October 25, 2011
If today would have a keyword, it would have been LAUGHING. It was one of those days where you even got a nice abdominal workout in the process. When I was in Bittersweet, I ended up running into Eva. We left together in search of the Reunification Palace. After asking directions from everyone that did not speak English, we had finally made it; or so we thought. I was snapping pictures and ogling the large yellow building, not really understanding why it was so revered. I turned to Eva, and told him I wasn’t sure if we were in the right place. Everyone that was leaving the building had on a blue uniform, and something didn’t quite feel right. We were about to walk into a side door of the building, when a Vietnamese man comes careening up to us on his moped. Frantically, he points at the entrance gate and yells at us in a stern voice. We asked, “Reunification Palace?” His entire demeanor and his face changed completely, and he started chuckling. He said, “No, police station,” and then pointed us in the direction of the Palace. Ah, the joys of not being able to know a different language.
We finally find the Palace, and it was confirmed by the security guard working the gate when he cautiously asked, “Reunification Palace,” hesitating on even walking into the gate. Smiling, he said, “Yes…but it close at 4…” It was 4:30 at the time. On the bright side, we did get to see it, as well as a Vietnamese police station, and we weren’t locked up either; optimism at its finest.
We then proceeded to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and did not mistake city hall or the community center for it; learning from your mistakes. The Cathedral was pretty, and you could definitely tell that the French had been very influential in Saigon from not only the architecture of the Cathedral, but from many of the other older buildings as well.
Leaving the Cathedral, Eva and I were trying to decide on how we were going to get back home to the ship. During our discussion, a man on a moped flies up to us, and emphatically waves at us, and then his seat. We waved him away, saying no thanks. After walking down the rest of the street, he zooms up to us again, as if out of nowhere. He says, “Only 40,000 dong.” I looked at Eva and smiled; I was so down for a crazy Vietnamese moped driver to take us back. We told him where we were going, and hopped on. The driver handed me a helmet, and I strapped it on, ready to go. Eva hopped on behind me, and it sure was a tight fit. I have no idea how we both managed to get on that bike. During the entire ride, all the other mopeds were staring at us, and some were laughing. If you have ever been to Viet Nam, you must know how crazy the moped drivers are. Because of them, even crossing the road is a thrill in itself. No exaggeration. I literally feel proud when I cross the street here, as if I accomplished a personal achievement; or maybe I just feel happy to not lying on the road as road kill. Either way, I get a cheap thrill out of it. The fad of crosswalks hasn’t really reached this part of Asia yet, and I am not sure if they ever will. At one point in the ride, a car almost side-swiped us, and another moped driver almost T-boned us. Throughout the entire ride, Eva and I couldn’t stop laughing. All in all, it was a successful ride.
We got back to the ship, and I showered and waited for Wiliama to get back from his FDP, so we could go out to dinner. He showed up at my room around 7, and we headed out to dinner with Eva and Adam. We tried to find a taxi, and ended up getting one that was not legitimate. Instead, the meter charged us 100,000 dong instead of what was supposed to be 30,000; joys of being a tourist. We wanted to go to a restaurant that Wiliama had heard about, but the taxi driver didn’t speak English, so he had no idea where we wanted to go. Instead, we got dropped off on Pasteur Street, (again, the lovely French influence), and walked to a Dim Sum restaurant. It was absolutely delicious. I ordered fried fish and custard bun dim sum which was A-mazing. After dinner, we went walking around. We came across what seemed to be “Make-out point” for the Vietnamese, and were stared at the entire time we were trying to make our way through the park, as if we were interrupting an extremely secret ritual; it was beyond awkward. We went into the Diamond Department Store, and for some reason couldn’t stop laughing. Adam was simply being Adam :P Eva managed to try to go up a down escalator because she had seen a sign for bowling. A security guard was at the bottom of the escalator though, and Wiliama told her to just go down, as he seemed to be scrutinizing us. Haha. We left, wanting to find a place to get some ice cream or drinks. We came across a place called Gia Boa, which has Vietnamese accent marks, but I can’t really recall where they go.. It was dimly lit as we climbed up to the second floor. Wiliama and I got Tiger Beer, which seems to be the equivalent to Natty Light in the States. Adam got Bailey’s, and Eva got something as well. We spent a lot of time sitting there and just talking, mainly laughing about I don’t even remember what? The TV in the bar was airing the show “Monsters Inside Me.” I watched that a lot this past summer before this trip, so I had been prepared for the worst when coming to these countries. I’m clean so far so good. Hopefully I won’t get my 15 minutes of fame by being on this show though when we get back to the States. We left the café around 10:30 and headed back to the ship. Wiliama, Adam, and I went back to Wiliama’s room and ended up talking for a few hours. I got back to my room around 1:30am or so. Tomorrow is going to be a Spa Day with Wiliama and Adam J Two hour massage, manicure and pedicure for under $15? Please and thanks.
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