Nam

We are planning to leave Saigon today. We were in the little and overly boring town of Can Tho for two nights. The book said it was Capitol of the Mekong Delta and a very cosmopolitan kind of city. It was cute, sort of looked like Capitola, but there was just nothing to do, no cool markets or sights or really anything. It was more of a town that you would come to drop off and pick up goods, but nothing good. The street market was mostly boat parts, props, engines parts. I guess there was a Uncle Ho museum , but we never found it. there was a large Uncle Ho statue near the river that looked a lot like a big silver Col. Sanders. We decided to buy a bus ticket to My Tho a city three hours away. We went down to the local bus depot bought our ticket, that didn’t leave for three hours. We had already eaten, so like true Americans to pass some time we ate again. We ended up just sitting at the office waiting. I fell asleep and then was awoken by what i thought was a guy telling me that we could get on an earlier bus. He sat down next to me. His English was hard to understand, but he could write it OK. After a bit i understood that he was an English Teacher and wanted me to go to his school around the corner to visit his class. No, he had a car and was driving to Ho Chi Min and wanted to know if we wanted to ride with him and his family. No he was in the army up north and shot down a French plane?? At one point he lifted his shirt to show me a battle scar, he had a couple of buddies sitting around him by this time. So i did the same lifted my shirt and showed him my scar. The buddies all laughed since my scars out did his. After a few more minutes of writing, drawing, and a little charades he had been a pilot, was shot down over the north and jailed for 10 years. What he wanted was money. This had gone on for easily 30 minutes. So i gave him $5000 (.30) just for the entertainment. The whole time Johnny sat next to me looking off the other way. How strange that the guy didn’t come up to Johnny but instead woke me up. A watched this little girl and her sister for a while, spoiled little girl at that. If she was in the states she would surely have been on Ritialin. A lady would walk up selling candy, the girl would want gum or candy. She picked out mint flavored Mentos. Took a bite and spit it out, then wined till she got something else. Eventually she ended with chunks of sugar cane, that she would chew all the sugar out of the through them at people. She gravitated towards me and talked for a while all in Vietnamese. I just smiled and talked back to her. I think she was just asking me the same question over and over. Then she went over to the lady holding a baby put her hands all over the kid while the mother tried to push her away. She found another gal that had a box wrapped in wrapping paper the girl went up said something then started trying to unwrap it. The whole time the parents are sitting right across from us pretending like the don’t notice anything. Not a lot of discipline in the household.
We got in our little mini bus, we had the last two seats, somehow i had awesome leg room. I felt bad for the lady in front of my who was quite a few months pregnant and obviously sick. The road was a bit bumpy, and she used my knee to catch her balance. A couple of times. She would lay her head on it. I finally told her to bunch up her sweater and use my knee as a pillow.
We were going to be dropped off in My Tho on there way to Ho Chi Min City. The ride was most comfortable so Johnny and i were going to see if we could just ride all the way to HCMC. We saw the sign welcoming us to My Tho, but the bus never stopped so cool here we are in HCMC/Saigon. We did not do much the first day. The next day we booked a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. These are the immense network of tunnels used my the Vietcong. We thought we were going to be in a group of about 5 or 6 but instead a huge bus of about 45 people pulled up and took us away. the place was two hours away, but first we had to stop at the local crafts place and get pushed into buying local crap. Next stop was the restaurant that was in the middle of nowhere. We finally made it to the tunnels where they hearded us around like cattle amongst the other 500 tourists. the stuff was interesting but too fast. “Here is where the people did there cooking, Ok now we must move on” With 45 people in a group it was hard to hear and hard to see at the pace we were going. Johnny and i both decided that was probably our last group tour.
We hooked up with a couple of Cyclo drivers. Cyclos are peddled rickshaws. We had them take us to China town, cause Johnny wanted a bike seat like they used. Along the way we stopped and looked at some very cool vintage scooters. I asked about Chinese accupunture, so they took us to a place that did that too. Made an apt. for yesterday.
Yesterday i met up with my Cyclo driver who took me back to China town. We talked along the way. This is when i decided my favorite part of traveling is riding around talking with a local. I can ask him all about the country and be shown stuff you don’t see on group tours. He suggested i buy my own needles for the accupunture because of AIDs. I asked if he would translate that to the Chinese lady. He did and she gave us both a crazy look and shook her head showing us little packages of needles. She said we only use these once, everyone gets new needles. then looked at us like we were idiots to think she would re-use them. She asked where i hurt then took my pulse. She said that i had weak bones, not enough calcium. Either she said this because my leg is broken or she really can tell because that is what the American doctors say too. Also my kidneys are weak. When i had accupunture done in the States the gal told my she trained in China and the really good accupunturists can tell all your health through your pulse so?? I laid done she inserted a few needles very quickly then wrapped them with small wires and turned on a little pulsing shock treatment. She set a heating lamp above where the needles were and came back 30 minutes later. I think it felt good? This cost me $2. I also got suckered into buying an odd mixture of rice wine and jinsing that had all sorts of stuff soaking in it. plants, herbs, bugs, snakes, ?,?. I got the top of the line stuff that had Tiger bone in it. I take a shot glass full after every meal to strengthen my tendens and my bones. I had my first shot last night and it is gag worthy.
I have been seeing these older men with strange circles burned into their skin. I don’t now if it is like a tattoo or some religious ceremony. I asked my driver and he said it is a massage for Vietnamese. I figured i was on a roll of weirdness. so i asked him to take me there. They are not actually burns. they still rub your back but then take little mason jars with a small amount of rubbing alchohol, light it and attach it to your skin. It doesn’t really hurt, but then it doesn’t really feel good either. They did it on my chest too and i was able to kind of see what it looked like and my skin was like two inches high up in the jar. I am now covered in what looks like huge hickys Not too impressed with the massages over here, i think i am going to hold off until i get back to Thailand We are headed to the beach town of Muine tonight.