Hồ Chí Minh and bordello with a haircut (4)

Hello again, hedgehog lovers!

And here I am ready to tell you everything about the beginning of our Vietnamese adventures.

We began our acquaintance with this lovely culture with visiting Hồ Chí Minh.

What startled me first when exploring the city is traffic, you probably have heard about scooters everywhere in Vietnam, and we were warned by the travel book guide that the traffic here is "chaotic" but you have to see it to fully understand - they practically do not stop, they push brakes slightly so you will have your 30 seconds to cross the road.

We visited the war remnants museum which is devoted to Vietnamese-American war. 

Here is pic a of a bulldozer which was converted to military use in the beginning of the war:

 And of course USSR helped socialist Viet Nam:

More photos of the place:

After visiting the museum, we started to walk around the city, enjoying the atmosphere:

 Someone has to earn money:

Everybody wants to take a picture with me:

 

With all the stars, red flags and other communist stuff I have to remind myself that I am not in USSR:

Really bright post office:

Yes, I want to speak with my mum, thanks... Her number is - + 7 495 988 27 28... I will hold on...

 Notre-Dame de Saïgon: 

For you to compare - Notre Dame de Paris:

Trying to make friends with the Japanese tourists (this guy is Totoro):

I attempt to blend in with the locals:

Met some pretty Russian ladies:

  

  

You know what I like about the Vietnamese? They are all soooo kind, or at least seem to be. Even when the guy wants to fool you into buying some overpriced useless stuff he does so with a smile on his face. 

I wonder, can I get a license, being a hedgehog and all? 

 

This guy over there only looks like Genghis Khan, it is in fact Trần Hưng Đạo, he commanded the Đại Việt armies that repelled three major Mongol invasions in the 13th century:

Saigon river is quite... dirty...

 

But the greenery in the city still is amazing:

My first experience as a bus driver:

Just strolling around:

 

Enjoying some desserts:

Sasha, teaching me how to pick up chicks:

His lessons had it's effect:

 Behind me you can see Bitexco Financial Tower - the highest building in the city:

Russians have to leave something behind. (Irkutsk - one of the biggest Russian cities):

Another interesting observation: girls here have funny habit of wearing flip-flops with socks. People here, as far as I gathered, still think that white skin is the symbol of wealth and class so they cover themselves with as much clothes as possible - we have seen people in sweatshirts and jeans at  +35 C (+ 95 F) 

And just when I was wondering there to go next:

We met some Russian speaking humans who advised us to go to water puppet show. Your first reaction probably would be - what? Why would puppets be in the water? why?

But we actually visited the puppets - and it was quite entertaining, to my hedgehog mind. For the first half of the show, you wonder how on earth does it work? Are the puppet masters lying on their backs, in the water? How do they breathe then? Do they have aqua lungs? Can they use them for 50 min of the show? Are they somewhere up? How come there are no strings glistening?

So you see, all kinds of thoughts, including the craziest ones were racing through my mind whilst watching colourful dolls moving around in the murky water.

But the other half of the show you sit there - transfixed, watching intently at dragons, fishermen, birds, fish and other representatives of local folklore and even the fact that everything is in Vietnamese doesn't bother you that much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mF5lF4Nv14&feature=youtu.be 

If I had to compress all my impressions of what I have seen in Vietnam in several words I would have told you these ones - colorful, no, not like that - COLORFUL, we, Moscow hedgehogs don't get that in our city, back there all our surroundings are mostly of several shades of gray (no reference to the book :) and white - oh, ok, it is mostly like that in winter and Moscovites have winter for nine months, so, no biggie. 

Another word is  NOISY, back at the hotel we had soundproof windows so the contrast was quite something. Imagine that you sit in airtight container for some time and afterwards you are pulled free - it is like all the sounds and smells hit you right in the face but in a good way, you don't feel pressured by it in anyway, you feel alive. 

And the 3rd word is STREET - there are so many activities in the street - people cook, people sell, people practically live there (but not quite, interesting fact - we have seen only one homeless woman who was begging for money, in spite of the fact that the country is quite poor - no one begs but everyone sells something - you can acquire almost any goods or services you would like - shoe cleaning with a toothbrush, shoe mending, wide arrange of street food varieties including: coconuts, juice to-go, sliced fruit, unknown objects in the banana leaves etc etc).

Stay tuned to read about our adventures in Mũi Né!

PS And again I almost forgot to tell about the bordello thing. Karina went for a haircut (she needed it badly, I told her to do it ages ago). The suspicious thing is that there was only one hairdresser (Asian, male) and a lot of pretty girls all made up and dressed up doing nothing... Also when another "client" entered the premises he and his buddies went upstairs with some of the girls...