Saigon

My time in Saigon was so short I didn't even have time to form an opinion about the city. To me it was just another noisy place with lots of traffic.

I arrived in Saigon about 9am. The bus from Nha Trang was set to arrive at 6am, but we had a fender bender about an hour outside Saigon that delayed everything.

The first thing I did was drop off my bags at a travel agency and walk around to research a trip through the Mekong Delta. That task was fairly easy due to the number of travel agencies around. I chose Sinh Cafe because it came recommend from other people I'd talked to. I then checked into a nearby hotel to facilitate my departure the following morning.

I got cleaned up, ate a late breakfast, and then walked to the War Remnants Museum, also known as the American War Crimes Museum.


War Remnants Museum

The museum wasn't very big, basically just a parking lot, but it was full of US war machines. Tanks, artillery guns, helicopters, an F-5 jet, etc. Everyone was free to explore the machines as much as they liked.







The actual museum was broken up into a few small buildings. The first building consisted of a gallery of gut wrenching black and white photos taken during the war. Everything from injured GIs to Vietnamese civilians scarred by Napalm.

The second building was full of newspaper clippings from all over the world in various languages. Some for, some against the war in Vietnam, but most showed student protests in America.

There was also a recreation of the prisons used to hold Vietnamese detainees. Very similar to what I saw in Hanoi at the Hoa Lo Prison.

Next I walked to the Ben Thanh Market, a huge train station like building full of what I like to call junk. I poked around a bit and was able to find some cool knick-knacks and interesting T-shirts, but most of it looked like a thrift store.

The very back of the market was set up like a grocery store with some food stalls scattered around. I ate a bowl of shrimp noodle soup and spring rolls in the middle of the shopping mayhem.


Eating lunch in the Ben Thanh Market

On the way back to my hotel I stopped off at a CD shop to have a look. To my surprise all the discs were illegal copies that sold for $1 or $2. Some even less. There were listening stations set up, so I checked a few discs just to make sure they would play, and ended up buying about four hip-hop CDs I would usually never spend money on.

Back at my nondescript hotel room I laid down for a nap. As I lay on the bed, all I could think of was Martin Sheen. I've been traveling for over a month, and I'm only in Saigon.

When I woke up it was dinner time. I walked around the block, down a small alley, and ate a bowl of vegetable soup at a vegetarian restaurant called the Bodhi Tree as it started to rain.

Next I poked my head into a nearby bar made out of bamboo. I bumped into the Italian guys I'd met on the bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang; I don't know their names. They'd just arrived in Saigon and were looking to have a good time.


Shangrila

We flagged a taxi down and went to the one place I had to check out. A bar called Apocalypse Now. It turned out to be a cheesy night club, the horror, so we only had one beer and split to another place the Italian guys read about in their guide book.


Entrance to Apocalypse Now Bar

I believe the next place was called the Rainforest. It was a disco tech with lots of people partying and dancing. That made the Italians very happy. They were out to chase women, so I just stood back and watched them work.

A scooter gave me a ride back to my hotel once the disco closed down around 12am. I had to wake up early the next day to start my trip through the Mekong Delta and into Cambodia.