Let’s play catch up: Vietnam Trip (2)

So back to December 19th and we left for Saigon, Vietnam for a few days before catching the train over to Mui Ne to relax by the sea.

Saigon is chaotic, busy, smokey and touristy. You can’t walk for the people selling you everything under the sun. You can’t cross the streets for the millions of motorbikes and cars. It’s like a very real version of Frogger trying to cross streets there. I loved it!

We took the approach of walking around Saigon and taking it all in, death street crossing and all. There a few things to walk to. The War Remnants Museum which is a catalogue of American wrong doings in the Vietnam War. They got a bunch of American war machines lying around. Wasn’t too impressed with it all, felt like a gallery of horrendous photos just for the sake of it. I can get the message in ways other than seeing mutated and very dead people, thanks very much.

Next up a short walk away was the Reunification Palace which is an unwilling tribute to horrible Communist architecture and interior design. Officially it’s where the president of South Vietnam hung out during “the war” and is where the North Vietnamese army broke through the gates in 1975 to end the war.

So we continued our walk the next day and took in the rooftop of the Rex Hotel where all the hacks hung out during the war looking at far off bombings. Army hung out there too.

From there we took a leisurely loop around back to our hotel just soaking in the exhaust fumes and the very real parts of Saigon away from the well trodden path of tourists.

This dude repelled two Mongol invasions so I think he deserves this statue

Saigon River

Views from our hotel rooftop restaurant (Elios hotel) in the backpackers area of the city.

We went to a bar one night to get a taste of the local nightlife. The Seventeen Lounge tries to burn your retinas, disentegrate your eardrums and smokify your lungs all at once. It was some experience. The live band were not that bad though especially with their Cranberries cover!
Wonder what their electricity bill was with all the Christmas decorations…

Details of our trip to Mui Ne in my next post. Coming up in a few hours..