Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

After a 5-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. HCMC, then known as Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam until it fell to the North. The first action the North did was to rename the city from Saigon to HCMC, but even so the formal name is HCMC, everybody still calls it Saigon...

There was a huge difference in surroundings comparing Cambodia with Vietnam. HCMC is a developed city, relatively clean, and with lots of energy. Vietnam has followed China's footsteps in that they are both communist governments that have opened their economies to capitalism, resulting in a huge economic boom. As China continues to develop and rise, it's becoming more expensive to do business in China so one of the new hotspots is now Vietnam for foreign investment and development.

Vietnam is a backpacker's dream. This area of HCMC is in fact called the Backpackers' District. This is home to lots of budget hostels, good food, and walking distance to the city's best sites. Every place in this district advertises rooms available...
Here we are walking the fun alleyways of the Backpackers' District to our place...
And this was our place... three beds packed into a small room, but it did have air conditioning and its own bathroom with plenty of hot water. What more do you need for $15/night?
Also in the backpacker's theme, one of our favorite companions is the book series Lonely Planet. But here in the Backpackers' District these copied versions abound, selling for $2-3/book, instead of their typical $30+/book. Not advocating, just reporting...
This was a great place to eat, just around the corner from our place. We ate breakfast here, American style breakfast no less, and they have free wireless internet as well. He we chatted with Little Grandma on Skype... Lil' Grandma (Morgan's Mom) can be seen on the laptop...
Internet cafes are plentiful in this city. At this one I got a kick out of watching the young girl next to me use Google to get to a website with games, select the game she wanted to play, and then play it while also "chatting" somebody on MSN. How old is this girl? And she is already so Internet savvy. Watch out America, there are lots of smart kids in this world...
There are also lots of travel agencies around town. It is VERY easy, and cheap, to travel around Vietnam. This is a map at a travel agency where we booked our next leg to Nha Trang (yes, their map is turned sideways). Ho Chi Minh City is in the south (far left) and we travelled north along the coast up to Hanoi (far right)
In a standing tribute to its days as a French colony, this French-built cathedral dominates the downtown of Saigon.
The backside of the cathedral. Saigon's landmark post office is there to the left.
A shot of the post office... also French-designed
Inside the post you could do things like pay money to communicate with people... you could pay money to make international calls (just voice, no video), and you could pay money to send people messages that they could get in a week or two. Why would anybody pay money for this service when we were just using Skype to call Little Grandma in Wyoming for free? ;-)

At any rate, we took the opportunity to teach the girls about how people used to communicate via snail mail. We bought some postcards, used a pen and wrote messages on them, put stamps on them and sent them on their way. If you didn't get the postcard we sent you, it probably just got lost in the mail!
The streets are dominated by signs of Ho Chi Minh in various nationalistic propaganda...
Young people actually wear rice paddy hats around town...
And older folks wear "Sexy" shirts!
The traffic here is dominated by bicycles and scooters by day...
and by night...
We loved seeing the family-model scooter
and we were tempted to go for a ride, but not in this heavy traffic...
Crossing the streets proved to be quite a challenge, especially with roundabouts since there aren't traffic lights to stop the traffic. So you basically cross six lanes (three each direction) one lane at a time...
And finally... Food! After Cambodia's bland food (unless you know where to go), Vietnam was a welcome change. Still not as good as Thai food, but still very good.

We still maintained our streak of drinking, and then eating, one coconut a day...

And how can you stay in Vietnam without eating Pho' noodles? We ate at several places, but the most fun was eating at a place that advertised "Pho for the President." What was that about? Yup, President Clinton at here on one of his Asia trips back in the day...
Here's the restaurant, and our big bowl of Pho noodles.
Adayla can be the life of a party back in the States with what she'll eat. She has no fear in trying new things and is definitely a carnivore!
After devouring the chicken, she posed for a Binx Koon (our dog) impersonation. Look at how clean the bone is... her teachers in kindergarten teach her to eat the cartilage and everything off the bone... Mmmm, she loves it!

A benefit of Vietnam having been a French colony is the legacy of French bakeries! The Vietnamese bakeries are good, really good! I had just purchased several items here in the bakery and wanted to take a picture of the pretty layout. As soon as I pulled out my camera to take a picture, on helper lady grabbed my arm and started yelling at me while this helper guy came rushing over to make sure I put the camera down as well...

I then pretended not to understand his English. I said I didn't realize that he wanted to be in the picture with me. So I grabbed him by the shoulder and took a picture with him. He was quite uncomfortable with all the picture taking. Are you serious? No taking pictures of pastries? At least they were quite good...

This wouldn't be Asia if there weren't night markets. This is where Morgan is in her element... she excels at bargaining! Look at the ferocity and intensity Morgan displays when she bargains... and all with a smile!

We noticed a lady selling ice cream to the vendors in the market and figured that it must be good. So we bought the girls some ice cream, and then bought a second round from her as well!