Day 1: Scammed in Saigon
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Vietnam is like the awkward, left out cousin. People don't really seem to know how to approach it. We always hear praises sung for Singapore and Thailand, but never really Vietnam. It might be the Communist thing, or maybe people feel a little hesitant because of the colorful language. Well let me be the one to tell you that they are all crazy. I immediately fell into infatuation with it just after the first day. The people, their food and everything else in between. Screw infatuation! It was love at the first bowl of pho.
On day one, we walked around the city looking to explore. But ended up on the back of a motorbike.
My xe om driver, Minh, promised to take us around the best spots in town for 120,000 dong an hour. I couldn't resist the idea of whizzing around Saigon on a mo-ped.
Minh took us to places like the Quan Am Pagoda, one of the city's most colorful Buddhist sites
The Binh Tay Market in Cholon
The War Remnants Museum is a definite must-see. While heavily leaning towards the Vietnamese side of the war, the museum, which displays original photographs from the 1960's, is a complete eye-opener to the atrocities and war crimes of the Americans. The museum allows those who have only been educated in the Western curriculum to see the full picture. The images are pretty gruesome, so discretion is advised.
To say the least, the museum put us in a somber mood and gave us a lot to think about. But nothing a little banh xeo can't fix!
Banh xeo is a giant crispy crepe stuffed with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts. Cut it into bit sized pieces, wrap it with some lettuce or mustard leaves, then dunk it into some spicy fish sauce.
It may be a little greasy for the humid months, but nevertheless it was a party for my taste buds.
It started to rain at around lunch time, but that wasn't going to stop us!!! We threw on 20 cent ponchos and hopped back on the bike! We stopped by City Hall and Saigon Center when the rain came pouuuring down. Most of the streets started to flood so our day-time adventure had to come to end around midday.
My friends and I actually had to waddle through knee-high waters to get back to our motel cause the rain was coming down so hard! But nothing a girl from Manila hasn't seen before.
My
first day in Saigon was more than I could have hoped for. But all good things
must come to an end. For us, that end came at the end of the xe om tour where I was almost scammed out of my money. Nothing too
serious, but just a word of caution to all travelers: try and set a reasonable
price before agreeing to partake in anything, and if you're being extra careful, ask to pay
half of the payment in the beginning and the other half at the end. If you do
end up drawing the shortest straw, just think of it as all part of the
experience. Make up for it by finding the nearest food cart serving grilled
octopus, order a plate along with a bottle of Saigon beer. It’s all
part of Saigon’s charm.
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