Day 3 - Getting My Health Back

My head was throbbing, and I was puking. The hangover from hell was upon me, and only 1 day into my trip. Like idiots, our first night in Saigon, David and I drank more than our fair share of Tiger Beer.  This regrettable action, coupled with our jet lag and dehydration due to our malaria vaccine, left us incapacitated the entire next day. I wont get into detail of the happenings of that night, because I believe David already explained that in his post. Instead I will tell you of the triumph of this day, the day we regained our health, ate some unfamiliar foods, and saw some amazing things.

The day quite literally started at 2am. Because David and I had been sleeping the entire previous day, we never had a chance to fight against our stubborn circadian rhythms, which would not let us go back to sleep. We tossed and turned, turned the AC on and off (it was either too cold or too hot), and I eventually just did some reading until the sun came up around 6am. Still in a bit of a daze, I elected to take initiative and get up and shower in our bathroom that lacks a shower curtain. While showering I think I flooded the entire bathroom, with no more than half of the water actually making it into the shower drain, most of it ending up on the floor, on the toilet, walls, ceiling etc. But eventually I was clean and ready for the day. David followed suit and by 645 we were having breakfast down stairs.

After breakfast we went to a coffee shop, and were enticed by this delicious looking blended coffee. We both knew there was ice and it, which was probably made with tap water. Eating ice made with contaminated water can be treacherous, but we could not resist an ice cold coffee in this hot and muggy city.  Thankfully, we were OK. First daring act of the day - success.

The next daring act of the day was walking under these power lines- success.

After the coffee and power lines, David and I came back to the hotel talked to the parents to tell them yes we were alive, and no we were no longer sick. After some short relaxation time in the room, we decided it was time to go bushwacking through this concrete jungle, and to dodge traffic in order to walk across the city to the reunification palace and war museum.

I am not joking when I claim that crossing the street is like bushwacking. This is a pretty typical street, and the traffic never ceases. You literally just need to walk across the street, and hope in your heart of hearts, that the bikers will see you and go around you - so far it has worked for me. Success

Finally, when we reached the palace and museum, we had some relative calm behind solid gates that would keep out the traffic and annoying street peddlers. The reunification palace I guess could be analogous to the White House, except that it was bombed a few times and was eventually stormed by the Tanks of North Vietnam in 1975. The building itself was beautiful, meshing some western architecture with traditional oriental influences.

Reunification Palace

Next stop was the Vietnam War Museum. The Vietnam War Museum was in one word: horrific. It spoke of the injustices and inhumanity of the French and Americans toward the Vietnamese. One section of the museum was all about torture, and explained the different tactics the French and Americans used on Vietnamese prisoners of war. One particularly cruel punishment was what is known as the tiger cages. In these cages, 5-7 inmates would be crammed in, and would have to permanently slouch over to fit in the cages. 

Tiger Cages

And these tiger cages were not even the saddest part of the museum. There was an entire room devoted to consequences of 'Agent Orange.' A deadly chemical the Americans used against the Vietnamese during the war, which killed regions of agriculture, caused death, and perhaps worst of all, has caused horrible deformities in children born to parents who were poisoned during the war. 

4 out of 4 of this mans children suffered deformities due to his poisoning with Agent Orange.

This is not the worst case pictured in the museum, trust me. 

As horrible as Agent Orange was, Vietnam was not innocent either, but they conveniently forget to tell you of their own war crimes. After all it is their museum. 

When David and I were done with the War Museum, we were tired.So tired in fact, that we decided to  hire a motorcyclist to drive us to our next destination. After some haggling, it was agreed upon that the price would be about $3.50 for a 15 block ride through the traffic from hell. Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we jumped on the back of a scooter and sped off. 

The first minute was a white-knuckled ride, but once you realized that your driver has been doing this his whole life, and that maybe he does know what he is doing, you can't help but just enjoy the ride. Success. 

We reached our destination, the tallest building in Vietnam, and the view from the observation deck was stupendous. See for yourself. 

Top of the Bixco Financial Center. A very polluted view of a city of 9 million.

Finally, the last challenge of the day awaited us - Dinner. After being so sick the day before, we wanted to be extra careful in our choice of restaurant. We ended up finding a little restaurant that served stir-fry dishes. I got the shrimp, head and all, David got the beef. So far, not sick. Success. 

For those of you commenting, I am sorry but the blogger website is blocked here, so I can update my blog but not view it. So Jenny, yes I know David looks good in my shirt, all my shirts would look good on anyone. I have style now, remember? Alan, I will be sure to keep an eye out for the spices that will be coming my way. 

Till next time I have 2 hours to write a blog. Yours truly. - Spencer