HCMC aka Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City in two words: motorbikes and muggy.

Man, it is like there is a motorbike convention here 24/7/365. They're everywhere, even on the sidewalks. You're never safe!  At every stoplight there is an army of bikers waiting to run you down.  Of course, most intersections don't have stoplights, or any other apparent form of traffic regulation for that matter, so walking here is really a tricky game, a game of life and death.  Whenever possible, we grouped together with other  tourists to cross streets in phalanx formation.  I'm hoping to put up a pic of these biker hoards, but we'll see if that works.

And the heat/humidity. Brutal. We sweated right through every layer, especially in the indoor market that reeked of raw meat.  Good thing I was wearing Under Armor.  (We will protect this house!)  This really is the tropics, with really wild tropical fruits at all the stands.  I guess that's all I can say about the mugginess, because sweat is sweat; we all know it, and we all don't like it.

We checked out the War Remnants Museum, all about the atrocities of the Vietnam War.  It was pretty horrifying, especially the stuff about the birth defects from Agent Orange.  And the stories of the killing of women and children in such a methodical way really makes you rethink your ideas of humanity.  I'm reading Dispatches right now, by Michael Herr, which I highly recommend for anyone interested in the war history.

OK, that's all for now, but in an attempt to not leave you in such a depressing way, I'll try to post a pic of these crazy motorbikers, many wearing dentists masks.  It's fricken hysterical.