Welcome to Vietnam (HCMC)

After the bus dropped us off outside of HCMC, we started walking towards the city center. One of the first things I did in Vietnam was weigh myself. I passed a pharmacy with a scale so I went in, took off my backpack, weighed myself, picked up my pack and walked out without anyone else even looking at me. Does CVS have free scales? If not, they should.

Next stop was my first bowl of pho in Vietnam. Once again, what started out as a pleasant experience turned sour when I went to pay. The first problem was that we did not have any Vietnamese Dong and so we tried to pay with US dollars. It is common practice in Cambodia to pay with dollars but not so much in Vietnam like our guidebook stated. The woman tried to give us an exchange rate that was about 60% of what it should be. I waited at the scowling ladyś food stall while my partner found an ATM to get some VND.

HCMC traffic is slightly more organized than traffic in Cambodia, but the volume is so much more that crossing that merely crossing the street is a daunting undertaking. You just have to creep across the street without stopping or making any sudden moves. This gives the motorbikes time to change their path and swerve around pedestrians. They're used to it. The problems start when there are cars involved. Cars block the moto's ability to swerve and just clog things up in general. Anyhow, we were able to hail a bus and get to the city center for 3000 VND each. I can not even imagine driving a bus in the city. What a disaster!

Finding a place to stay in the backpacker district took about 5 minutes. Two Vietnamese ladies spotted us and started fighting over us. They led us down a maze of alley ways to peoples homes. We looked at a few rooms and finally selected one for $8. Basically, families are renting out their bedrooms to tourists. You don't have to find them. The ladies in charge of this operation will definitely find you.

Our place: You take off your shoes and walk through the living room/kitchen. There is no furniture. The people lounge on mats on the floor while staring at the TV mounted in the corner. The space is very narrow. After going upstairs, there are 2 bedrooms which are also for rent. We opted for the attic room. Getting to the room requires going up an additional staircase and then climbing through a trap door. Yeah, the trap door makes me laugh every time. It definitely feels really awkward when I come in at night and people lying on the floor have to scoot over so I can tip-toe between motorbikes and people through to the stairway. Prices in HCMC have increased a lot recently so I just hope that my $8 is helping them out. Wandering through the maze, it appears that most families have the same set up.

So far, the city has a vibrant energy and is far different than anything you would find in Cambodia. It feels decades ahead of Cambodia, but still much different than the US.