How you know when you're ready to leave...
Usually at some point in an extended vacation you reach a point where you're just ready to leave and return home. That point came Thursday morning for us as we set out to visit the HCMC's Cholon district, which is the "chinatown" area of the city.
We had considered walking to it, but got advice from the concierge to cab it since it was about 7 km away from our hotel (yes, this really is a sprawling, teeming city). We started out easy enough at a church where in 1963 the S. Vietnamese President hid while fleeing a coup. Well, he didn't hide so well because they found him, captured him, and killed him on the ride back downtown. Two historical notes to ponder: (1) that President (Diem) had been put into office by the US; (2) the coup to oust him was supported by the US. Discuss amongst yourselves.
After leaving the church, we also easily found an amazing temple - very beautiful and still very active. Many people were praying in it - constant flood of people coming in and out and burning incense. Pretty moving stuff to watch.
After that, the wheels came off. We walked and walked and walked trying to find this major market listed in the guidebook - and kept ending up on major thoroughfares that were not listed in our Lonely Planet map of Cholon. It was hot, the streets were pretty dirty, we couldn't find a decent bathroom, and we were hopelessly lost. So, we did what any right-thinking traveler would do: we hailed a cab and beat a trail back to our hotel - at that point, it was the best $4 decision we could make. Frankly, we had seen everything we wanted to, and it was all beginning to look the same.
That's the point I was talking about - and if you've hit it before while traveling you'll know to what I'm referring: the moment when nothing is exciting or interesting anymore and you just want to go back to your hotel and read your book. I guess it's a saturation point, if nothing else.
It reminded us of an amusing comment a fellow traveler had made earlier on this vacation. On our trip to Cat Ba Island, we had the opportunity to trek into a number of limstone caves - each cave had a lot of steps to climb up and down in order to enter, and it was pretty stifling hot. Everyone was getting pretty sweaty and we still had about 1.5 hours until we reached our final destination. Everyone entered cave 1 - and then after we hiked to cave 2, the guide gave us the option of entering or not, but he clearly encouraged everyone to enter. One guy was the first to decline the offer, and the guide asked him why he wasn't going into Cave 2. In heavily accented English (the traveler was from Israel), he said "Seen Cave 1....then have seen cave 2". A cave is a cave is a cave, sometimes - at least when you're reached the saturation point.
We recovered from our saturation point enough to cab out to a Qi Shiseido spa (thanks for the recommendation, Janice!). Amazing services - we each got a one-hour "four-hand" massage for $30 USD - that's two people working on you at once. For an hour. For only $30. Did I mention two people working on you at the same time?!?! That helped our attitudes greatly, and we headed back downtown for our last night in HCMC, where I got to have the Beef Cooked on Roof Tile at the market stall. I'm gonna miss that dish!
We leave Friday night (that's tonight, local time) - so today will be spent on last-minute purchases and, time permitting, trying to find the house where Michelle's mother's family lived after leaving Hanoi in 1954. We've had little success finding it on a map - but are hopeful we can track it down.
We had considered walking to it, but got advice from the concierge to cab it since it was about 7 km away from our hotel (yes, this really is a sprawling, teeming city). We started out easy enough at a church where in 1963 the S. Vietnamese President hid while fleeing a coup. Well, he didn't hide so well because they found him, captured him, and killed him on the ride back downtown. Two historical notes to ponder: (1) that President (Diem) had been put into office by the US; (2) the coup to oust him was supported by the US. Discuss amongst yourselves.
After leaving the church, we also easily found an amazing temple - very beautiful and still very active. Many people were praying in it - constant flood of people coming in and out and burning incense. Pretty moving stuff to watch.
After that, the wheels came off. We walked and walked and walked trying to find this major market listed in the guidebook - and kept ending up on major thoroughfares that were not listed in our Lonely Planet map of Cholon. It was hot, the streets were pretty dirty, we couldn't find a decent bathroom, and we were hopelessly lost. So, we did what any right-thinking traveler would do: we hailed a cab and beat a trail back to our hotel - at that point, it was the best $4 decision we could make. Frankly, we had seen everything we wanted to, and it was all beginning to look the same.
That's the point I was talking about - and if you've hit it before while traveling you'll know to what I'm referring: the moment when nothing is exciting or interesting anymore and you just want to go back to your hotel and read your book. I guess it's a saturation point, if nothing else.
It reminded us of an amusing comment a fellow traveler had made earlier on this vacation. On our trip to Cat Ba Island, we had the opportunity to trek into a number of limstone caves - each cave had a lot of steps to climb up and down in order to enter, and it was pretty stifling hot. Everyone was getting pretty sweaty and we still had about 1.5 hours until we reached our final destination. Everyone entered cave 1 - and then after we hiked to cave 2, the guide gave us the option of entering or not, but he clearly encouraged everyone to enter. One guy was the first to decline the offer, and the guide asked him why he wasn't going into Cave 2. In heavily accented English (the traveler was from Israel), he said "Seen Cave 1....then have seen cave 2". A cave is a cave is a cave, sometimes - at least when you're reached the saturation point.
We recovered from our saturation point enough to cab out to a Qi Shiseido spa (thanks for the recommendation, Janice!). Amazing services - we each got a one-hour "four-hand" massage for $30 USD - that's two people working on you at once. For an hour. For only $30. Did I mention two people working on you at the same time?!?! That helped our attitudes greatly, and we headed back downtown for our last night in HCMC, where I got to have the Beef Cooked on Roof Tile at the market stall. I'm gonna miss that dish!
We leave Friday night (that's tonight, local time) - so today will be spent on last-minute purchases and, time permitting, trying to find the house where Michelle's mother's family lived after leaving Hanoi in 1954. We've had little success finding it on a map - but are hopeful we can track it down.
posted by ToddV at
7:45 AM
