America, have you heard of it?

The title of this blog entry is dedicated to our Vietnamese friend, Pho, who worked at the hotel we stayed at. He always asked us where we were from and each time when we told him "the United States; America" his face remained dumbfounded without an ounce of recognition. He told us he had never heard of America, but he knew of Canada, Holland, and some other Asian countries. We did not fight the issue but have pondered how Pho has never heard of the country that occupied and fought a war here for over 15 years.

Ho Chi Minh City was our introduction to Vietnam and our host for the past four days. And let me tell you we did just about everything the city has to offer in 4 days.

When we arrived in Vietnam Jorie could not have been any more excited to see a bed, and she crawled in and crashed before the bellman of our hotel had even left our room. Once all the shrimp was out of Jorie's system (she is allergic to shrimp and it seems to be the secret ingredient in a lot of foods in Asia), she seemed to recover quickly from her 'death warmed over' state. I was thankful to have my travel buddy functioning again after having a taste of what traveling by myself would have been like- one night of eating and exploring alone was enough for me.

Monday we spent the day exploring the city and all its major attractions. Ho Chi Minh does not have public transportation options (like Bangkok), so we tried to venture by foot hoping to be back in our European ways. Well walking around Saigon (downtown Ho Chi Minh) is nothing like walking around a European city; there are two major differences: the heat and the traffic.

The heat in Ho Chi Minh is outrageous- walking outside is like walking into the oven but with humidity that soaks you. Our hair didn't even have time to dry from the shower before it was soaked with sweat.

As far as the traffic, its utter chaos! I am sure you all have at one point or another participated in guessing how many jellybeans were in a massive jar... Well when traffic is stopped, the street resembles the massive jar of jellybeans with some random candy bars mixed in (jellybeans representing motor bikes and the candy bars as cars and buses). It is wall to wall people on motor bikes. Then throw that massive jar of jelly beans on the ground and that is what the moving traffic is like... There are 5.2 million motor bikes within Saigon and each motor bike commonly has more than 2 people on it. I saw a motor bike with 7 people riding on it, one big happy family all balancing on 2 wheels. Kids often stand on the front area or are sandwiched between adults. When the motor bikes aren't transporting tons of people, they have tons of stuff on them. We saw one man with about 10 plastic tables balancing on the back of his bike and he even had one around his neck. The motor bikes weave through traffic, go up on the sidewalks when they are feeling impatient, and go in whatever direction they feel inclined to. A honk is a warning system on the streets and flashing light's communicate that "you better move because I am not slowing down". There is no break in traffic, so waiting for an opening to cross the street, well that's not going to happen. So crossing the street is terrifying, it is a massive game of chicken where you feel the exhaust of the motor bikes burning your leg as they go by and the wind created by them whizzing by. Jorie and I always try to find a local to cross with, but even still screaming and holding hands for dear life seems to be in the cards for the major intersections.


Some other random cultural things we have noticed.... Vietnam is no where near as developed as Thailand, but is ahead of Cambodia.... The dong is like monopoly money and has proven to be our hardest currency to convert with 21,000 dong to the dollar.... A lot of the motor bikers wear face masks, and they even sell designer ones... Backstreet Boys and other 90's teeny bopper music is still in over here... Even adults like the Disney channel.... They eat everything here- cockroaches, every part of whatever animal, tons of fish, etc.... The smells here are overwhelming and often nauseating... Maps are not southeast Asia's strength, and the people have no clue how to read a map or even where things are... However, they have good spacial awareness to ride motor bikes practically on top of each other... It's too hot to be outside during the day, so the parks are packed at night- the locals love to play badminton, do an asian form of zumba and an asian version of hacky-sack....And in general the Vietnamese people seem so happy and jovial!

So now to what we have been up to over the past few days....

Monday and Thursday we spent learning how to play chicken with the traffic and seeing the major sights of Saigon. We walked to the famous Norte Dam Cathedral, which was beautiful but didn't compare to European churches. The famous post office was not too exciting but offered us a cool break. The War Museum was incredibly powerful and depressing. Feeling rather ignorant to the Vietnam War, known here as the American War, we learned a great deal about the torture, hardship, distraction and the ever lasting effects of agent orange. The more we learned the more we were disturbed and frustrated by the war that inflicted so much pain on so many people.

The Jade Emperor's Pagoda is another sight that looked better in the guide book than in real life, but we did get to see lots of turtles there. We wandered the zoo and botanical gardens but the heat was draining. The fine arts museum had a lot of potential but after Europe's art museums it was hard to compare. We of course enjoyed window shopping but found the major market to be an unbearable inferno.

Tuesday we took a tour to the Mekong Delta which is about two hours from the city. The Mekong Delta is a massive area that is known as the rice bowl of Asia due to it being the second largest producer of rice. The area has 9 strains of the Mekong river flowing through it and then hundreds of streams connecting them. The water is extremely murky and brown, but is highly productive. We took a big boat down one of the major tributaries with floating scrap metal houses and muddy banks with settlements. We also took a small 4 person boat up a palm covered and jungle banked stream. Immersing ourselves as much as possible in the experience we bought the traditional Vietnamese cone hats to protect us from the sun. We had a traditional lunch on the river bank, learned how coconut candy is made by a local family, sipped honey lemon tea in the jungle, and even listened to a local folk band. It was worthwhile to see how the people live in this region of the world.

Wednesday we took a tour to Cao Dai Holy See Temple and to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cao Dai Holy See is the birth place of the Cao Dai religion which was created in the late 1800's and is a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity. There are about 3 million followers in Vietnam and a large portion of which practice at this temple. The temple is 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh, so it was a long trek to see it. The building is extremely colorful with dragons and eye sculptures covering the mixed European and Asian style architecture. Feeling like intruders we watched some of their afternoon prayer service where all members dress in white and file into the service in a hierarchy way. The service seemed to be a series of bowing mediation to singing and chants.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are a massive spiderweb of underground tunnels reaching father than 6 meters deep. The Cu Chi guerillas built the massive underground world during the war to both protect their families and fight the Americans. The tunnel entrances are impossible to see without knowing about them- often they were a 1x 1 foot hole covered with a wood door. I barely made it past the entrance before claustrophobia set in and I went above ground. Jorie managed to go down into the first two level of tunnels, but after about 50 feet her back was tired and she came up. With people shooting war time guns at the complex shooting range it was eerie to see the series of booby traps with sharp points meant to slice the enemy in half. Seeing the conditions war creates to make people act so inhumanly towards each other was a harsh reality.

Now we are off to central Vietnam and we are hoping for some cooler weather!