Drenched in vietnam.
Trip Start
Jul 19, 2008
1
3
Trip End
Aug 04, 2008
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Friday, August 1, 2008
I started my day with reluctance at leaving the room. I think such feelings hit you when you've been in the same damn city for 2 weeks. Since 14 days ago that is. It shocked me to realise i wittered away these 14 days in this same room, in this same city for that long. And after alot of procrastination, I decided I haven't seen enough of the city and launched about with plans to see the HCM Museum, buy something for D and go collect the 3 beautiful dresses I've tailored. Plus have something good to fill my stomach. It started off harmless enough, as I was leaving the compound, someone calls me pretty, I nonchalently walk around the block for 400m then hopping into a cab.
The cabbie took me on a spin through big and small roads, I figured maybe he was taking some shortcuts or something but when we went around and pass the Ben Tanh Market roundabout, you know you've got one really lost cabbie. The museum is just suppose to be a 10-12 minute walk from my place. So with some translation of Viet Bao Dang being museum from Lonely Planet, I got there at 38k dongs. paid a reluctant him 30k. sometimes I wonder if cabbies dont get you, what did they actually hear and where are they headed?
So a tour about the dark, dusty, dipilated (maybe not so bad but im just grumpy now) museum, what lonely planet raves about the remarkable building. Sometimes I wonder if the writers know what they are writing. Or maybe they have just never been to Singapore with our perfect museums housed in similar but well maintained and polished "remarkable building". Maybe thats why Im unimpressed. Some chambers are just a collection of old things. (ok, joke there). But some old things just arent old enough. They write late 20th century. Isn't late 20th century just like 1980, 1990? I have older figurines and antiques in my house. The upstairs is better with some artefacts of the war, some buddhist protests, etc etc. But I found one particularly amusing. You know a country's pride in overthrowing the south and becoming entirely communist and such related nationalistic pride. but I found it intensely amusing when I found myself staring at a poorly formed and half a remnant of two things used to make cakes. It wrote there, used to make cakes for VC soldiers (or something) and it was donated by this random woman. urm........ ok? "Here, I made cakes for the soldiers which they had over their secret meetings using this two stone things", "urm, ok, since you offered, it looks pretty old and historical-ish, i'll put it under a glass box and stick in the museum.", "thanks".
On my way down I came across this couple doing their bridal shoot, you know the typical museum thing, hand in hand on the grand stairs. Snapped plenty of pictures of the couple and the photographer. The assistant kept coming around to twist the bride's head left and right, again and again. And it was amusing to watch the bride mummering some things to the groom while smiling. And they stayed in the exact same pose for like 10minutes? Watching it, I was wondering if this is the pain people go through just to get married. mmm. Then they proceeded up the grand stairs and her train surrounded me and caught me in a little corner on the stairs. I naturally burst out into giggles because I found that split second severly amusing. :)
Just as I was about to leave the dark mouldy place, in all vietnamese style, it started to rain. Wrong, it started to pour vietnamese style. It started to pour monsoon typhoon style.
So I sat there like all rain caught people do, reading LP on history of vietnam and cu chi for half an hour. While learning about the evolution of the cu chi tunnels, I spotted the flash of the assistant's camera directly opposite me. I looked up. I had my picture taken. I decided it's alright then carried on reading. Then I realise the photographer took another picture. I can't say anything about it because I did take pictures of them earlier from the top of the stairways.
The rest of my day went with 2 cab calls, getting slammed out of the museum and standing on the front door steps with 3 construction workers and a chauffeur. Getting caught for an hour and a half in the rain was testing the last strand of my patience. And just then, the chauffeur outside started joking with the security guard inside through the grill and before I know it, the chauffeur jumped aside and a splash of water hit me. So much for jokes.
Cold, wet and utterly miserable, I tried to hijack someone else's chauffeur with 100k dong. Well, attempt failed. Maybe 100k dong isn't much to him. When he refused, he drove off and I felt crushed and subjected to my fate of standing on my miserable inch of a space. I was this close to just walking "home" 20minutes in the pouring rain with a half-fuck umbrella which has proven to be unable to withstand 2 raindrops.
Just as I stepped foot onto the gravel and started walking, an enterprising man approached me and offered me a ride back at 150k on the cyclo. (cyclo in the rain?). Hell no, so we finally settled at 50k on his bike. You should have seen him smile man. And so there I was on the say-om (scooter) (which i told myself I wouldn't take unless it's a female driver), pretty as can be in a sweet black embroidary dress, desperately holding on to the umbrella driving through the streets of HCM. Just when I thought "thank goodness for the umbrella", the half-fuck thing flipped and inverted. And so the umbrella and me entered into an intense struggle, flipping back and forth with me holding on for dear life in the pouring rain. when the umbrella flipped for the multiple time, I gave up.
There I was, riding on the scooter in the rain, drenched to the bone, holding an upturned umbrella and clutching on for dear life. When we slowed to a stop at the traffic junction and I turned to look at the other riders surrounding me, I just couldn't help but burst out laughing when I realised how downright ridiculous I looked. And you know, all of a sudden, my 3 hours out wasn't quite that bad anymore. :)
When life makes jokes of you, laugh along. :)
Over and out. :)
