As of 1330hrs today my plane touched down on Singapore Chan-gee Airport (the vietnamese stewardess pronounced it this way. haha cute ) and i am back on this island with 3.5 more days of blissful freedom. Let me share with you my wonderful experience in the land of Vietnam, Ho-Chi Minh city.
My father had been transferred over to work in ho chi minh, and so if i ever go overseas again it'd most likely be back to vietnam again. No more shopping sprees to bangkok anymore, but that's quite a good thing too. Im starting to find it quite a boring place. Most shops generally sell the same stuff, and besides shopping, there really isn't much to do. Can't possibly revisit the same shops everyday. Air is bad and traffic is a catastrophe. It's really a different feeling altogether - going there on a short holiday/ a long term business stay or frequent trips to visit people. The former is better, keeps things fresh.
This is my first visit to vietnam, and i honestly didnt know nuts abt what vietnam is like, except through the eyes of camera-men in all those conflicts-in-vietnam movies, and they're always shot in the forests. I always had an impression that it is a really third world country, laid back and all, but it isn't that bad. They have shelter, decent buildings, and organisation. The streets are also surprisingly much cleaner then those in bangkok. Life is rather flow paced, as compared to bangkok or singapore, gives you quite a relaxing atmosphere.
Traffic is much better than bangkok, but the first thing that strikes you is that there are motorbikes flood the streets haha. And i got to see for myself how versatile bikes are, they can like fit 4-5 people on a bike, or stack up tonnes of baskets/crates/goods/chickens/ whatever they got on a bike and still ride it. There was like a doorframe too. Their driving is.. not as reckless as in bangkok, but still quite disorganized. They like to horn everywhere anywhere, and the people who get horned don't even give two hoots about it. Even if they dont annoy each other its quite irritating to us Singaporeaans. To them it's not really like a form of alert, it's more like notification, it can mean like anything: " coming through/ hey i'm beside you/car behind you/car beside you/ you're in front of my car/ i am going to overtake you/ you are in the center of the road/ how are you? / you're too close to me/ i'm making a turn/ offf the roaadd/ just let me cut through/ i horned first so i presume right of way ". Most of the time, the people who are horned at don't respond at all. It's the person who horned who has to get around the one who is like hogging the lane, so it's like "horn horn, ok i notified you but it's alright you carry on i'd get around you".
Like bangkok, trucks and big vehicles arent allowed to use the roads in the day, so traffic is very smooth. Oh one cool thing is that sometimes the road splits into motorbikes/cars lanes, cos there are just too many bikes around. FYI vietnam roads are left-handed. If you want to drive in vietnam i still suggest you take the AWXRC conversion.
Ho-Chi Minh is divided into subcities called districts, according to how developed they are. District 1 would be their premere district, very upclass, shopping centeres, cafeterias, big brands. It is also the commercial district, and our service apt was also located here. I feel the most secure in district 1, but not in like 7 or more. Tourists are already quite scarce arnd ho chi minh, and they are mostly concentrated in districts 1 or 2 or arnd the musuems and stuff, so in the other districts, it's hard to find foreigners arnd. It's also hard to blend in with the locals, cos the clothes we wear are just too different, so it's just be the few of you walking arnd, with your obviously more expensive clothes, big SLR arnd your neck, sticking out like sore thumbs. Just doesnt feel good, little kids start crowding arnd us begging for money, and people stare at you for being different. It doesnt help knowing that it is a strongly communist country too, ruled by quite an arbitrary government. Scarrryyy.
Hahaha turned off yet? Don't be. That' just the initial feeling i got, it really isn't that bad. The locals aren't as friendly as the thais, they don't seem very approachable, and don't smile as much. but i think that's just how they are. Maybe it's also cos there aren't many foreigners arnd, hence they're not so tourist-orientated. The women are also not as gentle as they look, so don't be surprised to see one yanking two stuck supermarket trolleys apart. The middle/older generation are fond of squatting by the road the way guys do. Haha. It's just the culture, after all, their traditional dress consists of long sleeves and long pants, not skirts.. and 30% of the VC soldiers were females..
Oh yeah anyway, their female national costume is veryyyy nice. It's like elegant, oriental, vv feminine, superr beautiful. Their national costume is like their college uniform. Saw a student wearing it, like wa. A dark blue long sleeved dress, with the skirt all the way down to the heels, and two slits up both sides to the hips, mandarin collars, and long white pants. The material is also those kinda very soft cotton kind. nice. Beats jap uniforms hands down, this one has class and culture.
It isn't a good place to shop, cos there's really nothing to see or buy. But i still feel it's a great place to visit, for the food and the experience. Traditional Vietnamese food is really fantastic, but you'd need a local to guide you arnd cos they're hard to find. Most popular is their beef noodles. They call it pho (pronounced fur). Nicee. It's a very unique experience too, they've got communist red-star/ workers' party banners up everywhere, along the streets, on top of buildings or sticking out from the their sides. Hahah bernard you'd like it. First time i walk down a street with communist stuff everywhere. Old buildings, communist banners.. Next thing I would expect would be tanks rolling down the boulevard, or rooftop speakers blasting communist propaganda.. It takes awhile to realize that it's too far fetched. hahaha.
Got some nice french architecture around, left behind from the french occupation. There's a post-office, townhall, opera hall, and a church called notre-dame. There is also a road in front of the townhall which resembles the champs elysees. A longgg straight boulevard. Nicee. Eh.. oh yeah and culture wise there isn't much, long time ago under chinese imperialism, den french occupation, den jap occupation, den american attack. So there really isn't much to see, unless you go to their war museums, and yeahh their famous tunnels, really cool stuff.
It's a must to visit the Cu Chi tunnels, the tunnels that the Viet Congs in this place called CuChi built to fight the french and americans. You really must try, even if you are claustrophobic. They enlarged the tunnels already, and some lamps along the way, so not that dark. There are 3 levels, and the 3rd is about 8-12 meters beneath the ground, and thats the level that gives most kick. They wont bring you there unless you pester them too haha, cos some portions are not enlarged and they aren't lit. One Cuchi guide saw that i was damn gungho and offered to bring me through the 3rd level one haha. 120meters for that one, when most people only go 15/30 or the most 50 meters. Haha totally awesome.
When you're there must try the live range too. Bullets are expensive, so i only tried AK-47. They have heavy machine guns like the M60 and some AK dunno what, m1 carbine, m16, ak47, some shotgun, m1 garand and i forgot the rest. Only sad thing is that they clamped the muzzle down on a wall, so you cant take it out and aim by yourself.
The war museum also shows you much about the vietnamese soldiers, respect. Now i can seriously watch US-made films on vietnam war with different perspectives.
Left this morning for home, back to the hectic singaporean lifestyle. Felt very sian, back to NS life next monday, it's just something we can't run away from. But anyhow, once i stepped out of the gate, there was this SIA girl showing us the way to the arrival hall. I looked at her, she smiled and me and said, " welcome home!" in such a sweeeeeettttt voice. and she was sooooo cute! she looks like vivian h.su!! and her smile was sooo sweet! Ahhhhh that just totally made my day =)
But how did i respond? i juuuust had to give juusst a small smile and walk away, it was almost like a momentary glance. Like.. Waddahell, thats all??? Mann, damn hopeless, i'm good at losing out on such chances, and thats like.. sad. That was like.. friggin golden opportunity! BLeeeeeh. SAD. ARghhhhhh. I could have just like said "hey thanks for that greeting. It totally made my day". And i had one extra frame in my camera, i could have like "hey ive got one unfinished shot, can i take a photo with you?" Could have just acknowledged her greeting by saying "thanks", let her smile one more timee. ahhhhhhh. hahahahaha. nvm.
Singapore isnt that bad.
