Thursday, May 16, 2019

A Holiday in Vietnam - Saigon Part 2


Mr Beach House is beginning to dig communism, which is ironic considering the market economy is thriving everywhere here in Saigon. 


According to our guide yesterday, both education, healthcare and pretty much everything else must be paid for by the individual here.  It appears there is no nirvana under any political system after all and hard work is what sorts out the haves and the have nots in society. 






There are plenty of haves if the Mclaren parked out front of our hotel is anything to go by and plenty of have nots judging by the guy on the motorcycle who grabbed at the neckless of a girl standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross the road.  Luckily he missed but he really hurt her.  That act prompted me to lock mine away in the hotel room safe.  At least until we leave the city anyway. So the lesson is that human nature is the same the world over.

The biggest Beach House Brat, oh wise one,  (cue sarcastic tone) is telling me that I overplayed the chaos theory bit.  He says that Saigon just feels like Chatswood on steroids.  He is pretty resilient actually and loves it when things don't go according to plan, which is the complete antithesis of his mother.  He especially likes my reaction when they don't.


The Littlest Beach House Brat seems to prefer the sanctity of the hotel.  We have dubbed our room "Australia"  as when you've seen one you've seen them all and it's just like being at home, which of course makes me want to leave it as often as I can.  She wanted to order room service last night and virtually cried when we said "No." Happily, we found a great pop up restaurant in the market and IMHO had the best meal so far.  And all for under $40 including the very nice beer they serve here.  The great thing is that the tables are all joined together due to lack of space, so you meet lots of other nationalities and Aussies of course who are happy to give you a few tips and even offer to share their food. One girl gave me her remaining sachets of mozzie repellant as she was off home the next day. People in holiday mode are so nice.


As for being a touirst, the War Remnants Museum was sobering.  It was interesting to see the Vietnam War being told from another point of view.  They don't hold back on the photography and it is utterly confronting and much less censored than anything I have seen in other war museums around the world.  They are photos you can't unsee and very very haunting. The one certainty is that man's inhumanity to her fellow human is boundless.  It would have been much better to just skip the war part and go straight to the status quo of today.  ie. A market economy with no national elections and a communist overlay. Testosterone sure has a lot to answer for.




Another irony is that Australia is still frightened of the domino effect.  Lets hope we just skip the war part next time to sort it out, as the ones who really get hurt are the civilians, the unborn kids (Agent Orange) and the wide-eyed kids like the Biggest Beach House Brat who think they know everything and are ruined for life by the whole experience.



Anyway, we are off to the Mekong Delta today and apparently having lunch in a private home among other things, which I am very much looking forward to.




For more travel stories go here.

1 comment :

  1. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn't show up.
    Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyway, just
    wanted to say fantastic blog!

    ReplyDelete

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