Insights in Hong Kong

We flew out on a Thursday night and got to Saigon around 9:30pm. As soon as we walked out of the terminal we were met by various people who all spoke English fairly well and wanted to give us a ride wherever we wanted to go. In Saigon there are two options: pay a little more and take a taxi or if one has the courage, as well as a complete lack of concern for personal safety, a motorbike offers a less expensive option. These motorbikes are of course very safe as helmet laws and driver certifications are in place. Actually that’s not true, I could count the number of helmets I saw while in Vietnam on my hands and the driving style is less than cautious. As I am sure you have guessed by now, we choose to take motorbikes to the hotel. The ride starts out with the revelation that traffic laws are quite discretionary and no commonly observed rules are in place. Weaving in and out of cars along with the hundreds of other motorbikes was really a good time. The horn is the only safety mechanism on any vehicle in Vietnam and it is used profusely in order to alert others of your presence. As I felt the warmth of the muffler on my leg of the motorbike less than six inches to the right in relation to the bike I was riding I realized this was the only way to get around town. When we got to the hotel I found and executed the first cockroach of the trip as it attempted to climb onto my bed.Crossing the street in Saigon is an adventure which also cannot be underestimated. The Vietnamese don’t use silly lights that tell you when to cross in front of oncoming traffic. The communist way is to share the road fairly with everyone. So once I had seen a native cross I realized I now too would need to slingshot myself into the fray of honking motorbikes and cars if I was going to leave the hotel. As long as a steady pace is kept the motorists are reasonably adept at allowing pedestrian movement. This is certainly not to say that when a car is coming from the left at around 40 mph and another tourist van is to your right, all while being swarmed around by honking motorbikes, that the experience can’t be a small bit frightening. I saw the reunification palace where the “evil” South Vietnamese and the “American Aggressors” planned out their tactics to “hurt the Vietnamese people” and attack civilians. I went to the War Remnants Museum( formerly known as the American Oppression Museum) where I saw some truly stomach turning pictures and stories along with a portion of the museum sponsored by the great Commonwealth of Kentucky which was slightly less upsetting, but certainly still very real. The atrocities of the war are much more authentic in my mind now that I have met people who lost parents and victims of land mines who were born long after the war was over.The Cu Chi tunnels were amazing. I was able to crawl through a small portion of the tunnels and I can’t imagine the fortitude necessary to live in them for months at a time. There were displays with all the traps used by the Vietnamese and information on the process of converting shrapnel and defective bombs into weapons to be used against American soldiers. At the end of the tour there was a gun range and I shot an M-16 at a standing target about 80 yards out (2 for 2). There was actually another lower level of the tunnels which I had considered attempting to crawl through but upon asking further questions it was revealed to me that bats, spiders, snakes and scorpions all lived in the tunnel which was 80 cm x 60cm. I declined the invitation politely and moved on.Disclaimer:Overall the trip to Vietnam was excellent although I wouldn’t suggest it for anyone who wasn’t looking for an adventure. Saigon is a very dirty place and safety is a real concern for visitors. There are few public restrooms in the city so people often just find a “happy tree” and relieve themselves at the side of the road. Prostitution is also a huge industry and is offered to westerners on about every street. I witnessed a woman fall off a motorbike my first night and another accident the following day. When traveling to Vietnam stay in groups and don’t take a motor bike late at night. It’s a great place but a wary attitude is a wise one.