Saigon
So I’m sitting here in an internet cafe across from the ice cream shop. Connection rate is still 14.4 I think. It’s unbearably slow. I keep forgetting to mention all the funny stuff I see. For one thing, Vietnam is full of creepy crawlies – we’ve got lizards and ants and mosquitoes in the house – and it’s an air conditioned and luxurious house.
This morning we had a nice bowl of noodle soup (bun bo hue) and then fresh fruit - papaya and mangoes and star apples, called "vu sua" meaning "milk of the breast." Vu sua is a fruit that has a milky flesh, hence its descriptive moniker. We then drank fresh coconut juice out of, well, coconuts. Oh, and yesterday, mom and I had fresh squeezed sugar cane juice from the street vendor. We had our taxi driver pull over on the street while the vendor squeezed it for us into plastic bags, complete with straws and banded shut with rubber bands. I haven’t gotten sick from any of the food or vegetables, or even the meat, but I’m going to steer clear of most meat we encounter. I happened upon the meat department in the huge Saigon market, a sight you should not see. People are on raised platforms with their slabs of meat hanging on hooks. It’s freakin’ 90 degrees outside. It’s an outdoor market. Needless to say, other bugs and mosquitoes all around.
Cyclo drivers sleep along the sidewalk when they’re off duty, and crossing the street is far more harrowing than in NYC any time of the day. There are no street lights, and no regards to the painted lines – you often find yourself facing oncoming traffic whether on foot or driving. Most amazing is the sheer number of 2-wheeled Honda motorbikes and cyclists who all “share� the road. No one wears a helmet, and sometimes, you see little 2 and 3 year old kids clinging on for dear life. I can’t even begin to imagine what might happen if they fell asleep in the back seat.
must run now.
xxo
hani