Pictured: a female monk that smiled for her photograph while preparing lunch in one of the Pagodas I visited in HCMC.I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam after an 11 hour bus ride from Phom Phenh Cambodia . Sparkled by the urban bustle of city life; the energy and vibrancy of this place are so alive you can almost touch it.
HCMC is the land of the kamikaze motorbikes. The population of the city is 8 million people and home to 6 million motorbikes which makes for madness when it comes to being the tourist pedestrian. I thought things were crazy in Holland with the Dutch and their bicycles but here in Vietnam there are hardly any road rules. These folks seem to ride around effortlessly, fearlessly even, barely just missing the accident waiting to happen by inches. Learning to walk across the road is a learned task in itself; walk very slowly, no matter how busy the road is, and the traffic naturally seems to swerve around you not even reducing speed!!
My favorite memory of HCMC was at a little curbside local bar right outside my guesthouse. To shelter myself from the afternoon rain one day, I stopped there to read my book under a tattered awning to drink a local ' Saigon beer'. As the place started to fill up with mostly local Vietnamese; 2 locals sat at the tables on either side of me. And so the discussion and effort to communicate began. One was a veterinarian named Phoem and the other an architect named Heip; neither of them knew each other prior to sitting down at the little miniature tables where we drank our beer and people watched overlooking the buy street. Huip and Phom did not speak great English however; it was far more advanced than my Vietnamese! Luckily I was armed with my color pencils and paper! We spent over three hours laughing, acting, and drawing under the awning in the rain. From both I had invitations to come and meet their families, to see their homes, and to have their wives cook 'real' Vietnamese food for me. They were actually arguing who's wife was a better cook and were willing to bet drinks on it!! We ended up going out together to a local place near by for a bowl of "Pho" a traditional Vietnamese dish if ride noodles and chicken accompanied by a heaping plate of bean sprouts, fresh mint and other greens that we could not directly translate; all of which tasted delicious. When it was time to say goodbye we exchanged email addresses and promises to see each other again and keep in touch.
So what is my impression of the Vietnamese people? They are the friendliest of cultures that I have come across since the beginning of my trip. I have since met many others that are genuinely interested in me, my country, and always going out of their way to help. Once outside the tourist trail all of the people here have been wonderful!!
Maybe you might wonder about the whole communist thing, as I had before I came here? Well, to the outsider, there is no trace from what I can see here at least not like the textbooks made me think of rice rations, citizens working 18 hour days at command of the government. The truth of the matter is Vietnam communism seems almost dead here and has been overruled by a capitalist world of competition and survival of the fittest.
HCMC is the land of the kamikaze motorbikes. The population of the city is 8 million people and home to 6 million motorbikes which makes for madness when it comes to being the tourist pedestrian. I thought things were crazy in Holland with the Dutch and their bicycles but here in Vietnam there are hardly any road rules. These folks seem to ride around effortlessly, fearlessly even, barely just missing the accident waiting to happen by inches. Learning to walk across the road is a learned task in itself; walk very slowly, no matter how busy the road is, and the traffic naturally seems to swerve around you not even reducing speed!!
My favorite memory of HCMC was at a little curbside local bar right outside my guesthouse. To shelter myself from the afternoon rain one day, I stopped there to read my book under a tattered awning to drink a local ' Saigon beer'. As the place started to fill up with mostly local Vietnamese; 2 locals sat at the tables on either side of me. And so the discussion and effort to communicate began. One was a veterinarian named Phoem and the other an architect named Heip; neither of them knew each other prior to sitting down at the little miniature tables where we drank our beer and people watched overlooking the buy street. Huip and Phom did not speak great English however; it was far more advanced than my Vietnamese! Luckily I was armed with my color pencils and paper! We spent over three hours laughing, acting, and drawing under the awning in the rain. From both I had invitations to come and meet their families, to see their homes, and to have their wives cook 'real' Vietnamese food for me. They were actually arguing who's wife was a better cook and were willing to bet drinks on it!! We ended up going out together to a local place near by for a bowl of "Pho" a traditional Vietnamese dish if ride noodles and chicken accompanied by a heaping plate of bean sprouts, fresh mint and other greens that we could not directly translate; all of which tasted delicious. When it was time to say goodbye we exchanged email addresses and promises to see each other again and keep in touch.
So what is my impression of the Vietnamese people? They are the friendliest of cultures that I have come across since the beginning of my trip. I have since met many others that are genuinely interested in me, my country, and always going out of their way to help. Once outside the tourist trail all of the people here have been wonderful!!
Maybe you might wonder about the whole communist thing, as I had before I came here? Well, to the outsider, there is no trace from what I can see here at least not like the textbooks made me think of rice rations, citizens working 18 hour days at command of the government. The truth of the matter is Vietnam communism seems almost dead here and has been overruled by a capitalist world of competition and survival of the fittest.
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