Wow
As I walk down the street, I'm suprised at how many Vietnamese restaurants there are... then it comes to me.
Let's see. My bus ride to Taipei was ok, for once, everything worked. I pretty much just slept and watched the end of Jarhead, as I had missed the ending last time. Then, my plane ride, same thing but the food actually sucked, usually I like airplane food, whatever... a good trip.
At customs in Vietnam, my travel agent had marked that I'm Taiwanese and I'm a merchant, some explaining. However, my Visa is good till the 20th, and my plane leaves on the 25th... still something to sort out, I think my agent pointed this out to me and asked if I could deal with it.
Anyways, I'm staying at the Bodhi Tree hotel or hostel or guesthouse (8369545) downtown in Saigon. I looked at the US$3 rooms, nice, but no Air Con. I upgraded to US$5 with Aircon, it's clean, it smells nice, and it's named after the tree that the Buhdda guy sat under meditating... kind of like the East's version of Newton, I guess, they both reached a level of enlightenment from being under the tree.
Tonight, I went to a pizza place, a new shop. The owner is madly in love with me and by tomorrow, will want me to marry one of the waitresses. The owner's very nice, she came and sat and talked to me while I scarfed my pizza, she made reference to her being my mother. Whatever, I had a good time.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going in a boat in the ocean to see a bunch of islands or something, I ran into some Spaniards who were going to do this, so... when in Rome? There are 5 times as many scooters here, but they are manual, and there's about 1/10th the amount of cars... wow, what a zoo this place is! I can't wait to rent my scooter for $2/day! By the way, I think I've seen about 10,000 scooters and only ONE helmet... on an old guy, go figure. Also, the place where I'm at is inhabited by foreigners. So, all these stupid foreigners who don't knwo how to drive, are renting bikes for $2 a day and trying to kill everyone in thier path... go, go, go chaos. Oh, and I'm seeing a lot of 11 year olds driving and playing tag on the streets with these deathtraps. One group of kids (14years old?) were playing with 7 bikes and a bunck of straw brooms, trying to hit each other. Lot's of skidding and bumping, but no one seemed to get hurt.
This place is like Cambodia, but with a billion people... actually 87 million, I think.
My spending seems to be on a good track. $5 hotel, $6 all day tour tomorrow, $2/day motorbike rental (when I feel like it), and food is dirt cheap, my pizza (14"), fruit dessert, coke and coconut milkshake came to a mere $75,000! (US$5).
Stay tuned.
Let's see. My bus ride to Taipei was ok, for once, everything worked. I pretty much just slept and watched the end of Jarhead, as I had missed the ending last time. Then, my plane ride, same thing but the food actually sucked, usually I like airplane food, whatever... a good trip.
At customs in Vietnam, my travel agent had marked that I'm Taiwanese and I'm a merchant, some explaining. However, my Visa is good till the 20th, and my plane leaves on the 25th... still something to sort out, I think my agent pointed this out to me and asked if I could deal with it.
Anyways, I'm staying at the Bodhi Tree hotel or hostel or guesthouse (8369545) downtown in Saigon. I looked at the US$3 rooms, nice, but no Air Con. I upgraded to US$5 with Aircon, it's clean, it smells nice, and it's named after the tree that the Buhdda guy sat under meditating... kind of like the East's version of Newton, I guess, they both reached a level of enlightenment from being under the tree.
Tonight, I went to a pizza place, a new shop. The owner is madly in love with me and by tomorrow, will want me to marry one of the waitresses. The owner's very nice, she came and sat and talked to me while I scarfed my pizza, she made reference to her being my mother. Whatever, I had a good time.
Tomorrow, I think I'm going in a boat in the ocean to see a bunch of islands or something, I ran into some Spaniards who were going to do this, so... when in Rome? There are 5 times as many scooters here, but they are manual, and there's about 1/10th the amount of cars... wow, what a zoo this place is! I can't wait to rent my scooter for $2/day! By the way, I think I've seen about 10,000 scooters and only ONE helmet... on an old guy, go figure. Also, the place where I'm at is inhabited by foreigners. So, all these stupid foreigners who don't knwo how to drive, are renting bikes for $2 a day and trying to kill everyone in thier path... go, go, go chaos. Oh, and I'm seeing a lot of 11 year olds driving and playing tag on the streets with these deathtraps. One group of kids (14years old?) were playing with 7 bikes and a bunck of straw brooms, trying to hit each other. Lot's of skidding and bumping, but no one seemed to get hurt.
This place is like Cambodia, but with a billion people... actually 87 million, I think.
My spending seems to be on a good track. $5 hotel, $6 all day tour tomorrow, $2/day motorbike rental (when I feel like it), and food is dirt cheap, my pizza (14"), fruit dessert, coke and coconut milkshake came to a mere $75,000! (US$5).
Stay tuned.
posted by Colin at 12:16 AM
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