One of my first thoughts of Ho Chi Minh City, which I will now refer to as HCMC, was that of order. It is obvious from looking around that it is city that is growing fast and that their are A LOT of people here but it seems to be a whole lot more organised than Hanoi. People driving in opposite directions are on opposite sides of the road, there are traffic lights, road crossings and markings, high rise buildings etc... All the things you expect to see in a city this size. A stark comparsion to Hanoi. Hanoi seems to be city growing too fast that it doesn't quite know what to do with itself. I'm very surprised that Hanoi is still the capital city but then when I think of the history and division between the north and the south it makes sense. Apparently no one from the south ever visits the north and vice versa and the split between the two is very obvious. This is not to say that I did not enjoy Hanoi, I did, the contrast between the two is just noteworthy.
I have failed to mention earlier in my blog that whenever we go anywhere in a taxi I get the front seat. In a normal place (outside of South East Asia), I'd be thrilled with this offer but here it is torture. At first I thought my family were been really nice giving me this seat but I quickly learnt it was so that they didn't have to face the craziness of the Vietnam roads. Trust me, it is crazy and now I just look out the side window or to the ground. I liken it to the nerves you feel when teaching someone to drive or when you're with a very new driver. So, thank you family, thank you very much.
Vietnam is the land of motorcyles and we have seen some interesting things loaded onto them. We've seen them loaded up with china teapots (a shop of teapots I may add), fruit and vegetables, tvs, flowers, bird cages, pretty much you name and we've seen it. However, we are always very fascinated when we see people racing along with small children and yesterday I think I caught a great shot of this. It's also interesting to look at peoples' attire when they ride, yes, they all have helmets but you have teenagers, well dressed businessmen, old women, dolled up women, again, you name the type of person and we've seen them on a motorbike. Here are some pictures to back up what I'm saying.
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| Everyone going in the same direction :) |
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| Photo of the trip! Look at those kids! |
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| The casual lady rider |
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| All types riding motorbikes |
We are staying at a lovely hotel called Grand Silverland in the middle of District 1 HCMC. It's very central and just around the corner is the Bến Thành Market, a huge market, that many people have recommended to us. We have another four nights here so will probably go check it out tomorrow night. Tonight we are meeting up some of the Phan Van Phuoc family, the Vietnamese family dad works with, for dinner and they will be able to tell us some things worth seeing and doing here. I'm looking forward to meeting up with them. For those of you who know Ernie, we were eating breakfast this morning and he casually walked in, we all stared at him for a while before we realised who it was and boy it was so nice to see another face from home.
Today we are just going to venture out around our hotel and get amongst the hustle and bustle of this big city.
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