Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

When I told you India was unquestionably the cheapest country I have ever been too, I was wrong. Vietnam is so cheap its expensive. By that I mean, “this is only a dollar how could I not buy it?” multiplied by about 1000x. To give you a slightly better example, it cost me ~4 USD to call home for 40 mins. That's less expensive than any other country I've been to by about ½.

Anyway, the first day I was in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) I spent the morning buying the country, which I did for ~50 USD. Yes, I now own Vietnam. And the rest of the day going on adventures with the Hauk drivers (Probably spelled horribly wrong, its pronounced like huck). A Hauk driver is someone who owns a motor bike and drives you around the city on the back of it. It costs approximately one dollar to go anywhere. It should cost less, but its easiest to just pay a dollar and not worry about it.

I wanted to go to the War Remnants museum, formerly titled the War Atrocities museum after shopping. I tried to walk it, which was a horrible idea, because depending on who I spoke with they gave me different directions. I eventually broke down and hired a Hauk, who drove me all over creation only to arrive there and find it was closed for the day. At that point I called it a day and decided to go back to the ship to get ready for the night.

This is where my really exciting adventure begins. A group of four of us were attempting to go to Le Pub (a local bar) because they had one dollar vodka mixers for the night. Not a bad price (even for Vietnam). We were debating about hiring a taxi, or getting four Hauks to take us. We decided to take Hauks. All four of them assured us they knew where it was and we set off. We drove, then we drove some more, then some more, before finally arriving at a “bar”. This bar was 1, definitely not Le Pub, and 2 most likely a house ill repute. Several extremely scantily clad Vietnamese women walked out of the bar upon our arrive and told us to come in where we would have “a good time”. We left in a hurry.

It was evident we weren't going to be able to find Le Pub, and decided we would settle on cheap beer. So, we told our Hauk drivers to take us to cheap beer. We all started going. 1st three of us turn and one of us doesn't. Not a big deal, he probably took a wrong turn but they all knew where they were going so we figured he'd be ok. We continue driving and gradually get into deeper and darker Ho Chi Minh. Understand, I'm not entirely sure we're still in Ho Chi Minh at this point, it could be Ha Noi for all I know. It keeps getting less and less well lit, and then all of a sudden its down to two of us. We lost someone else along the way. At this point, I'm thinking in my head how many of these tiny little Vietnamese guys could I take if they tried to jump me? Maybe two or three at best... They are all about 5' 2” after all, but I'm not liking my odds if I end up at the end of a dark alley by myself somewhere.

Things are rapidly going down hill, when lo and behold the two of us pull up at an outdoor restaurant in the middle of Ho Chi Minh somewhere. And lo, a third one, and the fourth of us all show up. Somehow, we had arrived at the same place unscathed. And true to their word, cheap beer abounded. As I said we were in the middle of Ho Chi Minh somewhere, not a white person in sight. The beer was 7000 VND a beer (the exchange rate is 18000 to 1) so a little under fifty sense a beer. Not bad right?

The rest of the night brought many and more adventures, but nothing of quite as grand proportions.