I am utterly and truly exhausted.

Let me recap the Saigon weekend..

First thing on Saturday, I walked about 5 km from my apartment to the city centre. I wanted to know the roads around better, but I did not count on the sheer amount of motorcyclists and people on the road even on Saturday. It was crazy. The weather was also pretty humid. As I walked along the main road, you could see all the shops and buildings that lined it. I walked past some schools, churches, many clothes shops (without going in..I am getting better at this), food stalls, hardware stores and even a fruit market. I walked past the French Embassy, the US Embassy, and several great bakeries with wonderful smells. I bought a coffee bun and it melted in my mouth. I walked past a gelateria and almost walked in to order a triple banana split....Walked and walked all the way up Hai Ba Trung.

I turned left on Le Duan, and started going towards the War Museum. How was I to know that it was closed for lunch ? The zoo was next door and I was thinking whether to go there instead, when a little oldish man beckoned to me. Initially I just smiled and turned away, having heard enough stories about how weird people carted you away, and cheated your money, or at least chopped off your legs and arms and made you beg in Bangkok.

After a while though, I walked over to him. He introduced himself as Chanh and he showed me pictures. He was half Viet and half American, and he used to be in the Naval Service before retiring and coming back here. Then he offered to take me around the city since the museum was closed anyway. I thought, alright......and then he showed me his motorcycle.... Now, again I have heard many stories about how these people brought you to dodgy places and forced you to pay large amounts of money or at least stripped you in an alley and raped you.

Somehow, my risk aversion was really low that morning and I said yes. After all, he was offering the ride for only about USD4. That I thought was really cheap. And on I got, disregarding all I heard about HCMC's 2 million motorcycles and how 30,000 people died a year because helmet wearing was not compulsory, and the traffic is crazy. He did not wear a helmet either, and I think I put a lot of faith in my FCUK cap. Off we went, and I soon realised that riding a motorcycle is a bit like riding a horse, back straight, and try to stay balanced, and hold on to the reins, in this case, the guy's shirt tails, since I did not really want to hold his waist or thighs, and NO ONE else in the city was holding anyone else's shoulders. We zipped around, me trying not to close my eyes, as we frequently went on the wrong side of the road, got caught in a mass of hundreds of other cyclists, or nearly get mowed down by huge buses and tankers. Seriously, it was a bit crazy. But I enjoyed the wind in my hair, the sun in my eyes, and I also thought about kicking the rider next to me more than a few times.

He brought me to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda, and there was a huge fish pond with many fishes all around. And tortoises too. And big huge lanterns and joss sticks and incense everywhere. I walked upstairs onto the balcony and was surprised to see that it actually was quite big, and the four French girls made me take a picture for them. It was quite dodgy and I still get that creepy feeling whenever I walk into those really old temples. And then it was time for Chinatown, except halfway, the motorcycle sputtered..oh oh. He made me drink a coconut while he walked across the street to get it fixed. The coconut was really sweet ! If not because it was chopped up in front of me, I would have thought that there was sugar added. Anyway, the bike fixed, onwards we went to Chinatown.

And on the way, I lost my cap. Or rather it flew off. I guess I really should have known better, but I was still a bit shocked. Chanh laughed and told me to get a new one at Cho Binh Tay, or the Chinatown market. I laughed it off, for what else could I do, there was no way to turn back with a sea of cycles all around. Still, sorry SQBear, I know you sent it to me for my birthday in 2005 all the way from Adelaide. I did really love it and it was probably the cap that I wore the most in my life. Chinatown looked just like any other Chinatown except that there were Viet words everywhere too. The market was great, and looked exactly like one of the old palaces in China, except of course, inside looked like a night market. But if you walked onto the balconies and looked over the roofs, it was really beautiful. I bought a cap, that he chose. It is bright red, and had a picture of 2 crabs on it. Really ugly. But I guess that it was sign that I should take it since my horoscope is Cancer. Lol. And I got conned into buying a top. Not really conned, but paid more for it than I should have, though I still think it was cheap. It was a red silk top and I thought I could wear it for Chinese New Year next year.

I am telling you the motorcycles here are really great. There were people carrying chairs, tables, huge pices of glass, toys, on the bikes and I even saw one that had 6 people on it. Haha. As Chinatown was at least 5 km away from the town centre, we took some time to get there and back but it was really a nice ride, and there were many big avenues with huge trees on both sides. It was really beautiful and peaceful. Dropped by the War Remnants Museum and it was really horrible to see pictures of the war, though the bombs and tanks were cool. We also visited the Thien Hau Temple where I sneaked into a tour and attached myself to listen to the guide talk. It was a temple with several goddesses and one was a mermaid and the other granted love wishes. Hehe. I made a wish. Then another pagoda, called Xa Loi Pagoda. By this time I was a bit tired of pagodas and temples. Which was good, because next stop was the Reunification Palace, and then the Notre Dame Cathedral, which has exactly the same bricks used to build the one in Paris. The very same type of bricks. And then I finally arrived at the History Museum.

By this time, it was drizzling, and there was rain in my eyes. Not looking so glamorous any more. In fact I looked like a real tourist as I had been forced to wear the Chinese style top and cap all the time by Chanh. But it was still fun to be in the rain though I prayed hard that I would not get sick. I was certain by this time that I understood why girls liked to ride on motorcycles, it is pretty liberating....to zip around. And Vespas look really nice too. In the History Museum, more tanks and airplanes and bombs and pictures. But much more. Rain fell like crazy. Read a few more years of Viet history, and looked at more ceramic and pots and coffins and mummies and carvings and stone age weapons and again stuck to a guide to listen for more information.

Finally it ended and he dropped me off at the City Hall with his number so that I could call him again if I wanted to go for more trips. I paid him more than he asked for, since it was almost 4 hours, and it did get me around the city really fast. Then it was time to look for dinner, and I walked around the city centre again before deciding on Vietnam House which was on a list that was recommended by MrNM. Pho was good, and I had another coconut. On the way home, I bought a coconut tart. All these led to my downfall, as I felt my throat going sore even as I was eating it. Coconut Overdose !

I slept early, because I had my trip booked for the next day, and I fell asleep watching The Mummy on television.

SUNDAY ! I woke up bright and early, and took a cab to the Tourist Centre. We set off, myself, two old teachers from Sydney, and a party of 5 elderly people from Singapore. I would take about 3 hours to reach our first destination, so I took a nap, as somehow I was really sleepy. The road was seriously bumpy and the reason why it took so long was because the bus could only travel at a max of 60 km an hour due to the condition of the roads ! We reached Cao Dai temple in the Tay Ninh province. This is really a weird place, because the temple and the grounds are about 1 square kilometre big. The religion itself, you should google because it is super weird and is made up of Buddhism, Catholicism, and Islam. Their three saints are SunYatSen, Victor Hugo and a Viet Guy. The Viet guy is their god's third messenger after Moses and Jesus. Super weird. Everything is blue, yellow and red, one colour for each, and then normal practitioners wear white. And their altar is a huge globe with a giant eye. I wonder if this has anything to do with Illuminati ? Since all the windows are made of the eye in a triangle with light shining forth...Hmm. Conspiracy theory !!!

Then it was lunch time and we had some yummy 10 course Viet lunch, and I will not go into too much detail, except that it was a lot like chinese food but slightly different. Like the people like to say here, "same same but different...." > < """" How can something be same but different ? I think they want to say similar ..By this time, people were getting used to each other, and the eight of us were talking to each other well. And then the highlight of the trip, the lady boss of the restaurant said I was very good looking and was I one of the other tourists' son. And then they were saying that I was too good looking how can any of them be so lucky. Hahaha. This was all said in Mandarin and as they thought I did not understand Mandarin since I did not say a word in Chinese but was talking in English all the way, especially with the Australians. Haha, but I could not stop smiling though !! As I said, flattery will get you everywhere with me......I tipped her. Probably got conned.

Then we took another 90 minutes to Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels are a whole network of underground tunnels where the VietCong stayed in during the Vietnam War. They would pop out of the ground and attack when noone expected, there was a labyrinth everywhere, and you could crawl from the Saigon River to Cu Chi and then to Cambodia !! We were shown bomb craters and entrance holes and wells, and breathing holes. And then they showed us a section of the tunnel where we could crawl in and come out the other side. I thought it would be fine. But the tunnel was so small and cramped we were crouching the whole way. And there were no lights so we had to feel with our hands. At one point, some of the Singaporeans stopped to take photos and I was squatting in the tunnel as I was the last one, I wanted to scream at them to move on !!! Because it was so hot and sweaty and dark in the tunnel, it was lucky that I was not claustrophobic. These crazy inconsiderate people ! And we only walked 30 metres. There was an option to go on for 50 metres or 100 metres or as our guide joked, you could walk all the way to HCMC or Cambodia. I wanted to faint. How can anyone stand to be inside ?

Finally it was over. The whole tour was so exhausting. By the time we got back to HCMC it was 7 pm. And the Singaporeans started to get really chatty and talked about Mahathir and durian and education and work and Standard Chartered and pho and lots of other random stuff. By this time all I wanted was a hot shower. My throat was killing me by this time, and got a few Strepsils and some cookies. Wanted to get some noodles too, but remembered that there was no hot water at the apartment.

And then now am back and blogging about the exhausting weekend. Will fall asleep soon, I swear. This weather is not good for me, I have two pimples. Crap.

Have to work tomorrow.

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