Saigon

Arriving in Saigon was like nothing I could of imagined. Utterly crazy and enchanting at the same time. We arrived by bus. The buses are private so they don't go to a station they let you out at their office. Luckily they will keep your luggage while you look for a place to stay. It's iffy but worth it. We couldn't believe our luck. We literally walked around the corner and into a charming alley full of hotels and got the first one we came to. $18 with three beds, a balcony, a great bathroom, cable tv, wifi and air con to boot. I don't like air conditioning as a rule because they can be mouldy but in this case it was sweltering and the aircon was in good condition.

On the street where we were let off in the tourist area it was unbelievable. Motorcycles, bicycles, cars, cyclos and people everywhere. Neon lights, food smells, and hawkers of food and everything else under the sun. Women with bars on their shoulders with baskets or pots on either end with entire little restaurants on their shoulders. Hub bub and noise. It totally amazes me how right beside this you can walk around the corner into an alley and its quiet and calm.

We only stayed two nights and one day so we decided not to do museums and such but to hit the streets and see what we could see. It was facinating. The motorbikes were incredible. I put pictures on the blog for you to see but they don't tell the whole story. There can literally be hundreds of bikes waiting at a traffic light at once and in every direction. We found quiet little alleys that were four feet wide with a whole other world happening in them.

Philip took the picture of the electric wires you can see above and that was pretty much what most of them looked like. The first couple of pictures were taken from our balcony to the alley below. The one of the park struck me as wonderful because the park was in the middle of a bunch of crazy steets and it was so serene. One of the things in the park was exercise equipment for all to use. It would be wonderful to have that at home. There were folks of all ages using it.

You can see me in a cyclo. I was in that hectic traffic on the front of somebody's bike. Now that was nerve! I can top that though. We bought tickets to a water puppet show and we were running late to get there. We both hopped on the back of one guys motorbike with me in the middle and took a ride to the theatre. I was whooping and squeeling the whole way and laughing of course! This was in rush hour traffic. In a funny kind of way it was less scary than crossing the street on foot.