Ringing in the new year with another dive into the unknown
By Lonneke — January 06, 2016 05:05 am
We were greeted by the ant-hill formerly known as Saigon with a plethora of citylights. The youngest one suggested that all the millions of men living here had just jumped on their scooters to buy their sweethearts a dazzling weddingdress. Honestly, it's the only plausible explanation for the amount of bridalshops and motorbike galore around us, as our taxi waded through the nighttraffic.
When you manage to cross the street and reach one of the parks, a stroll through this big city is quite enjoyable, with shade and green provided. You come across some playgrounds too, so our boys could see if they could still function as children: they passed with flying colors.
Ho Chi Minh City offers a few sites we found worth visiting, once taking the bus, for the distances are long. We admired some Taoist temples, with their typical Chinese feel; blacks, reds, dragons, dark woodcarvings, paper lanterns and generals with long, sharp pencil moustaches and an atrocious look in their eyes. But mostly we just tried to take the place in, with all its foodstalls, foodbikes, foodcarts and foodladies - carrying their delicacies around.
Travelling to the south we had a fun first: we took a long chair bus. Unfortunately, not long enough for our western legs. We stuffed ourselves in the high seats (it was a 'double-decker') each with a kid tucked away between our knees. Obviously it's supposed to be a luxurious mode of transportation, but in the future we are happy to simply sit straight up in the bus again.
