.. how much I love Vietnamese coffee? 

The sounds and smells and general busyness are nearly overwhelming at first although it quickly becomes manageable. We wandered around, marvelling at the traffic. EVERYONE has a motorbike and I'm sure that if their horn broke, they would not be able to drive because it is something that is used constantly. There appears to be some sort of very efficient horn-code being used but we were unable to crack it. If, for instance, you find yourself going the wrong way on a one-way street, you just beep your horn and drive on the sidewalk. No problem. We saw one guy on the back of a bike right in the midst of this chaos wearing a shirt that said "Safety First".

We found our way to the famous Ben Thanh Market which was chockfull of crap. We found a little stall that sold iced coffee so we plunked ourselves down on child-sized plastic chairs and watched the world go by. We met a lovely Chinese lady who had just returned from Cambodia which is our next stop. We read that there were some skirmishes on the border of Cambodia and Thailand over the ownership of land surrounding a temple. She said that she had seen no sign of trouble so that was reassuring. She had also been to Hoi An so we got tips about that as well.  

Later, we made our way to the War Remnants Museum which was very sobering. The tanks that crashed through the gates of the American Embassy at the end of the war were on display. There was also a Huey and a Chinook plus bombers. It was quite disturbing in many ways. Lots of very graphic pictures. Actual tiger cages were on display. There were many pictures of protests from around the world but none of American protests. We told a Vietnamese man a bit about the Kent State riots and others and I don't think he believed us.  It’s hard to believe that this happened so recently – I was in high school – and yet there appears to be no ill-will felt by the VN people.

Mrs. Thi from the Happy Inn recommended a restaurant for dinner. After much walking we found it and it turned out to be very fancy. We were definitely underdressed (not to mention sweaty) but we were welcomed. The décor was amazing but after being given menus, 3 staff members were hovering around our table waiting to take our orders. There was nobody else there and no music – very uncomfortable! Anyway, we ordered, other patrons arrived, and all was well. We subsequently found out that the little restaurants on the street were just as good - maybe better - and they were much more interesting and fun.

We walked across busy, busy roads, back to our hotel. We decided to hang out at a little bar next door to watch the people-parade. This street is known as Backpacker Alley so there are people from everywhere.  We were sitting at our tiny table and right beside us, behind a tarp, a lady was running a very busy take-out food business. Her entire operation took up about 2 square meters of sidewalk. Every time she would fire up her wok, poor Greg, who was sitting with his back to the tarp, got a blast of heat.  It was hot enough - the extra heat was not needed.

There were several VN hoochie mamas plying their trade. Some appeared quite young. An older Aussie man approached Greg and said, “I know you.” Anyway, after establishing that they did not know each other, the man explained that it was actually a cerebral connection that he had with Greg, not an actual connection.  

Greg is getting quite a bit of attention from the hoochie mamas. This is a great place for older men if they would like their ego (and perhaps other things) massaged.