Day 266 - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

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Well, its been a pretty mental few days. You know how there are whole weeks that blur into one long party, littered with memories of laughing histerically about stuff and nothing much else? Well, this week has been one of those. Best boy mate Adrian, armed with Cat and Bonnie (who I LOVE) from London landed in the capital of Vietnam about 2 hours before us and were waiting for our call as we touched down. This was gonna be exciting.

First thing you notice - its hot. Steamy old Ho Chi Minh City - capital of vietnam and formerly known by you oldies as Saigon - tops the temperature charts of almost the whole trip with a whopping 34 degrees. And its like 8pm at night. Anyway, we strip off the hoodies, jumpers, two paris of socks, leggings (just sam that is), gloves and hats and hail a friendly cab driver to drive us to the swanky Windsor Plaza Hotel. We're booked in (paid for by them) to the nicest, plushest, kitschest hotel in Ho Chi Minh. Its huge, posh and definitely not our scene. But we're in. These guys are definately here to party.



And after grabbing the keys from the very grandoise reception and riding the escalator to the 16th floor, we're clambing over each other for the first hugs and rocketing up the 25th floor for catch-up drinks on the rooftop and a slap-up meal in the panaramic french restaurant. Its awesome. Like we've never been apart.



Ho Chi Minh is AMAZING. I know I gush about cities all the time. But this is different. Right from the first moments, its amazing. Its tropical (like Rio). Its almost exclusively low-rise (like Quito). Its colonial (like Santiago de Chile). And its occupied by an army of mopeds. There are no words for the number of mopeds here. Ok - so I could tell you how many there are (3 million according to wikipedia). But its not about numbers. The roads are swarming in bikes. some loaded with 4 people. some carrying wardrobes. bikes in every lane, in every direction, madness, chaos, carnage. cars dodging red lights, bikes going the wrong way down one-way streets, roundabouts that take 4 minutes to circle. Its unreal. Crossing a road is shockingly hard work, involving a slow inching forward allowing bikes to circle you. Its intense.



The next day, we wake up to the spritely gang from London beckoning us downstairs for the hotel's breakfast buffet - which is as shockingly amazing as the weather here - then we throw on our swimmers and spend the next 4 hours topping up our faded tans (its back on track now guys, cheers for asking) and diving around the rooftop pool as if we own the place. From up here the panaramas of the city are stunning - painted in a rich palette of bold pinks, greens and blues, dotted with roads shoaded in a fog of motorbikes and parks with leafy green trees shading their inhabitants. I'm hooked. I love this place.



The city's been through a lot. Named after Ho Chi Minh - former president and creator of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - its better known (by both the locals and the rest of the world) as Saigon. And as I have just found out, its not the capital of vietnam. Hanoi is (thanks Sam - that redeems your 'Pakistan is the capital of India' comment - finally). Now, if you're like me, you spend too much time playing computer games and far more time being ignorant to a lot of the really important things that have gone on in our world's history in the last 100 years. That said, visiting a country does a lot to rectify this. So, keeping it brief for those who know all this, vietnam has been through a lot lately.

Vietnam, for me at least, is totally associated with the american led war. Long before this, however, it was the French who really mixed things up for the vietnamese. They landed on its shores YEARS ago in the mid-19th century, which was followed by lots of beautiful buildings being built to house the naughty french colonisers who wanted every aspect of vietnamese life to change - religion became christianity, education got an overhaul, politics and culture all shifted french-ward. And despite decades of vietnamese calling for independance to be restored, the french did nothing. The americans didn't even pop up until after the second world war, when Japan invaded Indochina (and were subsequently defeated) that old dude Ho Chi Minh rallied for independance and communism, gathering nationalist forces to fight off the french and force them to withdraw. Which worked - nice work, Ho.

Now, I know NOTHING about the american war. but it looked nasty. Here's my stab at paraphrasing what the world wide web thinks happened: after WW2, vietnam gets divided into north and south vietnam, intended to live happily ever after as seperate countries. But the increasingly offensive USA (is it true they wanna attack Iran now... I HATE AMERICA) decides it doesn't like North Vietnam because it is mates with the Soviet Union (who, surprise surprise, america hates). So in 1964 it attacks with half a million american troops. As if being tied up in guerilla warfare with the americans wasn't enough, north vietnam then attacks the south (barmy), spreading the fighting into neighbouring countries Loas and Cambodia as well. 1973 creeps around and american troops are withdrawn (after a horrific number of casualties), only to find the north attack the south again, overrun it, and declare it part of "north" vietnam.

And if that isn't enough, in 1978 the new unified vietnam attacked Cambodia to destory the Khmer Rouge (i don't know who they are), which prompted china (i know who they are) to attack vietnam a year later. All's quiet now though, and china seems to have forgiven vietnam (trade routes have reopened within the last few years). And that brings us up to date. peace and quiet. i hope you liked that little history lesson. thanks to the internet for showing me a thing or two I should have been taught at school.



Anyway, the history aside, the city is a scattered with colonial buildings, communist propaganda, parks (in which you can't sit on the grass, we soon found out), hundreds of shops selling fake North Face backpacks, loads of vietnamese wearing those pointy white hats and enough pollution to make you want to vomit up the lining of your lungs. For a city-kid like me, its perfect. And we're desperate to get out and see more of the place. After a few hours of wandering the city, through some notably non-touristy places (sorry guys) and via a weird cafe where all the seating faces out into the street, we end up at HCMC's botanical gardens and zoo.



OK. I have to be diplomatic about this. The gardens are nice. Nothing really that special. but nice. But the zoo is GRIM. After what happened in Cordoba (Argentina's horrific concentration camp-styled zoo, which prompted us to leave within 15 minutes of arriving), and with a direct dismissal from the lonely planet, I wasn't overly keen on what was coming up. But it wasn't AS BAD as it could have been. True, the cages/cells have water (often dirty). Occasionally they have plant life. almost all of them are hideously small - especially the elephants which have about 3-times their own size in space - so small they can't even turn around.

I could have left. I could have not even paid to go in. But I didn't. we wandered round, looking at the animals. I winced as an elephant was prodded repeatedly by some evil dude with a spike (he worked there). I winced when the hippopotamuses lounged in the filthiest water imaginable. I felt pretty sick for the bears, which panted in the roasting heat, clearly ready to give up the fight. But the rest of them - well maybe its no worse than australia zoo - minus a few tourist-friendly plants and water features.







Its SO AWESOME having the guys out here. Its so different too. Tristan, Anna, Anthony - they all came out to see us, armed with backpacks and lonely planets to rough it in hostels and move from town to town each day - which sam and I are so grateful for. But these guys have a different agenda - they're on holiday. They're here to soak up the sun, laze around, not move around much and take internal flights. Stay at posh hotels, eat at restaurants every night and get drunk as often as lazy hungover mornings will allow. Sam and I are powerless to stop it, and it seems we've both been swept up into holiday mode too. which is nice. travelling is, after all, like a full-time job to us. we've gotta have a break every now and then...