The 'Nam

~ I try to write not about things that I do; rather things that I learn. ~

Aside from a brief delay in Guangzhou, China and getting ripped off major for our meal there, the first LOOONG day of travel went off without a hitch. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh (or 'Saigon' interchangeably) late at night where we were met by our next big rip off when we accidentally paid triple for our 'taxi' from the airport. Live and learn!

We got to our hostel and were working on blind hope alone that it would be open and able to let us in (it was now about 1 in the morning) and that Muc would have found his way there already as we had planned. To continue our early smooth roll of impressive fortune, BOTH turned out to be true with no hassle at all! We caught up with Muc over a 40-cent beer or two and headed off to bed in our beautiful high ceiling room at the Diep Anh Guesthouse on backpackers' row, old town Saigon.

The next morning we got up early and explored the city by foot. Ho Chi Minh is extremely busy, but is also very accessible. Almost all of the attractions seem to be located within a few blocks which makes for some insanely bustling streets in the downtown area. There are more motorbikes at every intersection than in the entire state of Minnesota, I'm convinced. We had a terrific day exploring the central market, their Notre Dame Cathedral, Vietnam War museum (from the other extreme point of view than we are accustomed to) and a few other popular sites all within a few minutes.

In front of the old City Hall in Ho Chi Minh City. Fresh off the boat!

Vietnam's Notre Dame Cathedral.

We had been previously warned that if you try to wait for a break in the action, you'll literally never cross the road. The only way to get where you need to go is just to step fearlessly into traffic walking slowly but steadily directly through it. Crazy as it sounds, as long as you don't stop, slow down or start to run frantically, your path will be predictable and the 600 motos will pass right by you without incident.

Here is the M.U.C crossing the road in Saigon. Do NOT try this at home!

Since we had only a handful of days in Vietnam, we figured that we would have to decide between a jungle exploration at the Mekong River Delta or the beaches, resorts and famed sand dunes of Mui Ne. But when the time came, we realized it was potentially our only time in Vietnam (ever?), so we decided to cram them both in. We found an abbreviated 1 day tour version of the Delta and left ourselves 2 nights for Mui Ne's resorts, beaches, impressive sand dunes and 'fairy stream' walking.

Paddling down a tiny inlet of the Mekong River near it's delta. A slightly fabricated experience but it was still a really cool day!

Just the fellas hanging out in the 'Fairy Stream' area just outside of Mui Ne, Vietnam.

Our good friend and trusty cousin, Broseph.... riding an ostrich! This little experience set us each back a full dollar!

The Vietnam Austria Guesthouse in the beautiful resort town of Mui Ne. The beautiful paradise resort ran about $7 per person each night.

Even through our side trips, we remained based out of the Diep Anh Guesthouse in Saigon. We just couldn't get ourselves to move from there for its comfortable and private rooms, cheap drinks and surely the most genuine and helpful owners/staff that I have EVER encountered. They arranged all of our excursions we were interested in – and for dirt cheap, kept our bags safe for days at a time while we were away and just generally wanted to make sure we didn't have a care in the world while we were staying at their place. Still not convinced? On our last day there, Joe asked the owner where he might be able to purchase a guitar for cheap. He started to draw a map but then realized it might be a little bit complicated and crunched for time, so he dropped everything, pulled his motorbike out and drove Joe to the guitar shop personally! You just don't see that kind of extreme service – wait, I mean CARE – anywhere else!!

Us and a portion of the staff at the Diep Anh Guesthouse. 10 out of 10

In typical Muc fashion, he put together a mega-rad video to summarize the great times that we had in our week there in Vietnam. Please enjoy it by clicking the youtube link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPjb1TKv4VI :)

Our time was up and we would head next for almost 2 weeks in the Kingdom of Wonder; Cambodia!!!!