Saigon II

Saigon is a nice city, one we could call home for a little while if given the oppportunity. The scooters are intense. Previously I thought a lot of people rode scooters in Korea, more in Thailand and even more in Cambodia, but nothing remotely prepared me for this city. Imagine a the crowds in Times Square celebrating New Years Eve, now put them all on scooters and beat up old Russian motorcylces, a lucky few on newer model Japanese bikes. Then put them in motion, all at different speeds surging through the city, tides to some unseen force. Crossing the street in such mayhem can be a tricky deal. Some suggest praying. Sometimes a kind communist police officer, clad in green, is there to play Moses, blow his whistle and part the sea. Most of the time you're on your own. Intuition says flee across each street and intersection for your life, but this confuses the drivers causing them to slam on their brakes and dodge you. Walking slowly facing into traffic, sorta like fording a river, seems to work fine, although some seem to brush past you like the water in the analogy.

Everywhere we went we stood out as people who seemed to need lift on a moto or cyclo. Guys followed us yelling which vehicle they had, until the 27th "no,thanks" at which point they preyed on some other fellow walking the other way. At times we'd be eating at a streetside table and someone would come over and try to convince us that we needed their help in touring the city. "very cheap!" they'd say. What seemed to convince them best was to grab a hold of my belly and say I'm too fat. I need exercise. They'd laugh and agree and walk away. What sucks is that a lot of the cyclo guys are disenfranchised intellectuals who chose the losing side in the American War. The government cut short their careers, sent them to reeducation camps and now they're forced to earn a living peddling the streets. And we really did want to walk.

We did the tourist things like walking to the Reunification Palace (reunified with boredom) Benh Than market (not as cool as I was expecting) and around the river area (expensive and hip). We had beer in the Continental, we had too, and almost had one in the Rex Hotel but couldn't find a nice enough table to justify the price. (On coming out I was horrified to think I wouldn't spend 2.50$ for a bottle of beer on a rooftop garden terrace, but 37,000 dong seems just so expensive when the going price is 10,000) We went to the Cu Chi tunnels where we watched a one-sided presentation on how the Americans came in and sundered a peaceful way of life, while slaughtering innocent civilians, which is probably more or less true. But it was still a little over-the-top considering the gloating murals of GI stepping in nasty traps of spikes. (pictures to come)