Saigon A.KA. Ho Chi Min City !!!

What a painful trip! One of the most painful travel sections ( so we thought) ...all of the overnight buses were full – but somehow we were able to jump on an overnight bus. Trouble was, it wasn't a bus that was made for over night trouble. It was a normal shuttle bus that could fit about 20-30 people. Taryn and I waited around for this bus forever after they had picked us up from the hotel. A few hours passed and we were finally on our way. Sadly, we were on the bus with the worst bus mates ever! They were rudely smoking their cigarettes, listening to their MP3 players loudly – no head phones for them, and resting thier dirty feet on my seat and me!! They were listening to Dance electronic music – which I enjoy, but not when I am trying to sleep on a freaking uncomfortable bus bound for Saigon at 2 am. After Taryn and I finally get some shut eye, we discover our bus broke down...in the middle of nowhere and our backpack we being badly treated. ( Our backpacks were purchased in Vietnam and weren't the authentic brands – so we were constantly worried about our backpacks strength – and there breakables in Taryn's bag) Long story short, after pulling over a few times, and sitting for a few hours here and there...and many attempts to fix and start the bus ( which kept us awake all through the night/early morning) we were on our way to Saigon. Waking up on the bus was a trip – we were just in awe with the traffic – we thought we'd seen it all in Bangkok but it was a different beast in Saigon. Heaps of Motorbikes everywhere with no fear and going at fast speeds. When we reached the bus station – we discovered that many of the taxis were unwilling to drive us to our hotel – so we had to utilize that motor taxis – it was a trip. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the Motor Bike taxi driver surrounding us – trying to get us to ride with them and trying to negoitiate. After we'd selected our drivers – we were off. It was one of the scariest rides of my whole LIFE! I am not exaggerating. I think Taryn felt the same. I almost got hit. Mere centimeters made the difference from a really bad accident. After 20 minutes ( which seemed like an eternity) we reached our hotel. Once we arrived, we discovered the rates we saw in our Lonely Planet guide were no longer valid – and the hotel was a bit of our budget – so we search for a different hotel. After getting some breakfast and walking around the neighborhood we found a new place. We visited the Saigon art Museum and walked back to our new place. We napped for a bit at our hotel – then headed out for the night to check out all that Saigon had to offer in terms of Nightlife. What a city! It was awesome and we loved getting lost in the many streets and alleys. We enjoyed a sushi dinner, had some sangria afterwards at a tapas restaurant, then headed to a dance club to dance the night away...and Dance we did! The next day we were out for the count, perhaps it was the previous night of travel and the fact that it had been a while since we'd been out dancing enjoying the nightlife – that we just needed a day to re cooperate. The last day in Saigon we headed to the “War reminents Museum.” It was really rough to view all the pics, documents, and artifacts from that era. Going to school in the U.S. They really don't cover much of the Vietnam War – so it hard for us to understand the magnitude in which the war affected the Vietnamese. Even today, hundreds of babies are being born with birth defects – due to the U.S.'s use of the toxin “Agent Orange.” It's so sad that lives – that had nothing to do with the war or the choices of both countries regimes are suffering the consequences. It's really sad and frustrating when you see all these wrongs – and you want to do something to try to make it right, or simply just help. After spending a few hours in the museum we went off and grabbed a bite to eat before we had to depart for Cambodia. We had such a wonderful and memorable time in Vietnam. We learned a lot and really tried to immerse ourselves in Vietnam. I tried to read everything I could, talk to locals, and take in all that is what makes Vietnam what it is today. I love Vietnam!