Currency: Dong ($1 = 16,000 VND)
Language: Vietnamese
Drink Specials: Iced Coffee
1/13-1/16
The simplest way to get to Vietnam is by bus, so that's what we did. We booked bus tickets through the guest house in Phnom Penh, and we were able to get our travel visas in advance, at a cost of at least $30. I forget whether or not you can get them at the border. It's probably all a question of how much you want to pay. Anyway, we caught the early bus--7 am, if I remember correctly--which meant that we had to get up much earlier in order to check out and catch the shuttle. The trip to Ho Chi Minh City was, without a doubt, the bumpiest ride I've ever been on. Once you get outside the city, paved roads are nowhere to be found. The constant up-and-down, combined with the heaping plate of greasy German food I had eaten the night before, made sure that the journey was not a pleasant one. I guess I should learn to stick with Asian food. Fortunately, I made it to the border okay, and we were let off for food and processing.
The restaurant we stopped at seemed to have a pretty sweet deal going, since there were several other buses there, and I had the pleasure of stopping again on my way out of Vietnam. It was there that I tried to exchange US dollars for Vietnamese dong, but the guy gave me riel by mistake, which was useless to me. Later, I tried to exchange the riel, and the old woman I was dealing with gave me far less dong than she should've. I began to argue the point with her, but as this was happening, I was being herded back onto the bus by the driver, and there was nothing I could do to stop from getting screwed. I probably gave her about $15 worth, and I think she ended up stealing at least $10 of it, which was a lot of money to me. Doesn't matter how much you try not to get hosed; it's bound to happen sometime.
I'm sure you're wondering what Ho Chi Minh City (also still called Saigon) is like. Well, I'll tell you. It was very nice. The weather was pleasantly warm, and the city felt like a real city. There were buildings taller than a few stories, there were parks and promenades to walk through, and we weren't hassled every second by motorcycle chauffeurs. We did get our fair share of offers, this time from bikers and rickshaw drivers. Still, we chose to walk. I did marvel at the constant flow of motorbikes pulsing through the intersections, and I think I can say they even had China beat in terms of sheer volume. A lot of foreigners around, which made me think the city was worth visiting. We really had no plan, after all, our only thought was "Let's hop over to Vietnam and see what's goin' on."
We found a lot of cool places--a couple palaces, cathedrals, bookstores, and a pub, to name a few. We spent a lot of our time in the back streets, where all the best restaurants and shops can be found. A lot of these stores sell similar items, such as Vietnam t-shirts, but the fun is all in negotiating the price. Usually, you can knock a few thousand dong off the top. From the shops you can walk right into a pizza place or grab a kebob along the way. One thing I didn't know about the country is that it has great coffee, which is something China is definitely not known for. It's best with milk and ice, and every now and then, you have to stray from the usual bold and black. Around dinnertime, you can avail yourself of one of the many roving masseurs. They're the ones riding around on bikes with metal clackers, massaging people right in their chairs when they're done eating. This costs about 20,000 to 30,000 VND, and dinner was usually about 80,000 to 100,000, which sounds like a lot but isn't. Thankfully, the menus were in English, and people know enough of the language to be able to take your order. It's a shame more people weren't fluent, since Vietnamese isn't exactly easy on the ears, but that's asking a lot.
Trying to find a place to stay was fun. We got off the bus and started checking prices. Many of these hotels have narrow fronts, with the lobby on the second floor and a travel agency on the first. A pretty convenient design, if you're just passing through. At one hotel, they said rooms were $35; we said we could pay $10. They said, "I think we have a room for you." As you'll see from the pictures, we had to crouch when entering the room and bathroom, and we could touch the floor, ceiling, and opposite walls all at once. But despite this, or maybe because of this, it was my favorite of the trip. It also had a TV, fridge, fans, and hot shower. I can't remember if we paid for it in dollars, but most places only took dong. I even had trouble exchanging my Chinese yuan, which is absurd, given the size of China's economy, but with all the lingering animosity between countries, it's not surprising.
We spent most of our days just walking around the city, taking in the local flavor and such. We saw the Saigon River, watched a traditional Chinese Dragon Dance, took pictures of the Reunification Palace from beyond the gate, and wandered into a pretty cool open-air market. As I remember, every city we went to had one of these markets. They're full of many of the same kinds of crafts and trinkets, and most of them will probably never be touched by tourist hands, let alone bought. As we walked through parks, we saw people out getting exercise, and we even got to watch a pretty intense game of hackey-sack volleyball. We finished up the first night with a sampling of the local brews, and it was agreed that Saigon Red was the best. The others aren't really worth your time. Especially Zorok.
Overall, a fairly uneventful few days, and that was just fine by us. Questions? Comments? Click for pictures:
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