It's a wholesale market. Everything we're going to see in the stores later this year, I saw today. It was very cheap but we didn't shop much because we were off to...
The War Remenant Museum. It's basically a big propoganda museum set up after the fall of Saigon by the communists, giving the communinst side of the Vietnam war. Since then, it has been edited to make it a little more friendly to the American tourists. It was very moving. The war is still very much a part of the peoples lives here, and everywhere you look, you are reminded of it. We couldn't stay long, though, because we were going next to ....
The Reunification Palace. This used to be the home of the president of Vietnam but the capitol was moved someplace else further south (I don't remember where- it will come to me later). Lots of history and rooms with furniture(yawn). By now it was 600 degrees outside and I was having a hard time caring. And then we got to go to the car with the wonderful air conditioning and our warm bottles of water, and went to the ....
Handicapped Handcrafts Market. It's a local craft marketplace where people injured by the war practice local crafts. Our course, we were all feeling guilty about the war, so we bought lots of stuff. Some of it is quite extrordinary, and some of it was just stuff. They have no air conditioning there, either, and I was ready to go back to the hotel, but wait, there's more....
Next stop, the Ben Thanh Market. Much more open than the Russian Market in Phnom Pehn, but still, it's not air conditioned and it's almost 1pm. My clothes were sticking to me by now, but we kept crawling through markets, with Willie showing us great places to eat that I couldn't find on my own if my life depended on it, and great bargains. If you wanted it, it was there. From fine silk and wedding dresses to ready made clothes to dried shark fins, loose gems, "Rolex" watches, snake wine. Whatever you wanted. I bought some snake wine, because I didn't think anyone would believe me when I told them about it. It's Vietnamese viagra. I hope I can get it through customs.
Finally back to the hotel, where we peeled off our wet, stinky clothes and burned them. No not really. I rolled mine in a ball and put it into my stinky suitcase. We leave tomorrow and will probably stroll the streets this evening after it's cooler, and look in shop windows. I hope we can find a restaurant where I know what I'm ordering. The food is great, but I'm ready for macaroni and cheese. Or meatloaf. Or mashed potatoes. Anything but rice!
