Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh, or Saigon City, is a crazy crazy crazy place. They say there are 11million people in the city, and 4million scooters. I thought that I was used to scooters after living in Taiwan, but I was in for quite a lesson trying to cross the streets of Ho Chi Minh. There are very few traffic lights in the city, so most of the time you have to brave your way across a busy street with no help. Every time I had the initial rush of fear as I stepped of the curb, playing frogger to avoid the massive wave of scooters parting around me. And then I had a rush or relief and satisfaction when I made it safely across. A few times after staring at the street and looking terrified, a stranger would grab my hand and lead my safely across the street. I think they could sense my fear and took pity on me.
Along with the hoards of scooters there are people approaching you every second to try to sell drinks, food, sunglasses, and rides. I was impressed with both the entrepreneurship and persistence of these people, along with how well many of them spoke English.

I bought dried bananas and waffle cookies from this woman. She had a grill and was cooking them right on the street.

This guy drove me around and gave me a tour of the city. I met him because I was staring at a super scary street and attempting to cross. He made his way out in front and blocked traffic for me, so I felt obliged to take a ride. In Vietnam I was a little nervous to tell people I was American because I thought there may be some resentment, but I found everyone to be insanely friendly. Most of the drivers would tell me they fought for the US in the war, and a few even had pictures of themselves with American soldiers.

Guys were all around offering rides, and would sometimes just take naps on their scooters.

I loved these contraptions they had to carry drinks and food.You could also buy knock offs of any brand you can dream of. By accident I even got this water thinking it was Aquafina. Clever...

There is a lot of old French architecture left in the city. Here are some examples:

The Opera House

The Old Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral

This is the old palace. When the French ruled Vietnam this was the governers palace. When Vietnam was liberated from the french, it became the home for the president of South Vietnam. In 1975 a northern Vietnam tank crashed into the front gate of the palace forcing the South to officially surrender.

There was a childrens' day thing going on and there was a dragon dance. This little kid was part of the show and was the cutest thing ever.

Just north of the palace was a war museum. It used to be called the "US Army Crime Exhibition house", and was definitely very anti-America. It was a pretty intense museum and was hard to take, especially the section of the consequences of agent orange.