We had been given room 1006, the top room floor of the hotel. We had joked that we had been upgraded to penthouse level. Not quite. We woke up at 6:30 AM to the sounds of people coming on and off the elevator walking by our room and moving around upstairs. We realized that we were on the floor everyone goes to to walk up to the restaurant and that the restaurant buffet was right above our room. Constantly heard french and german and loud clobbering of feet .... thud, thud, thud..one way and then thud, thud thud the other. Breakfast had been served. After a late night now, this was pretty painful. Ugh!.
On top of that, we noticed little tiny bugs in our bathroom. They looked harmless, but were still unpleasant. The last straw was after breakfast, we came back to the room and it smelled funny. I couldn't take it anymore, so we went down to ask for another room. Thankfully, the staff was very nice and had someone show us two available rooms and allowed us to choose which one we wanted. We decided on a room on the other side of the hotel, closer to where we stayed the first time we were at the hotel (the '04 and '05 rooms). It seemed cleaner and smelled better. We were content.
We spent some time planning parts of our trip and headed out around 2pm. We decided to get a snack at Quan An Ngon again before hitting the War Remnant Museum. Eric had the staple Pho Bo and I tried this rice cake dish with shredded pork in shrimp paste. It was a bit too flavorful for me, but it was nevertheless interesting to try. I don't think I knew how to eat it though.
We opted to walk everywhere rather than take a taxi or a tuk tuk. Since we haven't been working out, we needed to do some sort of exercise. At least walk. It was hot though. I think it was almost 90 degrees. It was about a 15 minute walk to the War Remnants Museum. It was easy to find because parked right outside the building are old US military planes, tanks, helicopters and other elements of war. Our friends had told us that the museum was an interesting place to visit, because it was from the communist government's point-of-view and obviously painted Americans in a bad light. There were some funny quotes about how the Americans were preventing the "natural evolution" of the Vietnamese people or the "liberalization" of "repressed" people.
Although there was definitely much pro-communist regime propaganda, the museum also showed a more disturbing side of the war that you don't really hear about in American text books. How US soldiers tortured some Vietnamese fighters - dragging them behind tanks, beheading them, burning and killing entire villages (which may or may
not have been vietcong villages). The most poignant photograph that saddened me was taken by a journalist who said he had taken the picture of this family right before they were executed by US soldiers. The picture was of a family of many generations, from 5 years old to 80 years old. They were clinging to each other and crying. The fear and despair in their eyes, in knowing what was about to happen was just too much to handle. I shed a few tears there and said a prayer for all that had passed away in the war. There was a documentary and many pictures about the post-war effects of the US's use of chemical warfare (aka Agent Orange). The deformalities that continue to occur as a result of prior exposures to Agent Orange are incredibly sad. Even on the streets in Vietnam, you see many beggars with the deformalities that appear to be a result of their parent or parents' exposures to Agent Orange in the war. There is so much destruction and despair in war, it's truly sad to know that such tragedy occurs on a daily basis. After such a heavy afternoon, we needed something to lighten us up. We headed to this place called Windows Cafe that we had walked by a few times that always
seemed packed with people. It appears to be predominately a local hangout, a place to "see and be seen". Techno/hip hop music is blasting on the loud speakers in this place. It has so many split levels, it's very confusing. Lots of young people working there and eating/drinking there. This was probably the same crowd we bumped and grinded with at the Halloween party the night before! Eric had a rum and coke that was mainly rum and I had a avocado shake and we shared a spaghetti bolognaise. I have no idea why, but I've become addicted to spaghetti bolognaise here in SE Asia! We had seen signs for this "Asian Indoor Games" that Vietnam was hosting, so we decided to check out some of the local tournaments happening in Saigon. Eric found an address for one of the events and we hopped in a taxi and took off. We were worried that it would be packed, but surprisingly, it wasn't too popular with the locals and it was free. In fact, we were asked to move from our existing seats in the stadium to those front and center in the VIP section. Somehow, Eric and I ended up in the best seats in the house, front and center with no one in front of us. We looked like we were presiding over the ceremony!
The
event we saw was called Vovinam. A type of martial art. There were some exciting moments, but for the most part, it was pretty tame. There were some fans from other regions - India, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia. It was more amusing watching the fans cheer than the actual match at times. Eric was amused at the mascot for the games, which was this cartoon-looking chicken. The best part is that the winners not only got medals, they each got a stuffed chicken. Hahha. As we needed to buy some toiletries for our trip, we stopped by this local supermarket called "Big C Supermarket" which is like a Wal Mart. Holy cow, it was so incredibly crowded. Imagine a Wal Mart having a 90% off sale filled with Asian shoppers. It was so chaotic, we couldn't even make it through the door. When we stepped out another door to try to find a cab, we were greeted with another massive crowd - those trying to get into the complex, those trying to get out, and those parking their motorbikes. It was so amusing, we took a video of the chaos.
Afterwards, we went to the Binh Thanh Market, a famous street market in Saigon. Eric was on a mission to replace my black carryall. I think he was tired of carrying a "man-purse". So we bought this little North Face mini backpack. It looked pretty authentic. It even came with a warranty card. We should try mailing it in and see what happens. The price was 80,000 VND. We tried to bargain down to 60,000 but she said no, that it was a fixed price place. I guess $4 for a North Face book bag isn't so bad.
As we were walking around, we saw many food stalls serving delicious fresh seafood. They were jam packed with people. I was tempted to try it, but having experienced a previous bout of food poisoning we opted to pass on the food. Sadness.
Since we still hadn't bought our toiletries, our next mission was to find a convenience store. We walked around and around, and there was really nothing! We found a small FoodCo Market, but it didn't have much of what we needed. By this time, I was grumpy and tired and thirsty. We had walked probably a good 4 miles that day and weren't close to our hotel. As I was about to hit my breaking point, lo and behold, I came across the most beautiful site. Like an oasis in the desert, in front of me was a bubble tea shop! In Saigon! I happily ran into the store. At first I was really sad cause the entire menu was in Vietnamese but sensing my confusion, the girl behind the counter busted out with an English menu - Pearl Milk Teas, HK milk tea, shakes, icees, etc. Heaven! I settled for this Milk Tea with this white jelly stuff cause they ran out of tapioca. It was sooo good. That definitely charged me back up and put a smile on my face (to Eric's relief).
Of course, I couldn't be the only with fulfilling their every whim - so we stopped back at Fanny's for Eric to grab a coffee chocolate ice cream cone. We love Fanny. Having eaten dessert first, we stopped for dinner at this Chinese placed call Nha Hang Hoang Long that was packed on Halloween night. The place opens until 2am. Dinner consisted of steamed freshwater fish, long bean and minced pork, shredded pork on young chow glutinous fried rice. It was pretty good. We noticed that one of the HK sports teams were there. Not sure what sport they represented. Seeing that they were smoking, drinking and eating up a storm. maybe chess?
We ended the night planning our trip and getting ready to fly back to Bangkok.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5400117387595684033&authkey=Gv1sRgCLPSwpyF_YC1aQ&feat=email
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