Walking around Saigon

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006--HCMC (Saigon)

I made another BIG walking day of it today. I left the hotel early and went towards Cholon, the old Chinese section of town known for its big market. There are pagodas in that area, too. It was a longer walk than I had expected. I don't have a good map, so I kept going and going and when I thought I should be there, I saw a street that was on my map and was still only about 2/3 of the way there! I saw 3-4 temples. I never did find the BIG market, but I passed several small markets scattered through the area. At the last temple, a man was talking to himself in response to an English lesson on tape. It dealt with conversing about a patient in a coma. I asked if he was a doctor. and he said he was. We visited for a while. Then he took me to the side to meet the abbott of the temple. He seemed to be a nice man and took me around turning on lights and showing me special features. Twice, he lit three sticks of insense for me to place in the sand pots in front of Buddhas. Then he wanted me to take our photo together, so I got out my camera and did so. That last temple was near a park that my guidebook also mentioned. It was a Tivoli-style amusement park with restaurants, stages, rides, a small zoo, a water park, etc. It only cost $1.10 to enter, so I spent a little over an hour there. It was quite large and had many special sections such as a dinosaur park, an orchid park, etc.

When I left, I decided to walk back to a street near my hotel that has a Center for the Blind where they train blind people to give massage. I didn't know it from the guidebook, but they also have a sauna. So I bought a ticket for the sauna and a ticket for an hour of massage. Together, it came to about $3.25! It was a very small sauna, but there were quite a few people there. One of them started talking to me. Then all of them did. The first one explained that they were all shy about speaking up to me first. I spent at least 1 1/2 hours there going into the sauna and coming out to cool down before going to the massage. All the guys I met were nice. I could tell they were fascinated about having a westerner there. Unfortunately, the massage was not a very good one. First, it was done by a lady who was a little too delicate. She needed to put more umphhhh into it. And second, too much time was spend on the back and the head. I had been walking all day and would have enjoyed her putting more time in on my legs.

I had eaten only a snack all day--5 mini spring rolls at the amusement park--but I still was not hungry when I came out of the sauna/massage. I knew I should eat, so I finally went into a vegetarian place near my hotel. I had a plate of sweet and sour tofu over rice. It had lots of pineapple and other vegetables, and there was a nice chile sauce to add some spice to it.

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006--HCMC (Saigon)

Well, I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Saturday. When I checked today, I was surprised to see that TODAY is Saturday. That explains why there weren't too many people at the amusement park in the afternoon yesterday and why some of the sections like the water park were not open when I was there. It also meant that I had to tell my hotel I would be leaving on Sunday instead of Monday; earlier Friday morning I had said Monday because I was thinking it was already Saturday!

Today, I headed the opposite direction toward downtown for my walk. I went up and down streets looking at the businesses, the architecture, etc. Central Saigon is really very nice. The streets are clean, the businesses are rather stylishly done in terms of signage and decor, there are nice parks, and there are enough old colonial buildings to make it interesting exploring.

Every city I have visited in Vietnam has had nice parks. That's usual in Asia. In many cities, it is possible to find maybe one or two small parks that are in bad condition and that have government buildings encroaching on the edges. But here, the parks are well manicured. And they are free, whereas there are charges for parks in many parts of Asia.

As I wandered downtown, I wondered how much of it would be familiar to soldiers who return here for a visit. There are some old hotels, a nice theater, a wonderful post office, a nice church, etc., that would be familiar. But this has been a boomtown for the past 15 years or so, and there are many modern buildings--shops, department stores, shopping malls, hotels, etc.

I stopped at a sidewalk restaurant to have lunch. I had a plate of rice with cooked (but still crispy) shredded cabbage and chicken. It came with a bowl of soup with lots of greens in it and a plate of sliced cucumber. It also came with lots of iced green tea which I needed, since I had been walking for about 3 hours. Total cost: 50 cents!

I bought my bus ticket to leave Saigon for the Mekong Delta tomorrow. I hope the weather will continue to be good. This should be the rainy season with September being only second to October in terms of amount of rainfall within any given month. The rains have held off so far. Will they hold for another week? I hope so.

After spending about 3 hours in my room during the afternoon, I headed back to the Center for the Blind. This time, I asked if I could get a masseur, and the answer was positive. The man who had talked to me yesterday was there again. He told me he goes every Friday and Saturday. All the other men were different. Again, however, they were very friendly. After almost 2 hours at the sauna, I got a much better massage from the man than the one I got yesterday. Still, however, it was limited. For instance, he never did the upper legs in front. That would have been so nice, since I had been walking so much. If I go back when I return here next weekend, I will either skip the massage, or I will tell the one I get that I need him to concentrate more on my legs.

My dinner was another simple dish from a small restaurant. This time, it was a grilled pork chop and slices of an egg cake (like an omelette, but think like a cake) over the rice. The soup was the same type of soup with greens that I had for lunch. And, oh, the green tea was so refreshing after having been in the sauna for so long. Total cost: about 60 cents.

I will go back to the hotel when I quite here at the cyber cafe. There is the last part of a mini-series called The Triangle that I have been watching on Star Movies that I will watch. (Last night when I thought it was Saturday, I wondered what had happened when I found a movie instead of my mini-series playing. But it still didn't register until this morning.)

Tomorrow, I am off to Vinh Long. I'll spend 2-3 days there. Then I will probably go to Ben Tre. After that, I will return to Saigon for my last weekend. My flight to Bangkok is a week from Monday.