Attempting to Surviving Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Let me start with a story.
It was 10:00pm in Saigon, and although it was dark outside, the numerous neon signs and lights from within the small compact stores allowed just enough light for me to comfortably walk along the street. Unnatural to most streets in Ho Chi Minh City, this street had only a few motorbikes pass by. After a search down some side streets in District 1, I found a sim card that would bring my borrowed iPhone to life. Thats right, I have a working iPhone now. My confidence in the city has increased tenfolds now that I have GPS. Anyway, this street was in between main roads. It was narrow, and had no sidewalks. It was a hot night, but bearable with my shorts and sandals. I was captivated by my surroundings. Even though it was only a block away from my hotel, I had never been down this street before. The food vendors seemed more authentically Vietnamese. There were plenty of people congregated next to these food vendors and mini market stores. I was so focused on my new surroundings that I didn't see in front of me. SQUISH. I'm not sure if there is a better word than that to describe my experience with the thick and gooey, slightly juicy, substance I had stepped in. I was almost positive I had stepped in a large pile of dog poo, which I am entirely used to being around numerous dogs my whole life. When I turned around to analyze it, however, I was horrified. The only recognizable thing on what I stepped on was a nude colored tail. What the.... Dear lord. Yup. Definitely just stepped in the mutilated body of a rat hit by some kind of automobile or motorbike. That squish was me stepping in all its guts and bloodied fur. I cringed and slightly yelped. I had bloodied guts of a rat all over the bottom of my sandal. I made sure to wipe my feet off as best as I could before I entered the shop I was walking to. If only they knew what was on their welcome mat.
I am quite impressed with my reaction. I guess I have just seen so much dingier things and have put my feet in and on so many ******* things, that this was really quite a minor experience. It makes for an awesome story though. I have told a few people in my group about it and I love getting their facial reactions of pure horror and disgust. Haha
I had the opportunity to go visit the Cu Chi Tunnels the next day which was something else. For those of you who do not know what the Cu Chi Tunnels are, they are part of a network of underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. They literally lived in these tunnels to survive the carpet bombing from both the American and Australian troops. They would live in these tunnels, performing daily tasks like cook, sleep, socially gather, conduct military business, etc. The Viet Cong were quite intelligent in their design of the tunnel network. The tunnels are about 3 feet wide by 3 feet tall. The average American or Australian soldier could literally not fit inside the tunnels designed for the short and agile Vietnamese soldiers. In some sections you have to crawl through.
Going through the tunnels was gnarly. I am a 5'3" female, with a pretty athletic build. I had a small mesh bag on my back containing a water bottle. I could barely make it through these tunnels without hitting my bag against the top, or scraping my shoulders along the sides. A couple of times I had to stop and readjust my bag so I could fit into some segments. These series of tunnels were only about 6 meters under the ground. There are also an entire network tunnels nearly 20 meters below the ground. Could you imagine being in one of those, knowing theres 20 meters of earth above you. NO thank you. But they had to do what they had to do to survive the immense fire power of the westerners. Did I mention the booby traps. Those things were INSANE! They designed them specifically to make sure intruders couldn't make it very far inside the tunnels.
Speaking of those misfortunate ones who discovered the booby traps, one interesting thing I learned about the tunnels was that they were originally discovered by the Australian soldiers. A couple of brave souls (short men at that) decided to enter the tunnels in search for Viet Cong. The men who would storm the tunnels looking for Viet Cong were labeled as "tunnel ferrets". Most of the American soldiers did not understand what a "ferret" was, so they just called those volunteers who entered as "tunnel rats". The name stuck ever since.
The Cu Chi Tunnels was one of those experiences that I look back at and reflect on with a bit of skepticism. Before we entered the tunnels, we watched a brief documentary about the individuals who inhabited the Cu Chi region. The documentary referred to the western military forces as barbaric and their actions "like demons," while displaying American planes dropping bombs upon the region. I came to Vietnam to learn about the Vietnam War in a different perspective. I am getting what I wanted. The rest of that day was a blur in the comfort of my air conditioned room. The Cu Chi Tunnels is a day event. So I had nothing planned by pure relaxation. A friend of mine in the group and I sought out a dominos pizza on map quest. Despite the pouring rain we made the 15 minute walk there drenched. That night I had the most appreciated cheese pizza of my life. Dominos just gained a new regular.
Surviving in Saigon means that you need to learn how to be bold crossing streets. I have mastered this. When crossing streets its imperative that you look into oncoming traffic and let the motorbikes choose their way around you. If you flinch, chances are the motorbikes will flinch too (no good). Motorbikes are easy to navigate through, it's the cars you have to look out for. They're ruthless. They stop for no one. When you cross the street, motorbikes will give you the right away and go around you. Cars, however will hit you if you are in their way. Seriously, they will. On the busy Saigon streets, vendors and their food carts are also scattered in the mix of traffic.
On my way to McDonalds this morning (Yes, I know, McDonalds, but sometimes its nice to just have a McMuffin instead of Pho) I crossed the incredibly busy round-about intersection by my hotel. Most people in my group are dead afraid to cross this, however, a few of us have taken on the challenge of crossing this trecherous intersection in order to reach the glorious golden arches. I have crossed this many times now, and am a mini expert on dodging the fast traffic. I crossed part of it, and once I reached the center of this intersection I stopped to look in the opposite direction. I noticed a woman vendor was pushing a cart down the street alongside the traffic. She was pretty far down, so I thought nothing of it. She was plainly visible to me and I figured with the distance I was also plainly visible. Heres the thing; this crazy round-about intersection sits on a minor decline. That cart I originally thought was 20-30 yards away was suddenly rushing towards me when I finally looked back in her direction. The thing nailed me. I had just gotten a pedicure this morning, so I was mainly focused on making sure my toe nails didn't get run over. The cart ended up hitting my upper leg, just under my hip. It hit me so hard I flew a good foot or two before I hit the ground. The lady wasn't with the cart. This was obviously an accident, and the woman frantically ran over to me while waving her arms. When she approached me to help me up, I shook it off and told her that I was okay, and she was alright, "all good, no worries." She proceeded to ask if I wanted to buy anything off of her cart and I gave her a polite shake of the hand. Man o man this hurt SO BAD. I ended up attempting to walk it off back to the hotel. I hobbled back and quickly went up to my room where I could lay down for a minute. After some IBProfin, and a good nap, all was normal in the world. That one left a mark.
I normally have been avoiding the whole "group dynamics" situation in order to get a better feel of the city (also, I tend to get tired of groups quick). I decided that this afternoon I would join a large part of the group to visit the China Town area in District 5. I thought this would be a good idea since I wanted to visit the area anyway later on. After an interesting ride on public transportation (bus) we visited the Nhi Phu Pagoda and the Thien Hau Temple. Both were very beautifully decorated with large lamps and golden Chinese statues. Oh, and a ridiculous amount of burning incense.
The Nhi Phu Pagoda was pretty cool. When you enter, you're immediately greeted with beautiful hanging lanterns and artwork. Though, it took me a couple of attempts to actually make it inside the pagoda. The smoke and smell of the incense inside is so powerful I couldn't stop sneezing for two minutes. And when I finally made it inside, I had to cover my mouth and nose in order to bear it. I quickly took some snaps inside the Pagoda and immediately went into the outside portion to grab air. To my delight the most awesome thing ever was outside, a turtle fountain! They created this mountain waterfall pond that had tons of turtles. I counted more than 15 turtles, but I am sure I missed a few. They were so cute. Apart from the rat that was running around the majestic mountain fountain, I had a lovely time looking and gawking at the cuteness of the turtles.
The heat was getting the best of me. It was nearly 39 degrees outside (thats over 100 degrees Fahrenheit!) and I was NOT having it with the 95% humidity. After three bottles of water in the span of an hour, I was still feeling dehydrated and light headed. I attempted to enter into the Thien Hau Temple but was put off by the immediate slap in the face from the pervasive incense smoke. It was INCREDIBLY similar to the pagoda I was just at before. I took a tour look around at some of the artwork and quickly decided that the heat and smoke mixture was just too much. I told the program coordinators that I needed to leave to head to the family mart across the street for water and air conditioning. Luckily they said that the group would join when they completed the temple. Best decision all day, but it still didn't help much with my heat exhaustion.
After we visited the religious sites in the area we were off to explore other parts of District 5. Now that I was able to sit down for a little and have some water, I felt refreshed and ready to see more of the China Town area. We took a quick public bus ride over to Binh Tay, the huge, crowded market with everything you couple possibly imagine. I have this shopping gene in me. Whether it's a grungy little market or a posh indoor super mall, I get overly excited about shopping. It was VERY crowded. I couldn't walk down an isle of shops without knocking into someone. "xin lỗi" "xin lỗi" I kept saying as I accidentally nudged people. Saying it constantly got to be so much though, and after only an hour I was hitting people left and right without saying anything, so ***** given. You gotta do what you gotta do to get through the market. I found some awesome little rice-picker conical hats, called non la in Vietnamese. They had some little ones made for toddlers and babies. I just had to buy one for my 6 month old niece back at home. Not to mention at Vietnamese prices (seriously, I love this place). Although the market was cool to walk through, it was all indoors. The heat got to be overwhelming again, and I had to leave to stand outside. My head was beginning to spin and I was becoming light headed again.
Luckily our time came to an end because the market was closing. We headed out to take a long bus ride around the city to an awesome viewing point on a bridge over the Saigon River. Ho Chi Minh City is spectacular. Its huge. There are skyscrapers everywhere. The buildings are also beautifully designed. The architecture in this city is beyond amazing. I still can't get over how exquisite the lotus slower blossom shaped Bitexco tower is. The people of Saigon refer to this building as the "symbol of Ho Chi Minh City." Luckily, I get to see this wonderful building from my room everyday.
My heat exhaustion hit me the hardest as we left from this viewing spot to try the street food. We caught some taxis and headed to Co Giang Street to try some authentic Vietnamese street vendor food. I was quite excited to learn that we were going to try Bò lá lốt, a traditional simple beef finger food. Basically, the beef is grilled in some green stuff (I assume some kind of leaf). Once we get it at the table we use a sheet of rice paper to put lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, some of those plain white rice noodles (I think they're called bún), and top it with the little beef strip. Once you have all of the ingredients in the rice paper you roll it and you eat it. Yum! Simple. It was some of the best street food I have had so far in Vietnam.
I am going to interject here with something that happened while I was eating at the little table next to the vendor stall. As we were eating we all felt things run across our feet. I was wearing sandals so I noticed it instantly. I looked down to see rats running back and forth over our feet looking for table scraps. Let me repeat this... THERE WERE RATS ON MY FEET. My group mates can vouch for me when I tell you that these rats were HUGE. They have definitely been getting well fed from the bò lá lốt table scraps. I couldn't believe this. Haha could you ever imagine something like this in the US? And no one cares. The people at the vendor tables just continued to eat like no big deal. Talk about some cultural differences. My goodness...
At this point I was absolutely exhausted. I had been suffering from light headedness and overheating. While we went to the next vendor stall my body started to shut down. I began feeling nauseated beyond belief. My vision began to blur ever so slightly. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, but whatever it was, I was not feeling well at all. I told our coordinator that I needed to go home, and that I was feeling really ill. As soon as I got back into my room and onto my bed, I felt like I was going to be sick. I ended up throwing up and when my program coordinator came to me I had a fever. My body temperature was quite high. I was still suffering from intense nausea and I was a bit delusional. I know this feeling. It happened to me before during an absurdly hot day when I played soccer. I was having a heat stroke. Not an intense one, but one that made me physically ill for the rest of the night and even until the next morning. It is grossly hot here. Obviously drinking water cannot prevent this from happening as I had nearly 10 bottles of water within the span of 4-5 hours. I now know that my body is exhausted of the heat, and I have to be careful of spending too much time in it. I learned a lesson. Now I know.
<3 Jenni