Day 2 in HCMC

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  Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday was a day for finalising arrangements for the weekend and for Kay to stock up on some groceries in preparation for the hoards that are arriving. Chris and I are happy to tag along - grocery shopping in another country is always an interesting experience and gives another insight into different cultures. Today we head to the Metro store, which is more like a huge warehouse than a supermarket. As well as foodstuffs and the expected groceries, it sells clothing, motor scooters, commercial food prep equipment, TV sets and mobile phones...... Its not open to the public - you have to be part of a company, so many of the Vietnamese who are shopping here do so to stock up their own smaller stores and restaurants. The fresh food side of the market is amazing in itself - the range of fruit and veges and in particular, the tanks of live seafood of every description - some of who are making valiant attempts to escape their holding tanks.... After the sophistication and size of this store, it comes as a shock to see they only take cash - no debit cards even

Narrow old Saigon buildings

. So great wads of notes have to be counted out and checked then handed over. On Day 2 its still hard to get used to the size of numbers we're talking about - several millions of dong just for one shopping trip - which is a bundle of notes about 1 cm thick. Wallets are just not big enough for the cash you have to carry here!

We decide to have Pho again for lunch, this time at a restaurant close to Pete and Kay's house. We haven't had any exercise since we got here, so we ride push bikes the couple of kms to the restaurant through the local streets. There is no way we'd do this in most of what we've seen of the city - the HCMC traffic is mind boggling. But here in the back streets of the suburbs, it's not too bad. Road conditions are best described as variable and you still have to be wary of motor scooters, cars, vans and trucks (there's a lot of construction going on in this area), but at least its not chaotic and congested. Its also pretty warm, although Kay says its much cooler today and yesterday than it has been in the past week.

In the afternoon Chris and I pack our bags and head to the An An 2 Hotel. We have a few hours before Penny, John and David arrive, so we unpack a few things and head out into the busy streets to have our first real look at HCMC

Kay & Pete at Callum's birthday dinner

. The area where we are is backpacker tourist central. It's packed with small hotels, travel agencies, little restaurants and pubs and hundreds of small businesses looking for the tourist dollar - from small shops down to the street vendors. Its somewhat dirty, very noisy, and full of life, activity and charm - we really enjoy it! The area has a few larger streets with interconnecting alleys. Buildings are very skinny - our hotel is one room wide, four rooms to a floor and goes up 8 stories. It's fairly typical.

We wander the streets around the hotel for a while, and gradually head towards the large Ben Thanh covered market that lies between the backpacker area and the central city. We're ready for our next Vietnamese experience - crossing the road! There are supposed to be something like 2 million motor scooters in HCMC alone - and from what we've seen we're surprised its not more. They are everywhere, all times of the night and day. The major roads are a sea full of taxis, cars and trucks surrounded by vast schools of motor scooters, many with 2, 3 or 4 people - entire families are common on one scooter, or huge loads of goods; all weaving through and dodging through the rest of the traffic. Everyone is tooting their horns to let everyone else know they are coming through and the noise just adds to the sense of chaos. Intersections are breathtaking confusion as some of the traffic tries to flow straight ahead while others turn in their path - and it all works

Callum (& Tim) and the cake...

. But the Ben Thanh market is across the other side of one of the busiest roundabouts in HCMC and we have to cross through this confusion to get there. We've read up on this and the trick is to step out and slowly keep moving at around the same pace - the traffic just flows round you. The theory is great, but its still takes a lot of nerve to launch yourself out into the maelstrom! But we get the hang of it quickly and are just congratulating ourselves on reaching the safety of the footpath on the other side, when a sharp horn blast just behind us, reminds us that the footpath is also a convenient option for the scooters!!!

The Ben Thanh market is packed with little stalls - clothes, fabric, laquerware, souvenirs, bags, you name it - jammed together with enough space for 1 person to walk between them. AT the back of the market is the food stalls and the wet market selling fresh veges, fruit, meat and fish. But we are a bit late and most of the wet market has packed up for the day. The rest of the market is hot and claustrophobic so, we wander around the back streets for a while before heading back to the bar across the road from the hotel to have a beer and wait for Penny and John to arrive. Chris amuses himself by handing money out to the begging kids that hover around.

Penny, John and David soon turn up and after we all have a shower, we head off to the restaurant where we are meeting the Logans to celebrate Callum's birthday (which is getting a bit overshadowed by his fathers upcoming 50th). Over the course of the evening we are gradually joined by the others who are flying in for the weekend, until by the end of the evening we've formed a big noisy happy group.

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