Our first Ho Chi Minh City experience involved a taxi ride. Now I've never been to New York, but I can imagine that a HCMC taxi ride is a step up from from an NYC taxi ride. Passing on the right with oncoming traffic is something I'd do in a videogame without a care, but in real life it is quite thrilling.
We made it to the hotel at about midnight or so, HCMC time. I counted one Christmas tree and eleven motorikes sitting in the lobby, and little open floor space. There are motorbikes everywhere! On the streets, in the alleys, in the lobbies, in the family rooms; one must be above the ground level to be away from them. Which reminds me, most buildings here are four plus stories tall, with twleve foot wide alleys in between. The markets are in the alleys, making the walkways even narrower, and what's more, the streets and alleys are teeming with people!
I feel tall here. There are an estimated six million people or so in this city, which is really a lot of people. I'm fairly sure that all of King County back at home doesn't even have two million people, for some comparison. Anyway, Pike Place Market in Seattle is high class compared to the alley market here, and Seattle is just a toddler of a city on the world scale, I have now learned. HCMC, however, is not quite entirely unlike home. Life has been good here so far, the sky is blue, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the time here in Nam.
5 comments:
Hi Devon!
Motor bikes in the lobby?? Did they decorate them too, or just the Christmas tree?
Do you think that the Vietnamese cab drivers might think that they're playing a video game? Maybe they don't know the difference.
lol Devon, wanna bring me back one of those bikes? haha. Glad to know ur having fun :) while you're sweating to death, we are freezing with really random snow flurries. i miss the heat =/ haha. laterz!
-SB
Hahaha. Motorbikes, you should totally jack one! Actually...nevermind. We wouldn't want you to do something that would start world war 3 or anything lol.
So you feel really tall there huh? We'll have to see how tall you really are when you get back over here! Lets make a contest. Lets see who is the tallest by the time you get back! haha
Glad you're having fun bro! Enjoy the heat and have a good time! See ya when you ge back!
Devon, I think you've just stumbled upon an excellent business opportunity... A video game of riding a motorbike through the streets of HCMC! You'll make millions! Or, at least lots of dong! So, maybe you'd make around a dollar thirty... Hmmm... maybe not worth the effort. Never mind.
Post a Comment