My Little Southeast Asia Adventure - Eight Stop: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
June 27 - June 29, 2008

"Ho Chi Minh is not a city that will roll out the red carpet just because you have arrived. On the contrary, it's proud enough to look you back in the eye and say, "Only for the brave." "- a writer for an airline magazine

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was formerly known as Saigon. I took a 6 hour bus
from Phnom Penh to get there.

First thing that I noticed about HCMC: I've never seen so many motorbikes! A
common joke among visitors here is, "There are more motorbikes than people."


Highlights of my stay here:

On my first night, my phone (N95) almost got snatched away from me. I took a motorbike going to my host's house. When I had the driver stop at the street where I was to get off, I stayed on the motorbike while reviewing my host's address on my phone. Suddenly, another motorbike passed beside us and the girl behind the driver took hold of my phone and tried to grab it away from me. When I realized what was happening, I shouted AAAAAAAAAAH!!! (LOL) Luckily, the phone slid from her hand when the motorbike sped off. I didn't feel scared after what just happened. All I could think of was, "What the fuck was that?!"

Before coming to HCMC, I contacted My, a Vietnamese couchsurfer girl to host
me. She had major exams coming so she couldn't host me but instead, referred
me to Steven who lived with 2 other expats. My hosts were Steven, Charlie
and Whitney. Steven is a Canadian who works as an English teacher, Charlie
is from Buffalo, New York and works in the same school as Steven, and
Whitney is an American who works for the Marketing department of a hotel
there. They were awesome hosts.

The night that I arrived at my hosts' house, I realized there were EIGHT of
us couchsurfers that they are hosting! Diego and Camillo from Colombia,
Claudio from Brazil, Kim from Australia, Jonas from Germany, and the 2
Canadian girls whom I didn't get to know because they weren't able to join
our little party. That night, we went to apartment's rooftop where we
watched the stars while drinking what may have been Vietnam's version of
lambanog and talking about everything from work to red pill and blue pills.
Everyone was so drunk and "rocked". LOL!

My, (the Vietnamese couchsurfer) took me, Steven, Karen (another CSer from
Canada but wasn't staying with us) and Claudio to a public swimming pool.
The Rules of the Pool:

1. Leave all your bags, clothes and everything else in the counters
designated for boys and girls – i.e, you should only be in your swim wear
with nothing else with you except your goggles if you have them, and your
claim tag when you enter the pool area.

2. All boys shall stay on the right side of the pool while all girls
stay on the left. A floating marker is in the middle of the pool to
implement this, and should not be crossed.

3. You only have 45 minutes to swim in the pool. Every hour, a bell
will ring to signal the people to get in the pool. After 45 minutes, another
bell will ring and everyone should be out of the pool. The next bell will
ring in 15 minutes to let the next set of customers swim in the pool.

4. Once you get out of the pool before the 45 minutes is over, you
cannot get back in.

I.KID.YOU.NOT. Those really are the rules of this particular pool. Of course
I couldn't take photos because I couldn't bring anything! Steven, however,
managed to sneak in his underwater camera because he placed it in his swim
shorts' pocket.

I played bowling, pool (me and Steven won against an American and his
partner, YAY!) and went drinking with the other couchsurfers. On my way out
of the ladies room, a white guy who was standing near the door was looking
at my chest and just blurted out "Wow. Nice boobs." I stood there surprised
for a moment, not sure how to react.

Then I said "Thank you."

Surprised, he said, "Oh. You understand English?"

"Yes."

"I meant that as a compliment."

"I did take it as a compliment."

Apparently, he must've thought I was a local who couldn't understand English
(Most Vietnamese don't).

I didn't really get around HCMC because I decided to stay there for only 2
days. I did see some sights around the city though.