Mister Saigon

I'll have to keep this brief, especially since my last blog was pretty long. Landed in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, but most people seem to still call it Saigon (though not everyone, like those travel books keep saying so smugly) It's pretty crazy here, much busier than Hanoi. I walked around a bit when I got here, looking for a hotel. There's a small neighborhood here centered around Pho Ngu Lau street with about a hundred small hotels. I opted for one called Phi Long, with AC and Internet, which is running me about $14 a night, but the place next to me has hostel-like, 4 people to a dorm accommodations for $3 a night. Surprisingly, most people staying at these hotels are Vietnamese.

Yesterday, walked around 23/9 park, commemorating Sept. 23rd, I think the day Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. Met three students who are studying to be English teachers, who wanted to practice what they know. Joined by some other dude, who was out of school , but also wanted to try his English, and seemed like I was running a little school there for a second. They were all really cool, but I had my guard up a little though, seeing that the second I got off the plane, I kept getting approached by dudes trying some scam or another. My favorite conversation in Saigon so far; Random dude standing next to scooter, "Hey, you want ride on motor bike?" Me, "No." Random dude, "You want to enjoy a lady?" The city seems filled with these motor-bike-taxi-driving-pimp-drug-dealers who are in their forties. Later, I met up with Ben's friend Hien, who took me to a restaurant, then a "Cuban/Spanish/German" bar. After that, I went to some cheesy nightclub that some random American guy I met invited me out to, had two Hollywood-priced beers and left. Today, the Viet Cong tunnels outside the city, hopefully.