My first trip to Saigon. Ever been to Vietnam?

   I had never been to Vietnam before last week. It was time for a trip to Saigon. From what I had seen, it was an absolutely horrible place to be in the 60s and 70s and we lost a war that we should not have been in. Or the other side of the coin is that its an amazingly beautiful country with stunning beaches.  Let me tell you my impression!

  Ho Chi Minh City    

     I flew into Ho Chi Minh City and, DAMN immigration was slllloooooowwww. Honestly, it was like 2 hours and maybe only 2 flights where waiting. So after that ordeal, I was just ready to be out of the damn airport! Came out of the arrival terminal to the normal row of kiosks of money exchange and travel sim card. I went over to an exchange booth and exchanged 5000Thb,.. I had not checked the exchange rate in my rush and was rewarded by being shorted by about 1300000 Vietnamese dong..( yes that’s their money) I didn’t realize this until later that night. My loss, you should always double check your exchanges. I then grabbed a travel sim with unlimited data for around 9USD. Grabbed a quick cab just out of ease, for about another 9USD to get to my room.

    Ho Chi Minh City, affectionately known as Saigon. This place was a madhouse with the way they ride their motorbike (moped). So there is a street that all the cars and bikes are on then there is a “sidewalk”. this seems to be a large sidewalk. Well, that’s because it is not its also another motorbike lane and I learned this fast after almost being hit many times in the middle of the night. This was the first thing I noticed, the street chaos and I spend plenty of time in Bangkok.

  Ready set GoPro

     After getting settled in the next day it was time to explore and I headed out from my room. I like to wander with little more than a general direction of something I may or may not want to check out, I looked on the all-knowing google maps and noticed I was close to the Saigon river. This is how most of my journeys begin. Packed up with my drone and DSLR, GoPro and phone I am a one man youtube studio.

    I wander near the river looking at the fish that would surface the mud-colored river. I noticed many catfish and what looked like goldfish. Many fishermen on the banks who seemed more like a way to pass the day than looking to provide any real catch. I flew my drone to get some cool city pictures and some of the Stark Towers looking building. before searching for some dinner.

   War Remnants Museum

    In one of the following days, I did decide to check out the War Remnants Museum here in Saigon. Now I lived in the United States my whole life so I have heard many things about this war. If you were from any other country visiting this museum you may want to do bad things to me knowing I was from the U.S.A. The theme of this place was LOOK at how fucked up the American soldiers did our little country. I am not going to get into all of what’s in this and in what ways it goes about portraying the U.S. Lets just leave it at this.

    I had a student talk to me in the park one day. This student asked what I thought about the museum. I kinda didn’t want to offend them so my answer was bland. I think I said something like “interesting”. This student who was born in Vietnam said they thought the museum was bad and portrayed the U.S. very badly… Well, Thank you I agree.

   Talking to locals in the park

    On this trip to Saigon. I spent many hours in a park talking with younger Vietnamese people. They would come up and just ask to talk so they could practice their English. I was happy to help. A few would say that they were afraid to come up to me at first so they waited until someone else started talking to me and then they would join. Saying that with all my tattoos I looked scary but then when they talked to me I was the nicest person.

    I truly enjoy talking with these people it was the best insight I could have gotten into Vietnamese people. This was a generation that had never seen the war other than in their history books. They were extremely open-minded and want to know anything I would offer. Of the places, I saw and things I did this was the most pleasant time I had in Vietnam.

    I will say that this was my first visit and that Vietnam. At this point it’s not on My must visit again soon list. One thing I will say is I was told by more than one Vietnamese people is that I must visit the North to experience the true culture of Vietnam. I will not say I won’t go back but I will be visiting the north next time.