Blew through Saigon in 21 hours.....

.....and, while it WAS NOT pre-determined.....in the short time frame I was there, I really didn't care much for the place. Nothing cute.....nothing with character....just teeming amounts of people with a lot of lights and video billboards. A lot of activity in several little back alleys as well (hotels, pubs, restaurants, shops, etc. etc.)......but yet, a LOT of green space in terms of parks and the like. Reminded me a lot of New York City.....

......I really dislike New York City.

Slept in late 'till, like, 10am. Showered, shaved, and grabbed a late brekker, and hiked a couple miles to the War Remnants Museum (from the American War). Got there at 11:45am, and spaced out the Vietnamese Lunch (11:30am - 1:30pm) where, of course, it was shut down! So, I mill about the area, come back at 1:30pm, and they're having electrical issues with the lighting and, thus, can't open yet!!

I say "Screw it!" as I gotta be at the airport by 4:30pm for a 5:45pm flight to Bangkok. Find a cafe, have a couple pints, git back to my hotel at 3:45pm. Grab a taxi and I'm set....

Except that Saigon traffic at 4PM on Friday LITERALLY......LIIITTTEEERRRAALLY does NOT move.

This sucks!

BARELY make the flight, taking a full hour to go 7 kilometers from my hotel to the airport!

Was glad to see the back of that place.....


Final pics from 'Nam....












The front desk forgot to warn me that they were rebuilding the building across the alley.....so I woke up at 10AM with pounding jackhammers and general construction noise (Christ know how much of that noise I had actually slept through before 10am).........












The whole Froggy bidet thing still kinda weirds me out. I mean, the 'Net sites I looked at before I departed implored me to bring a roll of toilet paper! My friend and former co-worker Sambo had been to Vietnam, and had concurred with that idea, but simply stated that: "....they use water over there."

"They use water over there"?? What the hells THAT mean.....

I'd find out later, as every Vietnam hotel that I stayed at had a Goddamm GARDEN HOSE NOZZLE attached to the toilet.....

Uhhh.....yeah......I opted for the toilet paper option...



Finally, since no country besides Vietnam would accept my dong, I had to git rid of it before I flew outta Saigon. Not an easy task, as I carried big dong around with me, and only had hours before the flight....

Here's a pic of me showing off my dong......










OK.....so me is leaving Vietnam now ....thus, no more bad Leslie Nielsen-style "dong" puns (although when I tried to turn it in at a currency exchange booth in Bangkok, they laffed at my dong)......

More from Bangkok later.....

-E-