Man have I had quite the crazy time since I have arrived in Vietnam. Last night my plane got in at about 9:30 but I got my visa on arrival and came in from Australia so I had to wait for 2 hours with all the others while I got the visa. I felt bad because I had booked an airport transfer and he had been waiting the whole time for me...oops but I didn't feel all that bad because I was at least safe in this crazy city. And man is it crazy! There are 4 million people living in Ho Chi Minh and there are 2 million motorbikes!! It is crazy to see all of the motorbikes take over the street. While I was eating today I counted 22 motorbikes between 2 cars, the next time I counted there was 30! Walking across the street is fun though. You just have to take a deep breathe and walk slowly forward and all of the bikes just go around you. However, when it comes to cars, they still control the road and you cant just walk in front of them. I learned that the hard way when I was trying to walk across the street and a Vietnamese woman stuck her hand out in front of me and saved my life lol.
When I finally got to my hostel at midnight, my room ended up being at the very top, 7 flights of stairs up! By the time I got to the top with my big rucksack, my legs were shaking. Everyone was already sleeping so I fiddled around in the dark and had to go on an adventure even to find the bathroom. Even though I was super tired, I had met a couple people in the plane and hadn't had dinner yet, so I decided to join a guy from Australia for a bite to eat. Even at midnight (as I was eating my first delicious Vietnamese PHO) I could already tell that I was going to love Vietnam! The sights, the sounds, the smells, I love it all!
Since I was sick for the last week, it has put me on a pretty tight schedule so I had to do a bit of unexpected planning and start my exploration of the city right away. The next day I woke up bright and early and headed to the chu chi tunnels that are left over from first the French then the Vietnam war. This was a really interesting experience. It was really crazy to see how the Vietnamese people had to live during that time and their view of the war. At times I even felt guilty for being American. All in all it was a really rewarding experience.
After the tunnels, I headed to the War Rememberants Museum. Here I viewed as many heart wrenching photos and stories as I could physically take. The part of the museum that stuck me the hardest was were they showed the continuing effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese population...devastating.
I decided after the museum that, even though I had no map, I would find my way back to my hostel in VERY busy Ho Chi Minh city. I guess in the months of travel and self-discovery, my stubbornness and determination has still held strong...so I am now taking it as a sticking point in my personality and not such a bad one, I have decided. So, needless to say, I had an interesting and fun experience getting lost and then found over and over on the way where I arrived safely back to my hostel just before dark. What a great day in a wonderful city!
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