Day one in Ho Chi Minh City
Mar. 31st, 2005 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lsandersonAfter a short flight 1:45 from Singapore on a Singapore Airlines flight, we arrived in Vietnam. Thong warned that the lines from immigration would be long, and he was right.
There were a lot of lines, and they were all long, and none of them were moving very fast. We picked on, got in it and waited and waited and waited. When the time came for us, Thong went ahead with the two passports and visas. He talked with the guy, and we had to amend the entrance forms for customs to mention this laptop and the two cameras I brought.
Afterwards, we went down to baggage, where all of the suitcases were waiting. None missing, none broken, and none busted. Thong got a cart; we piled them on, and proceeded to customs. We had to shovel things onto a scanner, and they scanned everything. Only time will tell if the film made it.
Tin met us outside the airport, which was packed with people waiting to connect with other travelers. She got a taxi, not quite a big enough taxi for all of the suitcases, and off we went through a maze of twisted passages filled with people on motorcycles driving as if they had two modes: horn and gas. It made be believe that the ability to school is still in the gene pool.
After a maze of turns and busy streets, we went off of the larger streets on to a succession of smaller and smaller streets, until we arrived at the house of Thong’s parents. We piled the suitcases out of the taxi, and went into the house. It was the first time I’ve met Thong’s parents, although I’ve heard quite a bit about them. We chatted, Tin and Thong’s mother went to the kitchen to cook, and ran out of gas. Shortly afterwards, a brave soul arrived on a motorcycle with a full tank of propane, and the cooking continued. The food was excellent, although I was a poor guest and not very hungry. We had rice, soup, beef with vegetable, ribs, and fried fish. Afterwards, fruit. (Asian apple, soursop, Asian oranges – Thong and I ate an orange or two)
Then we showered, I napped for a bit, and then Tin rented a taxi for the afternoon and we went off. First, we stopped at a mall – huge building with various open areas for selling everything from western double door refrigerators to clothes. There were a few other non-Asians there, but on the order of one or two.
Driving in Saigon is an art. On the way back to Thong’s, the driver made U-turns twice on busy streets. It’s not something I would have the guts for. The flows of traffic parts and flows around the disturbance. Lanes are for sissies, and the mixture of cars, buses, motorcycles, scooters, bikes, and pedestrians is amazing. Nobody ever seems to watch where they are. The horn is the main navigation instrument. There was only once or twice, where some children were on a bike and looked as if they were going to run in front of the taxi that any of it made any sense. There’s definitely a weighting for the size of the vehicle. Cars and buses are higher in the pecking order than motorcycles or scooters. Still, in all the chaos of the three trips so far, we’ve only seen one accident, where it looked as if a taxi had rear-ended another car. It did not appear that there was much, if any, damage to either vehicle.
All of the city does not have water, although I’m not sure about sewage. The water pressure is based on the British system of tanks on the top of buildings. Although, here, they’re stainless steal tanks.
The houses are narrow and tall. Often, there’s a balcony on the top floor. It seems the shape is decreed by the lot size, although I’d guess it also helps with cooling. Thong’s got an AC in one bedroom, which is where we’re sleeping. Otherwise, the house is open to the temperature.
The most major crises so far was plugging all of the batteries in. We definitely should have gone for a hotel room in Singapore to charge up the batteries. It does not work to take pictures with a dead battery. And the one in the canon is starting to get old.
The Sony seems to be holding fine. It’s going down very slowly, although I’ve not taken that much footage… mostly shots from a taxi with the traffic.
We met Thong’s aunt, and I took a few shots of her. They seem to think the cameras are too attractive to thieves, but at the mall, there was a photographer with a big canon or Sony taking pictures, and at the wedding reception outside one of the big downtown hotels, there were other cameras.
On the way back from downtown, where we finally ate phó, we passed a celebration that looked to be out of a communist manual. We didn’t stop, but it looked as if it was celebrating soldiers going off to service or some such thing. Too much brown.
We went past what I think was the American embassy in the bad old days, although it could have been the government palace – that’s what Thong and Tin thought it was.
We debated about going out on the river on one of the tour boats, but I figured that both Thong and my interest would be too brief until we’d slept. Now we’re both up at 3:27 am, and I’ve been playing solitary for quite some time.
Allergies are in overdrive, and I’m chewing my way through the pseudopheds on top of allegro. I have nasonex and steroids still to go if I have to.
It is Easter, and there are big church services. Thong’s mother went off. We went off downtown.
My first cold shower in a long time – I used to dread them in Greece, where the water was cold. Here, the water tank on top of the house keeps the water fairly warm. It’s not half bad.
Thong’s been folding clothes for a bit. We can not either one sleep.
There were a lot of lines, and they were all long, and none of them were moving very fast. We picked on, got in it and waited and waited and waited. When the time came for us, Thong went ahead with the two passports and visas. He talked with the guy, and we had to amend the entrance forms for customs to mention this laptop and the two cameras I brought.
Afterwards, we went down to baggage, where all of the suitcases were waiting. None missing, none broken, and none busted. Thong got a cart; we piled them on, and proceeded to customs. We had to shovel things onto a scanner, and they scanned everything. Only time will tell if the film made it.
Tin met us outside the airport, which was packed with people waiting to connect with other travelers. She got a taxi, not quite a big enough taxi for all of the suitcases, and off we went through a maze of twisted passages filled with people on motorcycles driving as if they had two modes: horn and gas. It made be believe that the ability to school is still in the gene pool.
After a maze of turns and busy streets, we went off of the larger streets on to a succession of smaller and smaller streets, until we arrived at the house of Thong’s parents. We piled the suitcases out of the taxi, and went into the house. It was the first time I’ve met Thong’s parents, although I’ve heard quite a bit about them. We chatted, Tin and Thong’s mother went to the kitchen to cook, and ran out of gas. Shortly afterwards, a brave soul arrived on a motorcycle with a full tank of propane, and the cooking continued. The food was excellent, although I was a poor guest and not very hungry. We had rice, soup, beef with vegetable, ribs, and fried fish. Afterwards, fruit. (Asian apple, soursop, Asian oranges – Thong and I ate an orange or two)
Then we showered, I napped for a bit, and then Tin rented a taxi for the afternoon and we went off. First, we stopped at a mall – huge building with various open areas for selling everything from western double door refrigerators to clothes. There were a few other non-Asians there, but on the order of one or two.
Driving in Saigon is an art. On the way back to Thong’s, the driver made U-turns twice on busy streets. It’s not something I would have the guts for. The flows of traffic parts and flows around the disturbance. Lanes are for sissies, and the mixture of cars, buses, motorcycles, scooters, bikes, and pedestrians is amazing. Nobody ever seems to watch where they are. The horn is the main navigation instrument. There was only once or twice, where some children were on a bike and looked as if they were going to run in front of the taxi that any of it made any sense. There’s definitely a weighting for the size of the vehicle. Cars and buses are higher in the pecking order than motorcycles or scooters. Still, in all the chaos of the three trips so far, we’ve only seen one accident, where it looked as if a taxi had rear-ended another car. It did not appear that there was much, if any, damage to either vehicle.
All of the city does not have water, although I’m not sure about sewage. The water pressure is based on the British system of tanks on the top of buildings. Although, here, they’re stainless steal tanks.
The houses are narrow and tall. Often, there’s a balcony on the top floor. It seems the shape is decreed by the lot size, although I’d guess it also helps with cooling. Thong’s got an AC in one bedroom, which is where we’re sleeping. Otherwise, the house is open to the temperature.
The most major crises so far was plugging all of the batteries in. We definitely should have gone for a hotel room in Singapore to charge up the batteries. It does not work to take pictures with a dead battery. And the one in the canon is starting to get old.
The Sony seems to be holding fine. It’s going down very slowly, although I’ve not taken that much footage… mostly shots from a taxi with the traffic.
We met Thong’s aunt, and I took a few shots of her. They seem to think the cameras are too attractive to thieves, but at the mall, there was a photographer with a big canon or Sony taking pictures, and at the wedding reception outside one of the big downtown hotels, there were other cameras.
On the way back from downtown, where we finally ate phó, we passed a celebration that looked to be out of a communist manual. We didn’t stop, but it looked as if it was celebrating soldiers going off to service or some such thing. Too much brown.
We went past what I think was the American embassy in the bad old days, although it could have been the government palace – that’s what Thong and Tin thought it was.
We debated about going out on the river on one of the tour boats, but I figured that both Thong and my interest would be too brief until we’d slept. Now we’re both up at 3:27 am, and I’ve been playing solitary for quite some time.
Allergies are in overdrive, and I’m chewing my way through the pseudopheds on top of allegro. I have nasonex and steroids still to go if I have to.
It is Easter, and there are big church services. Thong’s mother went off. We went off downtown.
My first cold shower in a long time – I used to dread them in Greece, where the water was cold. Here, the water tank on top of the house keeps the water fairly warm. It’s not half bad.
Thong’s been folding clothes for a bit. We can not either one sleep.
