Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon (depending on who you ask.)

So. . . . we've been here in Ho Chi Minh City for three days now.
We got here very late Sunday night after an exhausting 24 hours in the air. 24 hours is way to long to be riding coach. . . . flew over Hudson Bay and crossed the Arctic Circle, then down through Alaska. I could see icebergs from the plane. By the time we got to Japan we were both totally wiped out with six more hours to go. It was rough, but we finally made it, very late and very tired.

Ho Chi Minh City, formally known as Saigon, rivals any city I've ever seen in traffic and general chaos. Everything moves fast here. The first thing you notice are the motorbikes. They outnumber cars 100 to 1. The streets are like rivers of them going every which way. Traffic signals are sparse. Its chaotic and a bit overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. By the second day we learned, by watching others, that the only way to cross streets is to wade through them. Somehow, miraculously, the motorbikes go around you. No one seems to mind or think its strange.

Its hot here, kind of like Miami in August. I like it. One needs to drink lots of water. The streets are clean. The air is not. The city has a very safe feel to it. I noticed that unlike in Latin America where cops carry assault rifles, the police here don't carry any weapons at all. We haven't met any aggressive people. Nobody asking for money, no shanty towns.

People here are friendly. Many speak some English. The food here is good and cheap. Lisa and I think we may have eaten rat. We'll never know for sure what it was, but it was unidentifiable yet good. Our first two days were spent roaming around town. We visited a few markets, a few museums, and a few pagodas.

Today we visited the Cu Chi tunnels outside of town. It was cool. Throughout the war here the Vietcong hid and, at times, lived in elaborate tunnel systems that they used to hide in and attack American soldiers from. . . . today you can go visit the tunnel sites and learn about the war from former Vietcong. Its interesting to hear their perspective on things. The network of tunnels stretched for over one hundred kilometers and included living areas, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers, and kitchens. They were dug right under American military bases. Vietcong would come out of the tunnels at night and shoot into American bases, then use them to disappear. They would even use them to sneak into American bases and steal food and weapons. . . . pretty impressive.

Tomorrow we head south into the Mekong Delta region.