Ho Chi Minh LIVES!

On the corner of every street in Vietnam

The propaganda is everywhere! Ho Chi Minh posters adorn the streets in Saigon (central HCM City) and are almost as abundant as the red communist star/hammer and sickle banners. Tomorrow is National Day in Vietnam, celebrating the 60th year of indepedence of the republic, and the 30th anniversary of the liberation of southern Viet Nam and national reunification. Cool.

What isn't cool is the fact that the museums I want to go to are all closed! Ugh...


The view of HCMC from my US$2 dorm room, on the 7th floor...yep, there are NO elevators people! ugh...

First, a recap: The last day of the Mekong Delta tour was great! We visited these floating fishing village, where they breed loads of cat fish. Then we hit up a Cham minority village...Chams don't have their own country anymore (1st the Khmer Empire, then the Vietnamese took over) but spots of the country have mosques and they follow the muslim way of life...5 prayers a day and all.

After that (it was only 9am and the sun was ridiculous already!), we headed back to HCMC by bus. Ha ha, all the tour companies are basically fronts for one big delta tour. I think I switched buses & tour guides 3 times! On the last leg of the journey, I met a couple of Americans who are studying in Chicago, Amy and Derek. We met later that night for the "special" at Pho 2000, which is the "local" restaurant that Bill Clinton (yes, THAT guy!) visited during his visit to Vietnam in 2000. Ya, it wasn't all hype. Superb pho!

We did a bit of shopping in the local market, picked up some bling bling rings and knock-off paraphanelia. We stopped into the local food stalls to play some cards and ended up learning some Vietnamese games from the waiters! They were so young!! 13-16... ha ha, even with the suits being all jumbled up, and our inability to speak the local tongue, we had a pretty good time!

Card Sharks!! Check out the hardcore guy in the bottom left.

We then met up with a Malaysian girl, and a guy from Mynamar (He was promoting tourism to his country)! A couple of Belgians joined our little group (really tall guy - 6'9" and a photographer) and we stayed until POLICE raided the little cafe! Crazy! Apparently, the motorbike and furniture were on the "public" part of the sidewalk denoted by the RED versus YELLOW brick on the floor. Geez! It was kinda hectic, so after that, we called it a night.

Yesterday, I visited the war museum and the reunification palace...hot work walking in HCMC! Ate some tasty taro-flavored ice cream and people watched for a bit, and enjoyed a nice PIZZA dinner (US$10 - pricey...maybe it was the feta. lol) with Francoise, a Swiss girl who was staying in the same dorm (US$3!).

Okay! Back to the present...The US$30 cooking class I took this morning was wow, a nice dip in the pocket, but so worth it! Best meal in Vietnam yet! We made a really tasty banana flower salad, ginger steamed rice (tastes WAY better than it sounds...simple, yet delicious!), pork done in a traditional claypot, clam soup, and sweet corn dessert. It was good that the chef had ideas for substitutions! Not sure if I can find banana blossoms too easily. Maybe I'll start a garden. Ha ha

After that, I took a xe om (motorbike - 20.000 dong ~ US$1.25) to Cholon, the Chinatown of HCMC. Woo, my choppy Cantonese came in handy. LP didn't have any maps (not like the others have been too too accurate anyways!) so I sorta stumbled around and visited a bunch of pagodas. Crazy...there were thousands of these probably 6" ceramic figures all along the roofs of the temple! The nice guy at the convenience store where I bought some water even walked me to the bus stop.. ha ha, they have relatives in Edmonton. For 2.000 dong, which is about $0.15, I got an A/C bus back to the central market. I took a hot stroll to the HCM Museum across the Saigon river, only to find that it was closed! Boo!! At the bridge, I met this Israeli guy, who COINCIDENTLY, was Francoise's acquaintance! WHOA. Small world in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district in Saigon...

Burning incense sticks at a pagoda in Cholon, HCMC