Birthday celebrations in Saigon

Trip Start Oct 01, 2006

Trip End May 17, 2007

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Flag of Vietnam Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Friday, March 16, 2007

I arrived late on the 12th, found myself a room in a guesthouse down a rat-infested alley, and headed straight out for food where I met up with Sarah (who I've bumped into all through Vietnam, and Aussie Shem (Sarah met him) at Le Pub. We had a few cheeky drinks there then headed to Go2 Bar, where I met up with Nicole, an Essex girl I've bumped into a few times in Vietnam too. It wasn't a big night though as I wanted to be in a state to do something the next day..

The 13th turned out to be pretty active. I met up with Sarah and we managed to cover
the Reunification Palace (where the communist tanks rolled in to take over Saigon), History Museum (pretty interesting, particularly the preserved dead body), Botanical Gardens & Zoo (one word....sick) and the War Remnants Museum. The War Museam was really interesting but hard viewing. Some of the pictures were so shocking, especially the War Crimes section and the Agent Orange section, including deformed feotuses in jars. It was hard viewing,, but ignorance isn't bliss with these sorts of things, so I did as best I could. In the evening I had dinner with sarah and her mate Litiana, then went to Le Pub again, this time meeting up with Ben and Simon (Notts Uni) again.

I was a bit slack in a way on the 14th, when I was supposed to go to the Cu Chi tunnels - I woke up at 6am and I was soo tired that I just couldn't get out of bed. I guess the 5/6 hour nights had caught up with me. I really should have gone, but I'll go when I come back to Vietnam, which I will as a month isn't long enough to do everything. All I really did that day was a bit of shoping in the Benh Tahn (sp?) market, and visited the cathedral.

That evening ended up being a massive drinking session for my birthday, as most people had to be up early on the 16th (today) to move on so 14th it was! Drinking started at 5pm playing Beer Hoi drinking games, where 2 new guys got an absolute schooling by us hardened drinkers. We stayed there quite a while before hitting Le Pub, where we each had 7 G&Ts (it was cheap). We then took a taxi to America Club where 3 of us got a bottle of Vodka and nailed that sharpish before cutting some craz shapes on the dancefloor amongst all the Vietnamese. When the club closed we went to Go2 Bar, where drinking continued until the early hours. It was a messy night but a fun one. A big thanks to Ben & Simon, Shem, Sarah, Liti, Lydia and the 2 boys for coming out. It was a quality birthday!

So my birthday was spent in recovery, watching sport all day before having a few quiet drinks in the evening with everyone. As I said before, everyone is moving on today (16th) so there was no point getting trashed. So this afternoon I'm flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia, so I start by taking in the temples in Angkor. More temples..... but these ones are meant to be awesome