We tired to start our first 'real day' in Vietnam with a clear mindset...trying to put aside the misfortunes ofthe night before.
We woke up (again at around 5) thanks to incessant beeping
and rooster cockledoodledooing. The streets were already busy so we
decided to venture outside to see what we were missing. One step out the
door we almost got struck by a motorcycle (actually more like
scooters... But they go really fast).
Ahh- we've discovered what all
the beeping was for...beep once means 'I'm coming', beep twice means 'ok
I'm even closer', beep three times mean 'GET OUT OF THE WAY!'
From
there you can imagine what 4, 5 and 6 beeps mean. Needless to say, we
got beeped at about a zillion times. Try having a conversation with
someone when after every word you say someone is beeping at you... Gasp.
Anyways.
So we attempt to choose somewhere to get something to eat.
Nothing brings about your appetite more then watching someone skin a
cow in the morning. Yum. We passed that place as fast as you could say
'beep!'.
We finally found this cute little place- it had a little
river running through it, and a beautiful canopy of green over top (this
helped with the heat (it is over 40 degrees here, and humid as hell to
boot!).
I forgot to mention that we were the only white people
around- so in the midst of 'beeping' people are seriously rubber necking
and taking a good look at us...this added to my already growing fear of
getting smoked by a vehicle or scooter.
Anyways- this
restaurant was the same way. We chose it because there seemed to be a
lot of people there. They were all locals (we thought this must mean
there was good food!). We took one step onto the patio and all eyes were
on us! It was as though there was a siting: Rachael and Steve, a rare
species of human- taller then most other humans here- and white! Oooo
aaaaa.
They quickly sat us right in front of the little river, and
gave us a menu.
Now- I have no idea how to read Vietnamese- or what half
the stuff says. I've figured out what dog is- because its very similar
to chien, in french. So Steve and I are trying to decipher what's on
this menu, and the funny this is that the waiter is waiting there with
us to tell him what we want. We felt like knobs because he waited for a
good ten minutes before we ordered a lemonade and strawberry drink.
There was NOTHING vegetarian on the menu!
Anyways he whipped up out
drinks real fast, and we drank them happily- being watched like animals
at the zoo! Very surreal feeling.
We then continued down the street,
and found the main road. THIS BLEW MY MIND! There are were literally 2
million people on the road. Yes of course you would assume that on a
fairly busy road you could find cars and scooters whipping by- and of
course a right and left side of the road...
OH NO! People are driving
whatever way they want, where ever they want, beeping their fool heads
off. And of course this includes cars, tut tuts, bicycles (!), scooters,
buses, and pedestrians. Oh ya... Pedestrians are given the middle of
the highways a go at it. I was paralyzed with fear... How was I ever
going to get anywhere here?
We tried to stick to the 'sidewalks' and
after a couple hours of walking around looking for some vegetarian food
(pronounced toy ahn jay in vietnamese) decided to call it quits and get
back to our hotel. At this point Steve and I were doused in our own
sweat- mix of course with some nice dirt from the air.
Our hotel had
one vegetarian option. Eggs and noodles. As I didn't get any food on the
plane- I was starved so I took it happily. HOLY they like their food
spicy! After the first bite, my mouth was on fire, my eyes were watering
and I was coughing as I wasn't expecting the spice!
After that it was pretty good though.
At any rate I wasn't hungry anymore.
After
breakfast we decided to head into the real city 'Ho Chi Mihn'. For this
we needed a taxi. I've realized that the best way not to get ripped off
is to ask the people at the hotel to help you. This is difficult
sometimes because they don't speak much English apart from "thank you",
"hello" and "goodbye".
I've adopted a good set of hand gestures to help me
portray my questions- these usually get a good laugh out of Steve
because I must look like an absolute fool. But hey! They got the
picture. So we ended up getting the local fair to get downtown. 7
dollars! Tung- our taxi driver spoke ABSOLUTELY no English. I tried to
ask him how to say thank you in Vietnamese, and he thought I was asking
him to get out of the car! Whoops! No.
So he drops us off at our
hotel... Steve and I look a little skeptical because we can't see it for
the life of us. But Tung insists this is where it is, and all we have
to do is walk through (that EXTREMELY sketchy looking) tunnel. We ask
him to come avec us. And he does. Low and behold there was our hotel
(that we got for 9 bucks!).
The tunnel was littered with over 200 scooters, and a restaurant (actually built in a hole in the wall).
We
go up the stairs and the reception guy is waiting for us. He is SO
nice! He gave us a little map of where to go, and nice vegetarian place
to eat... And he spoke a little English! Thinks were looking up for us...
We get upstairs, unload
our stuff, and decide to head out. Of course as soon as we step out of
the building- a torrential down poor begins, and we are forced back
inside. Luckily it only lasted for about a half an hour. So we hit the
streets in attempt to find the art museum. Hoopla! We found it!
Wonderful. Oh my gosh- 50 cents to enter? We laughed at how inexpensive
things like this were.
The art was interesting- but the building it
was in was even more so! This place was massive- and everything in it
was marble. From the top floor we got a full view of Ho Chi Mihn city.
That was pretty neat. Steve and I were talking about it- it looks like a
city- but unlike any city we've ever seen. There is still high rises
and lots of buildings, but everything is just a little run down.
We continue on to the market- the famous Ben Thanh market. But first to get there.
Let
me put things into perspective... We are in the heart of the city. The
busiest place in Ho Chi Mihn city. And we need to cross from one side of
the street- to the middle of a round about- and then from there to the
other side of the street. This means roughly 12 lanes of traffic. Now-
there are crosswalks- but no one stops for people to cross. Rather you
find the white lines, and simply step out onto the street- hoping that
people stop for you. The locals are doing it- what can't we?!
Every
time Steve would say 'ok let's go now' I would stand there shaking my
head with a resounding 'no'... I didn't fly half way around the world to
get squashed by a scooter!
The locals on our side of the road were
watching us and laughing- finally they told us with a hand signal to 'go
go go'.
Another man who spoke some English told us 'don't worry the
vehicles will dodge you'... Perfect.
We step out on the busiest
street I've ever seen, and people are dodging us right left and center.
Holy smokes! That was adventure enough for me...
We make it to the
market. Fhew. As soon as we step in we are bombarded with people asking
us to 'buy this, try that, you want?, you like?!'... We didn't buy
anything, but we sure left with an experience.
It is so funny. Half
the people in this market (selling anything from watches, jewelry,
clothing, fruits, veggies, nuts, and flowers) were trying so hard to get
you to buy something- and the other half were literally asleep up
against their merchandise... I was confused.
We left the market in
attempts to find somewhere to eat. Wondering the streets and stumbling
across beautiful parks with the biggest trees I've ever seen. We got so
absorbed in things going on around us- that we had made it back to our
hotel without even knowing it. After six hours of walking our feet were
aching- and we decided to go upstairs to our room before dinner. I
washed my feet and laid on the bed for 'just a second'.
I woke up 12 hours later.
Now we are off to start our next day! I will keep you posted with our adventures.
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