Good morning, afternoon and night Vietnam!

Hello!  I am blogging from the famous Pham Ngu Lao street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  It is in no way comparable to the the sleezy, nasty, skeezy Khao San road in Bangkok!  Instead, it has all the conveniences minus the sketch.  I have to admit though, HCMC is a little too metropolitan to me and I am really looking forward to seeing places like Hoi An, Hue, and Dalat.  I am staying at a hostel but they were sold out of their dorm rooms so I'm staying in a double with a girl I met at reception, a fluke really.  I overheard her saying she also wanted to stay in the dorm but they were sold out.  So I asked her if she wanted to share a room.  Voila! problem solved.   

I spent the day yesterday and today walking around central HCMC.  I visited the HCMC Fine Arts Museum, which is more of a gallery considering most of the displayed works are are on sale.  There were some interesting photographs and oil paintings.  I couldn't take pictures unfortunately.  I also visted Cho Ben Than (Ben Than Market) and it was standard but cool.  I'm trying to find things that are uniquely Vietnamese but so far I've failed because the only thing I've bought is a black cotton scarf.  Also unfortunate, I cannot buy too much because I only have my pack which is 70 liters and most of it is full!  

Today I heard someone say that the best way to get to know a country is through it's stomach.  SO TRUE.  I had my first bowl of Pho and surprisingly, it was delicious.  I am looking forward to eating some good French food though, maybe in the ritzier part of HCMC.  I'm going to the Cu Chi tunnels tomorrow and Cai Dao(abc?) temples.  blog later :)