how could anybody possibly know how i feel?

deery-lou.
and now for part 2 of my story…

vietnam, part 2
july 31, tuesday
lunch with joey at the cafe i stumbled upon the other day. had two ice coffees, spring rolls, and some kind of beef and cauliflower dish. the food was quite good. jumped on the back of joey's motorbike and spent the rest of the day shopping and sight seeing. cruising around the city on a motorbike is quite fun. once you get use to it. you can literally hold out your hand and touch the person next to you. i kept thinking that it would be very easy to stab someone. not really sure why i kept thinking that but i did. we headed to saigon center for a little shopping. i got some calvin klein underwear for dirt cheap. joey got a shirt and a pair of jeans. we then stopped at diamond department store. this was the place i went bowling the other night. did some window shopping inside to avoid the heat of the day. from there we made our first stop of the day for the sight seeing part of our outing. the destination: reunification palace [independent palace].

independent palace

rec room, 70s style

me

joey in basement tunnel

the front gate

the reunification palace was the workplace for the south vietnamese president. its the place where the tanks crashed through the gate when saigon fell. nothing too spectacular about the place but it was interesting to walk around. there were several rooms to look at: the president's room, 1st lady meeting room, some bedrooms, a rec room, a cinema, basement tunnels, etc. the grounds were quite nice,too. the next stop was the ho chi minh city museum. a museum basically showcasing the growth of the city. many artifacts to see. they also had several photos comparing the city from the 50s to the present. we ended the tour at the war remnants museum. there were so many photo exhibits about the war that it was hard to take it all in. i spent my time walking around in silence by myself. didn't feel like a place where i wanted to have a conversation. it felt kind of strange walking around, especially since i'm american. not like that really matters, but knowing that we were part of the destruction there makes you think. the photos that do stand out in my mind were definitely powerful images. it had quite an impact on me. all those lives lost. many of them younger than i am. and the children. thats the saddest part of all. the innocent. the ones who didn't get to decided for themselves. and to think that this war was not so long ago and now we find ourselves engrossed in yet another war. will we ever learn.

ho chi minh city museum

sleeping quarters

tiger cages

for dinner, joey took me to a noodle spot he goes to. it was filled with locals only which was fine with me. i like being able to experience the parts of country you might not see as a normal tourists. the noodle soup was excellent. then again all of the food i've had has been great. after eating joey decided to take me on a motorbike night tour of saigon. we went to chinatown and various other parts of the city. i also got to see part of saigon river. it was all lite up and looked very inviting. the night breeze felt invigorating.

august 01, wednesday
got a late start to my day. it actually felt good to sleep in. its been forever. when i finally motivated myself to head out i decided to walk to ben thanh market. along my way i ran into one of the motorbikes guys i spoke to on sunday. he tried to get me to take a tour telling me how he's having an unlucky day. and if i go on a tour with him his day will become lucky. nice try but no. before heading into the market i grabbed an ice coffee. spent a few hours walking around the market. everybody wanted to make a deal with me. a boy carrying food through the market smiled at me. i bought some pictures. wasn't really in the mood for major souvenir shopping. most likely a result of me knowing i have to pack up in a few weeks. grabbed some noodles and an ice coffee for lunch. that night joey took me to another local spot for dinner. i order fried chicken and rice. the waiter brought out a fork. i guess they figured i didn't know how to handle chopsticks. i proved them wrong. it was raining when we left. since it wasn't a good idea to ride the bike in the rain we decided to hop in a cab and wait the rain out in a coffee shop. the coffee shop we ended up at was quite interesting. the chairs were giant. the tables small. and the music was so loud i couldn't hear myself think. for a second i thought i was back in badlands. all this place needed was some go-go boys. on our way out they gave us some ponchos. fortunately we didn't have to use them since the rain had stopped. we went back to pick up the motorbike and head back to the hotel. on the way home i kept my eye out for people pissing.

to be continued…

pictures from independent palace here
pictures from hcmc museum and war museum here

stay gold & be well…