We slept in this morning for the first time in over a week. We didn’t sleep too late though because we don’t want to waste any of our time in Vietnam (or in any port for that matter). We decided to check out the markets again but this time bargain and actually buy stuff. Fast wireless internet is pretty extensive throughout Ho Chi Minh City as well, so we were able to get a little while eating lunch. Enough to download my emails at least. I’ve got this whole plan worked out where I don’t have to use any of my internet minutes on the ship until we leave Japan. Then once we leave Japan I’ve got it worked out to how many minutes I can use every day so I don’t go over my 250 minutes originally allotted to me. I can get by doing pretty much everything that I want besides download my email, upload my pictures, and IM. I think this is quite an accomplishment. Me, Mr. computer guy who spends pretty much his whole day on the internet while at work, being able to limit my internet usage to sites that I can get for free plus 250 “anything” minutes. I don’t know anyone else on the ship who hasn’t already bought at least one more internet package (for like $.40/minute) besides David, because I’ve showed him all of my tricks that get me by without having to actually login.
Anyway, back to shopping in Vietnam. I just bought a few shirts that said things like Saigon, Good Morning Vietnam, Tiger Beer (popular in Asia like Budweiser or Miller in the states), and others. I was able to get each of them for like $2.50USD each. How can you go wrong with shirts that cheap?!?!
We ate out for dinner again at some random restaurant that we found. The food that we had for lunch and dinner were both excellent. Food is cheap here as well. So basically, everything is cheap in Vietnam, just like we were told :)
At night we all got together and basically just wandered around the city center area. A few of us wanted to find a casino to hopefully play some cards so we asked around until we finally found one inside of a hotel. They didn’t have any cards though, everything was on a machine. They had blackjack (which is what we all wanted to play)in a similar table-like environment, but it was still all just a video screen. There was a big screen in front of you with the dealer as she dealt the cards, then you could see on the big screen the total of each player (but not their actual cards) then everyone had their own video touch screen that they made their choices with. Needless to say, I hate video gambling games. The odds are set against you. This was better than playing slots, but I would feel more comfortable playing with actual cards, so I didn’t play.
Something I didn’t really mention before, the bus drops us off right in front of the opera house, which is sold out for the next 5 years or something like that. The taxi’s and motorbike drivers all know that our bus drops us off there, so they sit there and try to give us rides to different places. The whole area is kind of a tourist/shopping area as well, so they have plenty of business there. But there are about 5 or 6 little girls that hang around in the area at night, still in their school uniforms trying to sell people single roses. They’re some of the most hyper and outgoing little girls that I’ve ever seen. Extremely friendly though, and interested in where we’re all from and how long we’re around, ect. But you would never see a pack of little girls trying to sell flowers in a city in the states. I guess that just goes to show how safe Ho Chi Minh City is at night, or at least the area that we were in.
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