War Sucks, Even More So When You Lose

Another random poster at a hotel today.

After relaxing at the hotel for a while, I headed out around 2pm to see the War Museum. Formerly, it was called the War Crimes Museum, but I guess that gave it a bad reputation so they toned down the name. However, they didn’t change the contents. The museum was all about how Vietnam had been mistreated (to put it nicely) by foreign powers, especially Americans. It was full of propaganda, disturbing images and artifacts, and generally anti-American. Sadly, as I walked around I started thinking about Iraq and how things aren’t looking good there. I could see a museum just like this 20 years down the road in Baghdad or Fallujah.
My next stop was the Vietnam National Museum. To get there I hopped a ride on a scooter taxi and marveled at the craziness of HCMC roads. There are about 30 scooters for every car and they are intermixed with random pedestrians. Transportation over here is something that is much different than anything I’ve seen before, even it I am back on the right side of the road. Being a pedestrian is fun though as you slowly make your way across moving traffic (never gets above 20ish mph I’d guess) by just walking across the middle of the road with scooters and the occasional car moving around you. Tomorrow for the fun of it I think I might try to rent a scooter for a couple hours and try my luck. I ended up passing on the museum as it seemed pretty lame and propagandist. From here I walked across town to see some sights and buy my ticket for a tour tomorrow (I’ll be visiting the Cu-Chi Tunnels).

HCMC supposedly has 7 million people, but it seems like the biggest little city in the world (no offense to Reno). I can walk across the main parts of town in an hour or two and have generally traveled on foot. Two of my American friends have kept me company. Toby Keith offered his playlist on Thursday and Tim McGraw followed suit today. After picking up my tour ticket I hired the Vietnamese version of a rickshaw. The guy rides a bike behind you with one wheel he powers and you ride in a seat with two wheels under you. Transportation over here is really cheap. The scooter ride and bike taxi both cost just over one dollar. Oh yeah, one of my life goals is complete. I am a MULTI-MILLIONAIRE!!!

OK, maybe it is in Vietnamese Dong, but it still counts in my book. The exchange rate is $1US dollar to 16,000 Vietnamese Dong, making me a rich man. For dinner I hit an authentic restaurant this is popular with locals and tourists, although the place was hopping and I think I was the only white person in sight. I ordered two rice based dishes and wasn’t overly impressed with the food. Honestly, Asian food has never been my thing. The only stuff I have really liked on the trip was Thai, and that was mainly the curry. Give me Mexican, Italian, or American food and I am a happy camper. Tomorrow on my way out of town I hope to hit the local version of TGIF (at least that’s what my guide book called it). Finding restaurants here was a story of two days. Thursday, I didn’t have any options near the hotel, Friday I visited the part of town with lots of good restaurants. Guess you just need to know where to go.
On the whole, HCMC has been nice. It feels smaller and more charming than many of the other big cities we’ve visited and the weather has been the best since Japan. Temperatures are probably in the low 80s with moderate humidity, much better than HK, Singapore, and Bangkok. Life is good, although boring and lonely at times. I won’t see another American until India on the 27th of June, so I look forward to seeing Emilie Predmore’s beautiful face more than ever. It is getting close to bed time. Tonight they had The Thomas Crown Affair on TV. This was the first good movie in English I’ve seen on TV in a while. It kept me busy as I typed all this up.