SAIGON - 1 night, 1 day & another night

January 17, 2017

Finally. Finally. Finally.

Mui Ne is now many many kilometers and hours away from us.

When we finally arrived in the secret capital of Vietnam after a 7-hour bus ride on the evening of January 15, the first thing that caught my eye was all the neon signs and tall buildings.

Maybe because of the time of day... Or even very likely... Anyway, I didn't notice last time how modern the city center actually is...

You have to imagine, you see a murky river with locals building their makeshift homes right on top of it.

Without electricity or any other luxury...

But just a stone's throw away in the background, the city's brightly lit skyline.

Surreal.

And completely contrary to this image.

You really can't depict the gap between rich and poor that gapes there any better.

After a few more minutes on the old bus, we could finally get off.

In this part of the city, it was very different from the last place where we stayed.

Even more bustling.

Even more traffic (yes, really. I didn't think it could get any worse)

Even more people.

More tourism and above all... After what felt like weeks, German voices again.

From German tourists.

Street vendors, honking, music from every corner.

This city pulsates.

And I immediately felt comfortable.

Forget the stupid feeling that accompanied me the whole time in the fishing village.

So after we brought our heavy backpacks to a hotel that we discovered by chance, we immediately wanted to be part of this crazy city and plunged into the hustle and bustle.

Awesome.

Just awesome.

I don't really know how to describe it.

I think Saigon is one of the most exciting cities in the world, and at least the coolest I've ever been to. (don't be sad, Berlin - YOU will always be my number one)

With its 7 million inhabitants, it's almost half the size of Bangkok, and yet BKK seems like a village in my eyes.

The buildings are more modern. The people. The clothes.

And overall. In terms of sneakers... Finally, people who don't exclusively wear fakes (which is quite important for me as a nerd)... It was really nice to see. :))

And the food... hmm... So I'll put it this way... True traditional cuisine is still unbeatable for me, BUT there were these BBQ stalls where you could get 5 delicious grilled skewers (for about 2 euros).

A bit more expensive than in Thailand, but no less good.

And finally something in my stomach that goes beyond chocolate and fruits.

Yum yum. 😋

In the end, we ended up spending several hours at Burger King because we desperately needed Wi-Fi, and not much else happened besides sleeping.

The next day we had to change rooms.

We got up relatively early. At least compared to when we fell asleep the night before...

Then we went into the city without a plan.

First, we had something to eat.

Well, first just sweets.

But food is food. :D

In the end, yesterday became the best day of the whole week.

No. Nothing groundbreaking happened.

We didn't find any money on the street or experience anything special.

I think it was just the feeling,

that we both had.

We both feel really comfortable here.

We didn't think beforehand about what we wanted to see and just let ourselves be carried away.

In retrospect, it was exactly the right thing.

We rented another scooter taxi with a driver.

Explored China Town.

We ate delicious stuff.

Bought shoes. (yes. Obligatory...)

We were sitting in the heart of Saigon and sipped cold drinks while rats happily ran around us.

Bought cheap cigarettes so my family doesn't have to go to the Netto parking lot anymore. ;)

We enjoyed the strong sun, the brief rain, and the best mango I've ever eaten.

Then we bought a ticket to Cambodia (today is now the 17th and we are on our way there) and had some more amazing skewers, and that was basically it.

We had encounters with nice people, with annoying people, with people who wanted to rip us off or were well-intentioned.

We saw beautiful people, less beautiful ones, poor and rich ones.

They were Vietnamese, German, English, Korean, Swahili, or extraterrestrial.

As usual, everything.

By the way, we were walking around with 4 currencies.

We had euros, dollars, baht, and dong with us.

Except for baht, we used them all during that time.

Hey. It can get pretty confusing... 😅

I told you about the traffic, which is ridiculously crazy.

This time, I took a closer look (and listened) and tried to find some order in all the chaos.

Unwritten rules or something.

Because, as I said before... Traffic lights and blinkers are just decoration.

So.

I noticed that they all drive very slowly there.

Relatively.

The traffic is a constant flow.

And to be able to react in time, you must not exceed a certain speed.

The shoulder check, as we know it, doesn't exist there.

People simply don't look.

And according to my theory, simply because it might be the crucial second that you lose if someone comes from the front or the side.

Just stare straight ahead.

Be 100% alert at every millisecond.

Think ahead. (as much as possible)

And otherwise, just don't follow any traffic rules.

Then the chances are good that you will survive in this urban jungle. 😏

Oh yeah. The honking.

The whole city consists of honking.

At first, you think of little children who are just discovering the world and honking because they like the sound so much.

But I also think that there is more to it than meets the eye at first.

There is honking to let the person or people in front of you know that you are behind them (as you just learned, turning around is not an option... ;)

Then honking when you start to overtake.

Then when you are right next to them...And so on

Only when the Chinese were on their bikes... (yes, them again)

Well, with them. Well, I just couldn't understand the reason for honking in the world.

Maybe they thought someone would bring them food if they honked loudly enough... ..?🤔

I don't know.

After the day in Ho Chi Minh City, I can at least say that Vietnam and I have reconciled.

We are friends again.

And maybe I'll even visit my friend again one day.

I don't think I need to go into detail about the following night.

No matter where in the world you are - whether gangster, homeless person, child, pensioner, idiot, professor, or Cambodian bus driver (who, by the way, is currently getting on my last nerve), everyone covers themselves up at the end of the day and closes their eyes... Just like I'm closing this blog post now.

HASTA LA VISTA (as they say in Japanese) and see you next time!