Ho Chi Minh City part 1

Everyone knows about Vietnam's rapidly growing economy which like China, was encouraged after old and unfeasible communist economic policies were stripped and replaced with greedy, selfish but highly workable capitalist ones. In fact, it's growing so fast that a lady whom we met at pho restaurant told us about how the Vietnamese are so quick in acquiring the newest cars and TV sets but are also equally quick at forgetting who they really are. At least, that was what I understood through her French-accented English as she's living in France now, married to a French guy.



This is what the airport looks like. Sleek, shiny floors and fully air-conditioned, just like any other found in modern cities around the world.



Care and consideration for Vietnamese who tried to play hopscotch in minefields.



Alas, it didn't take long before we were reminded that Vietnam is still a socialist state. This was a pretty surreal sight, after reading so much about North Korea, Soviet gulags and satirical communist fiction, here I am, in a real socialist state, standing before the awe-inspiring Soviet red flag.

Also, it didn't rain once during our stay there and the sun was absolutely scorching. The Vietnamese know this and they have invented some of the best cold drinks I've ever tasted. My very first purchase was a plastic cup of iced coffee from a roadside stall near our guest house, 5000VND (50 cents) for a very refreshing respite from the heat was damn good value for money. I got so addicted to it that I ordered another one at a cafe not too far away and when I say cafe, I mean a small little shop with less than six small stools and tables facing the road (for people watching, probably another one of the French's influence) and four of them taken up by old men watching boxing on the overhead TV set.



This is my glass of iced coffee, without condensed milk because I thought I should try to enjoy coffee by itself, without any outside interference. This was my expression after taking the first sip.



I returned it and asked for milk to be added in it. Who was I kidding? The only coffee I have ever drank in my life is the kind that was mixed with a disproportionately large amount of cheap cocoa powder and sugar and sold for a 1000% profit because they have beautifully pretentious-sounding Italian names.



This is the view from where I was sitting. No teenage girls smoking and bitching about their friend who wasn't there while they shift their tight denim-clad asses around in their chairs and bending over to...I should stop now. This was around 11 in the morning so we saw a lot of hawkers and Caucasian backpackers walking about and the occasional motobai speeding past.



This was taken at the strip of park that runs through the district in which our guest house is located in and at any given time, there will be a group of people playing this. Apparently, the point is to kick a shuttlecock-looking thing around while looking like your mother still dresses you. Have I mentioned that this game is really popular? We've seen students playing it, children no older than seven kicking the shuttlecock around and old men being surprisingly agile while punting it to each other. It seems that every Vietnamese has to love this game, unless you love hopscotch in minefields more, of course.

This is it for part one, the next post will be on our dinner that night. Well, our dinner and my post-dinner snack of a not-very-hygienic serving of Banh Mi.