Hanging in Ho Chi Minh

These people are really big into badmiton over here. They even have competitions for their robots!!!

When I walked off the jetway I was surprised to see that the terminal wasn’t air-conditioned. This was the first airport on the trip that didn’t offer this luxury. After making my way through customs, I met a couple of backpacking college students from Canada (Geoff and Brett) while waiting for luggage and grabbed their contact info (neither of us has tried to contact one another, guess I’m not that lonely). It was a $6US taxi ride to the Chancery Hotel, Best Western’s affiliate here in HCMC. When I checked-in they asked in broken English, “And ur wif” to which I replied, “She couldn’t make it” (too complicated to answer that either way for their English skills). I took the elevator up to my room and was surprised to see the room only had one bed (one problem Mackenzie’s departure did solve). The hotel has WiFi everywhere so I happily caught up on the world and chatting with friends back home until after 2am local time.
The next morning I lifted weights (the hotel’s gym is a room as big as my bedroom at the Enclave with a couple free weights) and grabbed breakfast from the buffet (not bad). It took me a while to make it out the door, upon which I just wandered around the area near the hotel. Across the street is HCMC’s version of Central Park. I walked through and around it to see the streets, gardens, and sculptures.

During my journeys I ran into a group of kids playing soccer on a dirt field and grunted/pointed my way into playing with them (goalie naturally since I didn’t want to run). My defense totally quit and all the kids on the other team took turns having breakaways on me. I blocked most their attempts but a few got past (everyone was trying to nutmeg me). It was a fun 15 minutes of sports and socializing with the kids. They seemed to enjoy it and took a great picture with me. For the next couple hours I kept walking and seeing the sights. I made my way to Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the National Post Office building. Honestly, nothing way overly impressive.

The palace was nice (former South Vietnam President’s house/office) and I thought it probably had some history (US Presidents and dignitaries visits), but like most attractions had been propagandized for the Communist Party. On the way home I bought some bottled water and Oreos. I was hoping to find a restaurant to come back out for dinner at, but didn’t see a single one I trusted and was interested in. Dinner ended up being an overpriced (for Vietnam anyway) chicken cordon bleu back at the hotel’s restaurant. They had a Bee Gees video concert playing as the songs were vaguely familiar and helped me to pass the time waiting for my food (I was the only person in the restaurant).