My wisdom is gone.

I've been lucky in several things throughout my life. One of them happens to be that I got my dad's teeth. While both of my sisters got to enjoy all the rights and privileges of braces (and yes, I'm referring to those cool little rubber bands that came with them), I was lucky enough to not only never need braces, but I also never seemed to get a cavity. So each time we went to the dentist, it was always the same thing: your teeth look great, you just need to clean them better (I still don't floss to this day. Sorry dad.).

So imagine my surprise when I went to the dentist at the end of my contract in Uijeongbu in May with a toothache and a possible cavity, only to find out that I had SEVEN cavities. I got them all filled for a bargain price by western standards, with a caution that one of my wisdom teeth in the back had a rather large cavity, and if it kept bothering me I'd need to have it pulled. The reason the first dentist didn't think they could pull it themselves was because the roots were very curved, and apparently that makes it harder to pull out.

My teeth have been bothering me again recently, so I looked up a dentist in my area that speaks English (thank you Google), and made an appointment during my lunch break today for this evening. After a relatively short consultation, we decided to pull out both the bottom and top wisdom teeth on the left side. The reason to pull both was simple - without the bottom tooth, the top tooth had nothing to grind against and was therefore useless.

He applied a local topical anesthetic, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Then he pulled out this rather daunting needle and started poking around in the back of my mouth with it.


After poking around a bit more, he said to wait three minutes and he'd be back. It took a while to be able to tell that anything was working but I knew something was up when part of my lips started to go numb. He then proceeded to extract my teeth.

I guess I always figured it was a relatively simple process, but from the sound and feel of it, it also requires a bit of elbow grease as well. I'm no dentist, and I certainly couldn't see what he was doing, but my impressions of what was going on were that he started by trying to grip the tooth with pliers. Once he'd loosened the tooth a bit, he used another tool to hook underneath the main part (where the roots are), and lever it up. I could feel what he was doing in my jaw and in my nose, so he must have been pulling pretty hard. He got the top one (the easy one) out in about 15 minutes. The bottom one took a bit longer, and he said he got it about halfway out but had to cut it in two pieces in order to remove it the rest of the way.

Up until this point, I'd been fine. Nothing had hurt, though the sensation of pressure in your teeth being transferred to your nasal cavity is quite ... different. It did start to hurt on the lower tooth, however, and he had to put that weird needle in again. I'd been fine mentally as well, but I did get a bit nervous when he said he was going to cut my tooth. When your lips and tongue are numb (and hence, you have no control over them), and someone has a tool in your mouth capable of cutting through hard enamel (and hence, also through soft tissue like lips and gums), it's not abnormal to be a little nervous.

Anyway, they both came out fine in the end, and I've been instructed to come back in a week to have the one stitch removed. I have medicine for the pain (which hasn't set in. yet), and gauze in case I need to change what I already have. I also have both of my teeth, to the slight befuddlement and amusement of the dentist. His response when I asked if I could keep them? "In that condition? Really?"

Oh yeah, and this was at the bargain price of about $15. :)

Halong Bay - Day 11 & 12

(1/1/10-1/2/10)

I woke up at 6 am to make sure that no one else would be using the shower, since I was staying in a dorm and I knew several people were going on the same tour I was. I'd forgotten where I put my toiletries in my bag, and I was trying not to wake up anyone in the room, so I ended up having to take a shower without them.

Had my breakfast around 7 after I put my bigger bag into storage. I knew I'd be coming back to the same hostel since the tour I was going on was hosted by them. It was only an overnight trip, so I just had my smaller day pack with a change of clothes and the toiletries that I'd managed to find by the light of day. I checked my email, something I've realized I'm utterly addicted to, and waited until around 8:20 or so when we headed onto the bus, bright neon sombreros in hand (since the dock was crowded with foreigners we'd be able to find our group easily). It took us around 4 hours to get to the harbor. I was hoping by the time we got to the bay the weather would have cleared up a bit, but it was cloudy, overcast, and foggy. Not the best weather for sight-seeing, especially when half the view is reflected on the water.


So some people boarded a small boat to take us to the main ship, but it didn't fit everyone. Instead of the guide staying with the group on the shore, he went with the first group and didn't come back with the boat, either. It was a good thing we had our sombreros, otherwise I don't think the boat would have been able to find the rest of our group.

So we sat on top deck for a while once we'd boarded, where we were told lunch would be in 5 minutes. 20 minutes later we were told it was time to eat. Some people had itineraries that were given to them when they paid for the trip. I'm guessing I never got one because I paid online. It would have been useful, though, because I would have known to pack my long sleeve shirt and jacket. I was shivering just about the whole time on the boat.


After lunch we got assigned to our rooms, and were were told check out time was the next morning at 7:30am. Which seemed a bit strange to me since I was still going to be on board until at least after lunch the next day, and the people that were staying for three days (instead of the two that I'd booked) didn't leave much before lunch. My roommate's name was Sarah, and she seemed nice enough, especially since she offered to share the bottle of vodka that she'd snuck on board (of which I politely declined to partake).


At 3:30 the kayaks were brought to the boat and we followed the guide out to a cave. I didn't take my camera because I didn't think we'd be getting out of the boat, which was soaking wet, and it was sprinkling pretty hard when we boarded. Originally the guide told us to wear flip-flops and shorts because we'd be getting wet. I assumed this would be from the boats and just general being that close to water. I only brought one pair of jeans with me, which I just hoped would dry out by the next day. I was in a kayak with Sarah. I rowed in the back, partially because she'd never been in a canoe before, and partially because I'm a bit of a control freak and unless I know you, I want to be in charge of steering the boat.


We followed the guide as best we could to a cave, where we pulled the kayaks onto a rocky shore that was not at all conducive to flip-flops. I decided to just take my shoes off (I was wearing crocs) and carry them. Then the guide asked if anyone had brought a torch (or flashlight, for us Americans). He kept insisting that he had told us all to bring one, but everyone else insisted that he hadn't. I didn't have one to bring, so it wouldn't have mattered for me, but other people had them in their luggage. I think the next time I go traveling I'll bring one. There's been several times where one would have been helpful, especially during the winter when it gets dark so early.



So after trying to go into the cave and realizing that it was too dark, we headed back to the kayaks. I put my shoes back on about a minute too soon, and I slid on some rocks and cut my left elbow a bit.



So we headed out to where the guide said we could row through the mountains. Across from the cave was a real floating village, with peoples boats tied together. People were cooking on the boats, as well as sleeping. I really wish I'd had my camera at that point - the floating village was the coolest part of the bay. So then we paddled through a hold in the side of a rock into an enclosed lagoon of sorts. We just floated there for a while without the guide saying anything. After about 5 minutes he said we were still missing one boat. But we turned around and headed back to the main ship without waiting for them.



Turns out the two people on the missing boat had been following the wrong kayak group and had gotten lost. By the time we got back to the boat it was getting dark, and once I'd changed and taken pictures it was completely dark. And the two people in the boat were from two different countries, neither of whom spoke the same first language (though they both spoke English reasonably well enough). The lost boat had been asking people for help, but no one seemed interested in helping them. Finally a motorboat offered to bring them back to their boat, but once they got to our boat they wanted 500,000 dong (approx. $26) from each of them for picking them up. Diego refused to pay them on principal, and apparently the girl disappeared. Eventually one of the guys who worked for the hostel talked them down to 100,000 dong each (about $10 total), with the intention of getting his money back from the hostel once he docked.


I went to bed just after dinner that night. I was a bit tired from being up so early, and from the sounds of it, the rest of the night was a bunch of drinking (which wasn't free) and drinking games, so I wasn't that upset about missing it.

I got up at 6am the next day, but it was still cloudy so I couldn't see the sunrise. The people doing the 3-day trip got off the boat around 9:30, and the people that stayed on the island the night before (who had started their three day trip a day before we left) boarded the boat. Some of the guys decided to go swimming, but didn't last long as the water was pretty chilly.



I talked with some of the other people on the boat, walked around taking pictures, and headed to the galley at around 11 for lunch. It took us a few hours to get back to the mainland, and even though it was still overcast, you could at least see farther out than you could the day before.





We took the bus back the hostel, where I arranged for a taxi to take me to the airport that night. I took a shower and changed, and had dinner with one of the guys I had met on the boat. Shortly before I left I got my bag out of storage and checked my email once more. The flight back to Seoul was uneventful, and I got back to my own house around 7:30am on Sunday morning. Which gave me the whole day to upload, organize, and look through the 1054 pictures I took.

And that was the end of my first solo international trip. I enjoyed it so much that I'm planning another solo trip to Ukraine later this year (after which I'll join my friend and go to Prague and Germany). I have a new obsession. I'm no longer addicted to tattoos. I'm addicted to international travel.

Hanoi - Day 9 & 10

(12/31/09-1/2/10)

The plane landed fine in Hanoi, though I could smell that someone had gotten sick two seats behind me just before landing. The driver from the hostel was 20 minutes late picking me up, but at least he showed up. It was a bit cooler in Hanoi at 17C instead of the 25-30C it had been in Saigon.

The traffic was crazy here as well, and I had been thinking about getting a motorbike in Hanoi, but I saw two people fall off their bikes in the space of 15 minutes and they didn't even get hit. The hostel is near a rather busy part of town, so I checked in and then headed out to explore. The buildings here are really strange. It seems like when they put up buildings, they know that another building will be put practically touching the old one, so the fronts are rather ornate and finished well, but the sides are often just plain concrete without even a layer of paint.


There are some interesting little side restaurants and shops on the street where my hostel is, one of the most interesting was the pho place on the corner that had chicken heads on display. They did make a tasty meal, though.





I got a ticket for the 3:30 water puppet show, shopped around a bit to find some things for Logan, and then found a cafe near the theater to get a cup of coffee. The cafe overlooked the lake, which made for interesting people watching. The coffee in Vietnam is similar to that in Cambodia - they use sweetened condensed milk, so there's never a reason to add more sugar. It's almost too sweet for my taste, but the condensed milk makes it thicker and creamier, which is a nice texture.




There were a lot of people in the plaza near the theater. It seemed that part of the reason was there was a flower exhibition of sorts, which was less than impressive, as well as a large sign announcing the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi in 283 days.


The water puppet performance was very interesting. I had assumed that it would be something similar to marionettes, but it was far from it. The puppets were on long wooden poles that were attached to the bottoms. The puppeteers were behind a curtain in the water, and moved the puppets all around the pool of water. There were several stories told with the puppets. I couldn't understand any of the words or songs, but there was a little guide that was provided in English that gave a synopsis of each section.


At the very end they lifted the curtain so you could see how the puppets were moved, and then the puppeteers took a bow. It was a very entertaining show, and well worth the ticket price.



After I left the theater, I decided to do a walking tour of Hanoi. I had read that Hanoi and Saigon were high crime areas, so I was especially on my guard. I made it a point to look at my guide book only when absolutely necessary, and when I did it was away from intersections and off the road so that most people wouldn't notice me. I memorize street names and directions so that I would have to look at it less often, and I didn't walk slowly but with purpose to make it seem like I knew exactly where I was going.



The tour started off fine, and I was seeing some interesting side streets, though the actual destinations were less than impressive. For example, this lovely yellow building was one of the temples on the tour.



I got near the gate at the north end of the city, and I started walking onto smaller and smaller side streets. I thought some guy was following me, but I wasn't sure. About a minute later I turned my head around and he was right behind me with his hand on the outside of my backpack, and the small pocket was open. My heart started pounding as I turned all the way around and asked him repeatedly what he was doing and why my bag was open. He tried to hid his hand, so I grabbed it to see if there was something in his fist that he had taken from my bag, but there was nothing, and I didn't see anything in his pockets. I knew nothing important was in my front pocket except my notebook journal. The only thing he said in English was "Not me", so I finally let him go, after warning him never to come near me again.

I was fine while I was talking to him, kept a level head and didn't freak out. But as soon as he walked off, I could feel the adrenaline so I made a beeline back to my hostel. I was quite annoyed at the people who had been on the street that I had seen in my peripheral vision who had quite obviously witnessed this guy attempt to steal from me, and had done absolutely nothing to stop him or to help me.

Once I got back to the hostel, I felt much better, but I decided I wasn't going to venture out on my own again. I hung around the hostel where people were starting to get ready for that night, which was New Year's Eve. We were told there was going to be a party on the roof of the hostel, and that in order to attend we had to wear a mask. The hostel provided supplies and we had to make our own mask. So I grabbed a drink and set about making a pretty cool mask out of paper and paint and rubber bands, which I still have hanging in my apartment.



The party was crowded but fun. Around 9pm we moved to another bar wearing bright sombreros, but that was crowded too, so when I heard a couple say they were heading back to the hostel, I asked if I could go with them (since I wasn't ABOUT to walk by myself at night). We had dinner at the chicken-head place, and then I headed upstairs to go to sleep. I knew it was New Year's Eve, but I'd celebrated enough, I was tired, and I had to be up early the next day for our tour of Halong Bay.

The Mekong Delta - Day 7 & 8

(12/29/09-12/30/09)

I grabbed a bite to eat at a corner cafe before heading over to the travel agency, where I waited for a bus to pick me up. Instead of having everyone meet at the agency (which could be very hard to find if you weren't staying in the immediate vicinity), the bus made several stops at different hotels to pick people up. Because there were so many different options for the tour (bus ride, boat ride, 1 day, two days, three days, hotel, home stay, etc.), just about everyone on our bus had a different itinerary. Once we'd picked everyone up, it was a short drive to the Saigon river, where we boarded a boat that would take us into the Mekong Delta. It was a small boat, but definitely fast, as it only took us about 3 hours to get to the delta, and we overtook every boat heading south.

One of the first things I saw, just after I'd found a seat on the bus, was a guy rowing his boat with his feet.


I sat inside the boat for about an hour. I was sitting on the east side (which I couldn't tell at the time we boarded because it was overcast). Basically this meant that everything on my side of the boat was in shadow, while the other side of the river was lit up rather nicely with the morning sun (once the clouds had cleared a bit). There was a woman with a toddler who moved inside the boat, so I was able to go outside on the back for the remaining two or three hours of the ride. There were a few guys on the back, but for the most part they were silent. It wasn't until we passed a Buddhist temple (with the ubiquitous sideways swastika) that anyone said anything. One of the guys thought it was a Nazi building, at which point I piped in (nicely of course) that it was actually a Buddhist temple, and explained how you could tell the difference and that they were common in Asia and Indo-China. That conversation was an ice-breaker, and though we didn't talk much afterwards everyone did seem to relax.

We passed all kinds of scenery along the river, including the houses on stilts (en masse) that you see in pictures.


Something I noticed about Vietnam in comparison to Cambodia was the massive amount of garbage everywhere. It seemed like Cambodian people were so poor that they couldn't afford things that would create garbage, whereas (at least along the river) there were piles of garbage where people just dumped all their leftover refuse with no thought as to how close it was to their dwelling.

We stopped at the biggest island in the area - Unicorn Island. We were taken to a honey bee 'farm', where we stopped for a brief talk about bees, which was slightly inaccurate. I only knew this because my class had been studying bees in one of our classes for the past two weeks. I got to stick my finger into the honeycomb to try the freshest honey possible. Which, to be honest, tasted just like the stuff you buy at Publix. It was still nice, though. It was definitely one of those "Here, try our local products. Isn't it nice? Would you like to buy some?"


After the honey bee farm we walked to a coconut candy 'factory', where it was kind of the same thing. They showed us how they made the candy, let us taste some, and then we were left to our own devices for 20 minutes, during which time you could browse the stuff they had for sale. The touristy things were pretty interesting to look at.



Then we took a boat ride through some back canals, with about 3-4 people per boat.



I loved this part of the trip, as it was the quintessential Vietnam. I wish it had lasted a bit longer, as we were only in the boats for about 15 minutes.



We took the boats to Hai Ai and stopped at a local outdoor restaurant. There was a water buffalo tied up in the canal just before you entered the restaurant.



Lunch was pretty good, but not included in the price of the tour. I shared a fried elephant fish with one of the guys I had met on the boat. Thanks to my practice eating fish in Korea I was able to show them how to eat it (cut it down the top and split it in two, then use the tail and head to pull out the spinal column and most of the bones).




Afterward we had an hour of free time, where we could borrow bikes to ride around the local area. I was really excited about this, and grabbed the first bike I could and headed out. At first I thought that the rocky pathway and very thin tires were the reason I couldn't seem to ride well. I soon realized after about 5 minutes of fast peddling that the front wheel was bent (and wouldn't stay when I tried to bend it back), and the brakes didn't work. So I begrudgingly headed back to the restaurant with the bike in tow.




After eating, our group was split up. The people staying in a hotel were taken by bus to where they were staying, and the rest of us boarded a different boat that would take us to another island for our home stay.



The home stay was nice, but very touristy. I had pictures sitting with a family of six in a one room house on the river, using sign language to communicate and helping them cook and clean. It was more like a family-run outdoor-style hotel. My room barely fit my bed and didn't have a lock, and there was mosquito netting over the bed which came in useful. Before we ate, I spent about an hour wandering around the grounds before it got dark, and enjoying the peacefulness of being outdoors on the water.

The people running the place were very nice, and the dinner was enjoyable as well. I ate with a family from Germany who had come over to meet their father. He had been teaching German for several months at a local university and his daughter, wife, sister-in law and (I'm guessing) mother-in-law came to visit. They all spoke excellent English, though when talking to each other they spoke in German.




After dinner I found a hammock to lay in and write about my day. There were two other people there, and one of them started trying to talk to me, asking about my visa. Going through the English and Vietnamese writing on my visa became a two-hour English lesson, with various other people coming in and out of the area and the conversation. Tai Thung Phoc could read a little English, but could barely speak it, so some translating was done by a young boy who lived in the home stay. It turned out that Tai was a motorbike driver who was on a ten day trip driving some tourists around the delta.



I woke up at 6am the next morning to catch the sunrise over the delta, which was well worth it.


After the sun was up, I grabbed a shower (not realizing there were towels in my room I used my hand towel from traveling), and then laid in a hammock again until a breakfast of eggs and bread was served. We got a new tour guide, who seemed a bit better than the one I'd had the previous day, but it was possibly because she was a girl and I wasn't offset by her.



We took a boat to the floating marking, which was interesting, but not what I expected. The boats put a bamboo pole up with what they sell hanging from the pole so people can see it from a distance. It's a wholesale market, so the boats are bigger than the small canoes that I'd thought they'd be.

After the market, we went to see rice paper, rice candy, and coconut candy (again) being made. These were similar to the places we'd been to see the day before, with an explanation of how each item was made, a sample to try it, and then time to wander and purchase whatever you wanted.

Items for sale included anything from traditional rice paddy hats, paintings,


or snake wine. They put a dead snake (and sometimes other reptiles) into a wine mixture and allow it to ferment. It tastes more like a really hard vodka, and I don't even want to know whose idea it was to start with.




After the candy factories, we got back on the boat and just drove around through the delta. I sat in the back of the boat so that I could get pictures from either side.



We then stopped at a side canal, where we were taken in another paddle boat to where we would have lunch. The tide had gone down considerably since the night before, and the banks of the canals were really muddy. At one point, the girl rowing our boat actually got out to push the boat, because the water was shallow enough that it was easier than rowing. She was rather shocked when the guy in our boat took off his shoes and jumped in to help her.



We had lunch at another outdoor restaurant similar to the day before. This place also had bikes you could borrow, and this time I made sure to get one that was in perfect working order. You could ride wherever you wanted, and I took a bunch of back streets over the canals that we had passed by earlier in the day. There were tons of small houses, shops, and even a temple that was being built. I loved the freedom of riding through the little village at the speed and direction I wanted.



After my ride we were put on a bus back to Saigon. We stopped at a rest stop, where I met up with the Australian boys. I didn't get sick while in Cambodia or Vietnam. I'm guessing it's the same as whenever I go to another country - it takes about a week for my body to get used to the food. I don't know what happened, but two of the tree gues got violently ill the night we stayed in the delta. Nathan still looked worse for wear when I met up with them. Usually I ask for other people's facebook info, but this time I gave them my email. If they emailed me, I'd let them know how my trip to Halong Bay went, as they were planning to be there a few days after me. They never did get in touch, though.

When I got back to Saigon, I was moved into the main building of the hostel. I cleaned up, and laid down at 8 to take a nap after dinner. I must not have heard my alarm, because I woke up again at 2am, so I just went back to sleep. That way I knew I would wake up on time for my flight. I was out the front door of the hostel by 5:30, but the taxi didn't show till 5:40. I still made it to the airport by 6 because there was very little traffic (it took an hour to get from the airport to the hostel when I'd arrived), and there was no line to check in for the flight. Security was fast as well, but it took me about half an hour to find coffee once I'd gotten past security. We boarded on time, and I got a window seat on the west side of the plane, so I wouldn't have to worry about the sun in my eyes. I know for the future that if they offer me an exit row seat not to take the window one, because there's never actually a window there - only the exit door (though you do have more leg room).

Next up - Hanoi and Halong Bay.

Saigon - Day 5 & 6

(12/27/09-12/28/09)

So I made it to my hostel just fine, as I had arranged for a driver pick me up from the airport. The drive was vaguely interesting, and I think the driver thought it was funny when I took my first picture of a sign on the side of the road. To bad I never got a chance to try ostrich.


I was put in a room across the street from the main hostel. I was surprised at first, but the buildings in the city are so ram-packed together, that it shouldn't be a surprise when you have to have multiple locations to support your clientele. The room was a bit more upscale than my last one - I had a tv in the room and internet outside the room that was supposedly turned off at 11pm. After I'd gotten changed and showered (I was still in the same clothes that I had been crawling over Cambodian temples in earlier that day), I went exploring. I took a brief look at my map, and then just went for a nice stroll around, heading in the general direction of Ben Thanh Market.


I found it after wandering for about half an hour, and proceeded to go shopping for my cousin. I can see how it would be a rather daunting place for a foreigner to go, but there are several markets like it in South Korea, so I wasn't as overwhelmed as I could have been. It was pretty crowded, and most of the stalls are so close to each other that you have to turn sideways just to walk in between the shops. I don't usually buy things when I travel, even for myself (my photos make the best souvenirs), so I don't really know how other 'travel shoppers' would feel about this place, but it seemed to have just about anything that a tourist could want, from traditional clothes, toys, pictures, knock off hand bags, and dried/fresh/pickled fruit. Not only that, but most of it was incredibly cheap; the traditional outfits I bought for Logan were less than $10 (compared with traditional Korean hanbok, which will set you back a few hundred).

After picking up a few things, I headed back to the hostel. The market closes at sundown, so it was dark when I headed back to the hostel. A side note about Saigon, the traffic here is unbelievable. Just about everyone is on scooters or motorbikes, though there is a fair amount of car and bus traffic, too. In some places there are separate lanes just for the motos. The only law that seems to be enforced is the helmet law, and it's only for people over the age of 3 (and yes, I saw toddlers on motos with no helmet). The trick to crossing any street is to wait until it seems like there will be a break (however slight) in the oncoming traffic. Then you walk across, at a slow and steady pace. The motos will not stop for you, they will simply calculate your path and swerve around you. If you try to run across, you will almost certainly be hit. If you wait until there are no oncoming bikes, you'll be rooted to the same spot for a month. (Mom- if you ever visit Saigon, be prepared never to leave a 1 block radius).


I'd gotten an email the day before from the tour group about picking me up on the morning of the 27th to go for the Mekong Delta trip. The problem was, of course, that I was still in Cambodia on the morning of the 27th, and I had booked the trip to begin on the 29th. I sent them a reply email from Cambodia, but I wanted to check with them and see if I could go a day early on the boat tour, since I had seen a bit of Saigon and was anxious to get out of the city. I tried to contact the tour company through the hostel, but things were getting lost in translation, and it took a while to even figure out that I was talking to the head office of the hotel, and not the tour group. It turned out that the tour company's office was right around the corner, so I went in person. I talked to the owner (I think), and got everything confirmed and paid for for the original date. (I struck up a conversation with her because she was wearing a University of Florida shirt, and I was intensely curious if she had any idea what it meant.) I thought about going out for a drink and trying to meet some people, but I was really tired, so I decided to save my energy for a proper self-guided walking tour of the city the next day.

I had breakfast at the hotel around 8 and headed out. I used the Lonely Planet walking tour as a starting point, and set about wandering through the city. The city's pretty big, and much more than a normal person could walk in a day. I started out at the Ho Chi Minh museum, which was vaguely interesting.


The displays seemed a bit old and static, but still had some cultural points. Probably the most interesting thing I saw wasn't even in the museum. I was standing on the balcony overlooking the street below, trying to get a picture of the Vietnamese flag that was flying from the railing (I was waiting for the wind to pick it up a bit, but it wasn't cooperating at first).

As I was waiting, I heard a screeching sound, followed by a metallic thump. I looked down to see a guy picking up his moto from the street, as other riders simply drove around him. I'm not sure if he just fell off his bike, or if he hit something (or something hit him), but it further solidified my resolve NOT to ride a bike in Saigon. I'd enjoyed my motorbike trip in Cambodia, I didn't want to ruin it with an accident (And I know one person personally who had a motorbike accident, and another through a friend who's been permanently brain damaged as a result, both in Vietnam).


After that museum, I tried to walk toward the War Remnants Museum, but ended up at the Reunification Palace first. In this general area of the city, there are old propaganda posters on just about every corner.



The Palace was nice, but the best part was the fresh coconut I had afterwards. They pull it out of the fridge, cut off the top, stick in a straw, and hand it to you. Yum!



After enjoying the coconut, I headed to the War Remnants Museum. Interesting place, but definitely a slant on the 'truth'.


Some of the pictures were horrifying, others were just sad. There was even a section outside that was set up to look like one of the tiger cage prisons.



I figured three museums was enough for one morning, so I just started meandering back towards my hostel. I stopped at an outdoor market, but it was too similar to a Korean one (i.e. a market I would never buy something from). Had some Pho Bo for lunch, and made my way back to the Ben Thanh market. I tried asking a moto driver about going to one of the remote pagodas, but the initial price was about $10 an hour, which after Cambodia ($15 from dawn till after dusk), seemed exorbitant. They tried to negotiate with me, and offered me less than half that, but I decided it wasn't worth the risk on one of those motos.



Most of the cafes and restaurants have tables facing the street, which makes for perfect people watching. For every car I saw, there were about 100 motos, 3 walking vendors (selling sunglasses, photocopied novels and travel books with realistic bindings, lighters, and even chicken heads), 5 foreigners, 10 locals, and half a cyclo (a bike with a seat on the back - there weren't many of these).


I sat at a cafe for a few hours just people watching, and then headed to a nearby park, where it seemed they were having some sort of cultural festival. There were little stages set up, with sets meant to look like different parts of the world. On each stage were performers that each did their own country's style of performance, though it got annoying when stages opposite each other were performing at the same time - at top volume.


The park was rather big, with a large pond that had boats on it that seemed to be part of a performance. I was fascinated by the bats that were flying around the pond more than anything else.

After wandering around the festival for a few hours, I headed home to get some sleep so I'd be ready for my trip to the Mekong Delta the next day.