Doing my dong on banh mi? Pho sure!

[GarrettM]

MrsGM was keen to check out the market, so that's what we did.

 

[GarrettM]

We had decided to head to the War Remnants Museum on Monday afternoon, although we were again dealing with an uppity child.
As it happened she fell asleep as soon as we hopped into our Uber, so MrsGM decided it would be best if I enjoyed the museum alone, and she took bub back to the apartment for a more prolonged snooze.
Before visiting the museum I had read about it being quite one sided and it certainly proved to be so. But then it was the North Vietnamese who won the war, so you can't really blame them for taking the stance they do.

Mind you... here they talk about the Colt 45 used to murder innocent people.


And this famous photo...middle top...is used an example.


The South Vietnamese general shooting the captured VC insurgent is one of THE lasting images of the war. I recently watched the Ken Burns dock, where it was explained the prisoner - Nguyen Van Lem - had just been caught after murdering a bunch of people, including six children and an 80 year old woman.
A heavy dose of salt is required here.

 

[GarrettM]

Some shells.


The effects of Agent Orange on the jungle. Obviously the effects on the people were much more graphic. Those images are all on display here too, but I considered it inappropriate to take photos of those. Pretty grim viewing though.


The museum actually has an exhibit of sorts featuring art of AO affected children, and there is a non-profit which sells trinkets and such made by AO sufferers, where you can buy bits and pieces directly from people impaired by the chemical's legacy.

 

[GarrettM]

Back to the pictures.




"South Vietnamese Puppet"

 

[GarrettM]

There was a lot more inside, but I felt lots of it either wouldn't come across well in pictures, or it would be in poor taste to take photos.
Luckily there's plenty of things to look at outside!

An F5-A jet fighter.


Cessna observation plane.


They call Vietnam the helicopter war, and the Huey is an icon.







The A-1 Sky Raider.

 

[GarrettM]

The A-37


CH-47 Chinook.

 

[GarrettM]

Quite a few tanks and artillery pieces as well.

 

[GarrettM]

On departing the museum I figured I would avoid the dodgy looking taxis and walked a few hundred metres down the road to jump into a reputable one.
And so....
We went back to the museum the following day so MrsGM could take a look around. I spent the time with MissGM in the children's play room, and we enjoyed ourselves.
However, when we left I got careless and we ended up in one of the dodgy taxis. They get preferential parking treatment in this area for some reason, so the legit taxis can't wait outside. Not sure who's making that decision.

As soon as we got in I had a bad feeling, but I was seated so I couldn't see the meter. MrsGM kept me informed discreetly as it went up, and we were getting a little concerned because we didn't have a huge amount of cash on us.
The fare kept going up and up, and by the time we got back to the apartment the metre was at 270,000VND. Ordinarily this ride would cost 50-60,000. What a rort.
MrsGM gave me all the cash she had - which was about 200k, and I thought I had another 80k or so, but so much of it was in small notes and I was starting to get a little stressed counting it all, while old mate in the driver's seat was demanding his money.
In the end I only had about 220,000.
I got the girls out of the car and told the bloke I didn't have enough, so he should go to a nearby ATM.
This was a stupid thing to do really, as of course the meter continues.
I should have just said here's what I have.... take it cause there'll be no more.

SO he went around a couple of corners and I said no the ATM is that way, and he said there's one this way.


Clearly this is going to get worse before it gets better.... so I did the only thing that felt reasonable.
I grabbed all the cash I had on me, threw it on to the front seat, called him a thief and said I was going back to my family.
I jumped out of the car at an intersection confident he wasn't going to follow me (after all he'd come out well ahead) and walked briskly back to our apartment.
MrsGM wasn't thrilled I'd gone anywhere without her, and she was right. I had lost control of the situation, and to leave her without any idea of where I was going or what I was doing was extremely foolish.
I was also angry because I had ignored my instincts getting in the bloody car to start with.
The money didn't bother me - it was only about $12 or so - but I had to give up all the small notes I like to keep from overseas.
Trivial I guess.
The whole episode left me feeling quite poor for a couple of hours to be honest. But it was the only unpleasant moment in our 10 day holiday, which isn't too bad when you put it in perspective.
When we told the hosts at our apartment about it they said we should have just made the guy wait and come into the building, and they would have put him in his place.
Oh well.

 

[GarrettM]

And so we come to the last night of our trip, and our excursion to the Saigon Skydeck.
Another quick Uber, some snaps outside, and away we go.
Good views from the 49th floor.





It's a good spot to watch the sun go down, but we were getting hungry so it was time to head down and go for a walk to find a meal.

 

[GarrettM]

We found our way to the Walking Street Nguyen Hue.


And eventually ended up at a Thai place on the third floor of a random building just off the main drag. Spice Temple.

 

[GarrettM]

After dinner we walked some more of the pedestrian strip, and MrsGM decided to be a Vietnamese coffee pot to bring home. We found some in a cafe, which cost about $35. Of course we would find some at the airport the next morning for $5.

Sigh...

But that was the final act of our Vietnamese campaign. We'd be up at 5am the following morning to get ourselves sorted and off to the airport for a 9am flight.
That in itself was a pretty big effort. SGN - SIN - PER, arriving home well after 9pm on the Wednesday night.
Our stopover in SIN gave us just enough time to attack some duty free alcohol. 1L of Bombay Sapphire and 1L of Grey Goose.

The 787 from SIN was again pretty reasonable, although the child wouldn't sleep at all, and my seat refused to recline.

Would I fly Scoot again? Well yes, because we are, in May, for another visit to Singapore. Sadly it's another late departure. I think it's an ok flight in the day, if you need to get there on the cheap, and can plan ahead with your own entertainment. Other than that I imagine I'll do my best to avoid it in the future. Definitely not for destinations beyond Singapore.

All up the flights (Scoot and VN) cost us about $1800 - including purchased food and drinks on board.
For curiosity I compared to some other carriers, and SQ priced out at $1900 for 3pax PER-DAD via SIN in Y, with better timings from memory. Speaks for itself.

As for Vietnam itself, I would highly recommend it for anyone interested, although I doubt we would be going back anytime soon. The food is excellent and cheap, and beer is well priced if not quite as cold as I would like. The people were friendly and there's bargains to be had if you want to shop.
For me though I felt I was pretty much doing and seeing the same things every day, and I need a little bit more variety in my travel destinations. I'm sure plenty of others will disagree.

We are off on a southern WA road trip tomorrow, as we work to sell as many copies of MrsGM's book as we can.
Driving Perth-Denmark-Esperance-Dumbleyung-Balingup-Perth over the next 13 days.
Not the sort of thing that lends itself to a trip report, but keep an eye of out for pics in the Office View thread.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope the report helped someone with their own travel ideas.
Cheers,
GM

 

[VPS]

Thanks - good TR as usual. Vietnam is on my list

 

[Boca68]

Thanks GarrettM, great reading.

 

[tuppence47]

After dinner we walked some more of the pedestrian strip, and MrsGM decided to be a Vietnamese coffee pot to bring home. We found some in a cafe, which cost about $35. Of course we would find some at the airport the next morning for $5.

Sigh...

But that was the final act of our Vietnamese campaign. We'd be up at 5am the following morning to get ourselves sorted and off to the airport for a 9am flight.
That in itself was a pretty big effort. SGN - SIN - PER, arriving home well after 9pm on the Wednesday night.
Our stopover in SIN gave us just enough time to attack some duty free alcohol. 1L of Bombay Sapphire and 1L of Grey Goose.

The 787 from SIN was again pretty reasonable, although the child wouldn't sleep at all, and my seat refused to recline.

Would I fly Scoot again? Well yes, because we are, in May, for another visit to Singapore. Sadly it's another late departure. I think it's an ok flight in the day, if you need to get there on the cheap, and can plan ahead with your own entertainment. Other than that I imagine I'll do my best to avoid it in the future. Definitely not for destinations beyond Singapore.

All up the flights (Scoot and VN) cost us about $1800 - including purchased food and drinks on board.
For curiosity I compared to some other carriers, and SQ priced out at $1900 for 3pax PER-DAD via SIN in Y, with better timings from memory. Speaks for itself.

As for Vietnam itself, I would highly recommend it for anyone interested, although I doubt we would be going back anytime soon. The food is excellent and cheap, and beer is well priced if not quite as cold as I would like. The people were friendly and there's bargains to be had if you want to shop.
For me though I felt I was pretty much doing and seeing the same things every day, and I need a little bit more variety in my travel destinations. I'm sure plenty of others will disagree.

We are off on a southern WA road trip tomorrow, as we work to sell as many copies of MrsGM's book as we can.
Driving Perth-Denmark-Esperance-Dumbleyung-Balingup-Perth over the next 13 days.
Not the sort of thing that lends itself to a trip report, but keep an eye of out for pics in the Office View thread.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope the report helped someone with their own travel ideas.
Cheers,
GM

Once again, many thanks for such a detailed and informative TR. I visited most places you mentioned, but did not take as many photos, so cheers on that. The flight cost comparison was interesting as well....Happy travels

 

[auriga]

Wow, excellent report, thanks for sharing.
Feels like I have been there after reading.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks for all the work in putting this TR together.

 

[Catweazle]

Can I just say that yours is a ripper title and, by far, the best thread title I've seen around here for a while. Makes my day!

Now to read the rest of this, hah...

 

[GarrettM]

Can I just say that yours is a ripper title and, by far, the best thread title I've seen around here for a while. Makes my day!

Now to read the rest of this, hah...

I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.

 

[JohnK]

Very interesting trip report and thoroughly enjoyed reading.