Saigon

We arrived in Ho Chi Mihn City, better known as Saigon to us in the West, after nightfall and almost immediately found ourselves comfortable here. Ewa took a rest and had some Pho - Vietnamese beef, noodle soup - while I looked for a place to stay. While trying to find a recommended hotel I couldn't figure it out until I realized that these little tiny alleyways were actually marked streets. It was a bit freaky at first to walk down this dimly lit alleyway with not a tourist in sight but I was soon walking past people watching TV on the floor of their homes. This put me at ease but I never did find the recommended hotel down this little maze. Picture a city block but dissected by a network of alleys, some of which intersect and others that are dead ends. This may be what NYC is like but I don't believe many of my friends spend much time in alleys in NYC. After a good nights rest in a nice little shop house - guesthouse we spent the day touring some of Saigon's markets. This is really Ewa's thing. She loves to go see what the locals buy and also loves to see what stuff she can buy there for about 1/10th the price of the US. She's sooo cheap but hey, I still love her. We enter the first market by walking past some knock off clothing places selling Nike and Adidas shirts only to be assaulted by these 4 foot tall Vietnamese ladies. Ok so maybe assaulted is a bit strong and they were probably 5 feet tall but they were by far the most aggressive salespeople we have ever encountered. Later in the market, one lady started giving me a hand massage just to keep me in front of her shop. Too bad for her that I rarely ever buy anything and this time was no exception. Several people we had talked to had told us to have a drink on top of the Rex hotel. It's a nice hotel with a decent bar on top overlooking one of the nicer corners in the old quarter of Saigon. What was funny to us is that we had dinner - both of us - for less than the price of one drink at the Rex. We took a city tour - something we have rarely done - and were quickly reminded of why we normally avoid the packaged tours. The first stop was a handy crafts factory. On the positive side, these places often hire a lot of Vietnamese people who were victims of Agent Orange or other toxic defoliates used by our Military during the Vietnam War and our dollars go to them. The bad news is normally that it is an unscheduled stop that takes up a lot of your tour's time. Ewa bought a pair of sandals there that I expect to see once. They were pretty cool but not the most practical - they were black lacquered with cool painting on them. Saigon was a fun and now we are off to do some diving in Nha Trang! Later