Good Morning Vietnam!

My mom and I made a last minute decision to head to Vietnam for a couple weeks. And by we I think I actually mean me. So 7 hours later, we were in middle of utter chaos of Ho Chi Min City (formally Saigon) getting ripped off by a taxi driver. After arriving at our hotel we took the opportunity to explore our street and start mapping out a plan for the next 14 days.

Day 1 we walked to some nearby attractions to get our bearings which also gave us the chance to adjust to walking through traffic which is a big step up compared to Phnom Penh. The roads are absolutely mental and I can't say it's a good thing if you plan on keeping your limbs while walking on the sidewalk. There are some similar sights and sounds like the street food, shops and local workers but overall it feels much different to Cambodia.

So at the risk of sounding prematurely judgy, I am going to say that my initial reactions are that people (and drivers) are way more aggressive and scams (and bogus tourist companies) are so common that it has me feeling uneasy and has made some of the planning stressful. Despite being off to a shaky start, we are remaining positive!

Shoe repair. 

The sidewalk being used as a road. In this picture you couldn't even sway to the left without the risk of being smoked. 

Portable food vendor. 

Playing cards in the park. A shoe shiner actually sat down beside us and watched us play for 30 minutes despite not speaking a word of english. 

A worker sitting on top of a mess of wires while his coworkers untangled another pile of them on the ground. 

The War Remnants Museum was heavy as we read about the history and viewed a huge collection of photos taken during the war and after. The photos of people affected by poisonous gas (agent orange) and subsequent birth defects was particularly hard to see. While the displays are incredibly one-sided (lots of American blame) it was still enlightening.

The Independence Palace was a government building and home/office of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A 1962 bombing (an assassination attempt) resulted in a the newer building we see today. It is now mainly a tourist attraction where you can view the elaborate meeting rooms and underground bomb shelter.  

Cheers to surviving the first 2 days in the craziest city I've ever been to.