Whirlwind

Day 372
We were up early and packed quickly. Despite this we still needed to hurry and almost missed our bus. Our time in Vietnam was drawing to a close. Our next stop, Can Tho, would be our last real stop here.

After another posh bus ride we arrived in Can Tho. It was really hot and the room we got was way up on the 5th floor. I pretty much collapsed as Nicole kindly took care of all the plans for the next day. The aircon we paid extra for never seemed to kick in and I thought that I might melt.

We had dinner at our hotel and I ordered the crab. I was happy to see that they pulled it out of a tank. For those who may not know it, I grew up in Maryland and in Maryland you eat Chesapeake Bay crabs whenever possible in the largest quantities possible. We steam them alive with loads of Old Bay spice. It's just heaven. Here I was getting one beer steamed crab. It was on the very large and heavy side though. Still, I knew that one would never fill me up. When it arrived I took my time tearing it apart and making sure I got all of the meat, just as my mom taught me when I was a kid. It was pretty good too, but nothing is as good as a Chesapeake Bay blue!

I was still hungry so we went to a place that our guidebooks recommended. I got a second dinner and Nicole ordered some beer. After sitting there for a bit we checked out a very odd looking Ho Chi Mihn statue as we wandered back along the Mekong. I didn't really want to stay out late so I headed back up to the room when we got back to our hotel. Nicole decided to stay downstairs and have another drink. Apparently a dirty man squatted down on the sidewalk and didn't take his eyes off of her. She thinks that if she had anywhere to go besides just upstairs he would have followed her. I'm glad that she didn't decide to just stay at the place that I had had my second dinner at.

Remnants

Day 371
We were actually meant to leave today, but decided to be lazy and stick around. HBO ruined it all really. We spent most of the morning watching tv. When we did go out we went right next door to a place with movies. We got stuck there for ages.

By the time we left we had no choice but to take a cab to the last museum that had been on our list, the War Remnants Museum. This was the last thing I planned to do on this topic and I was only going here because it was so highly recommended in Lonely Planet.

The biggest room was lined with people who were said to be victims of Agent Orange. It was basically lots of people with a range of different deformities. This was sad and hard to look at, but I'm sure that not every deformity in Vietnam is the fault of Agent Orange as the information suggested. The second part of the museum was about the prisons. The conditions were appalling and many were tortured. The information did point out that the guards were all South Vietnamese, not Americans.

The last room we got to (it closed on us) was about protests around the world. A large section focuses on big protests in Washington and California. At least the end of the museum was a bit more interesting and redeeming than the beginning.

We really didn't need another night out so we headed to the place with the nice movie room for dinner. We stayed there for Twilight and Confessions of a Shopaholic. When the movies were over we went back to our hotel and called it a night.

St. Paddies

Day 370
Nicole headed off early and I stayed in bed. She was headed to the Chi Chi tunnels and I had no desire to see them. I spent an easy morning eating and then watching tv.

Nicole came back for a late lunch and we had plans to visit the last museum on our list afterwards. We went to a curry place and just dawdled too long there. We ran out of time and the museum closed. Instead we went back to our hotel room, it was St. Patrick's day after all and we had a party to rest up for. Last year I was in Portsmouth and there wasn't anything going on. This year I wanted to make sure I found something fun to do.

After a late dinner we went to the place we had been to the night before. There are a few Irish pubs in Saigon, but they are quite a ways from our hotel. The place we picked had been putting up decorations the night before and was in the middle of the backpacker area. We knew it would be good. I just wish that we could have gotten some green beer! The place was packed and there was exhaling room only inside. Nicole stayed inside dancing while I chatted with Michael and some Belgian friends of his outside. There were some people milling around trying to sell things to the people outside. One was a little girl who couldn't have been ten who I watched take a cyclo all by herself. She was selling flowers.

For all my talk about a late night I still went back before Nicole. I'm glad that we picked a place so close to our hotel, that way she couldn't get lost!

Enough Already

Day 369
I was up at 7 and made a mad dash to the Indian Embassy. It had moved so I had to go a few more blocks further away. Once I was there a rather rude man told me that not only did I have to pay in US dollars (I asked where the closest bank was and he replied on the street) but that it would take 5 business days for it to process. I wouldn't be staying in Saigon that long so I decided to just take care of it in Bangkok.

By the time I got back to the hotel I was a sweaty mess. After showering it was lunch time and the two of us picked a place that both of our books had recommended. We did make the mistake of sitting on the street though. Every two minutes a different person would come up and try to sell us something, there were books, sunglasses (we were both already wearing a pair) and newspapers. We bought a newspaper. There was an English guy sitting at a table behind us and he yelled at his waiter when it was suggested that he keep a better hold on his bag. He then came over and said to Nicole "your a pretty girl." Before she could answer he said "you must be English because you can't take a f*cking compliment, f*ck you!" and stomped back to his table. We both laughed, but it was really strange. A few minutes later he then came over and asked if he could join us as he hadn't spoken English in a while. We declined.

Our activity of the day was a visit to the Reunification Palace. This was a big government building that a tank had driven into in the 1970's. It's hideous 70's decor had been kept as is since then to commemorate Vietnam's reunification, hence the name. I guess I should explain why Vietnam was divided in the first place. Vietnam had been a French colony and when the colonization ended the North and South wanted different types of governments. The north wanted communism. The compromise was to divide the country for 2 or 3 years (I can't remember) while they worked out a compromise. In the meantime the government in South Vietnam asked for help from America to take over North Vietnam.

The building was ugly, apparently the French original had burnt down. We wandered from room to room taking pictures. In the basement there were a few rooms with info on the Vietnam War. I'm getting really sick of this because such a biased opinion is told. I understand that I am in Vietnam, but they really shouldn't act like American just one day decided to bomb the crap out of Vietnam for the fun of it. The last bit was a movie about you can guess what. I wasn't into it and told Nicole that I would meet her back at the hotel.

It only took me about 15 minutes to walk back. When I got there I spent some time on the internet before heading upstairs for a shower. About an hour or so later I realized that Nicole wasn't back yet and that it was pouring down rain. In fact, Nicole didn't come back for another hour and a half and she was soaked through when she did returned. Apparently she had gotten really lost and then stuck in the rain. She had walked way into some suburb and kept getting either no help or bad directions when she asked. Eventually she just got a cab back. Nicole is a country person and finds big busy cities to be a bit overwhelming. She made me promise to never leave her alone again in a big city.

That night for dinner we went to a place that does bbq right at your table. We ordered the goat and wild pig but never figured out which was which. It was all good though. After dinner we found a bar recommended in Nicole's book. It was empty at first and we played several games of connect four. Eventually we ended up meeting a German guy named Michael and another English guy whose name I don't remember. After a few drinks we headed home.

Next!

Day 368
We were up early and not really feeling our best. Downstairs the restaurant was really disorganized. Nicole's breakfast never came and we just barley had our lunches made in time to get on the bus. When we got to the bus station Nicole went to grab us seats while I put the bags on the bus. I was then told that it was the wrong bus and I took them off and went to get her. As Nicole was getting off of the bus we were told that it was the right one and to get back on. Very confusing.

The bus was really nice and we both slept for most of the ride. We arrived to Ho Chi Mihn City, Saigon to the locals, in the late afternoon. It was my turn to do the hotel room checks and after looking at a few we conceded that there just wasn't any really cheap place to stay that had HBO. Once we had moved in and taken showers we quickly headed out for dinner. We were on a bit of a time crunch. For dinner we had a really yummy Sunday roast, Nicole had been craving it and I was along for the ride.

On the way back to the hotel we picked up some snacks from the 999 mart. We made it back just in time for Sweeney Todd to begin on tv. It was just as good as we had expected. We spent the rest of the night watching whatever came on tv.