Day 15 – The War Museum and breaking of the fellowship

I wasn’t too excited about this day. My parents and both of my friends were going home today without us. Me and Na are traveling home on the 24th.
Last night after we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City we booked some rooms at the DONA Hotel. Not your typical top of the line hotel, but doable for a days stay or two. The rooms barely have space for 2 people and the bathroom was probably designed with midgets in mind;

You actually have to wrap yourself around the door to take a piss

Worst shower ever

You know those showers that barely drip water when you turn em on? This was a fine example of that. It really pisses me off to no end. You have to stand in the shower for 5 hours to get your hair wet enough to use shampoo, then another 5 hours to wash that shit out. I really hate cheap skate hotels like that. Grrrrr!

When you stay  in Ho Chi Minh City don’t expect a moment of silence from the outside unless you book yourself into a good hotel with proper isolation. You could hear constant car horns, scooters and yelling all night. I took this picture from the window on our room during daylight, but it’s a fine presentation of the nighttime activities as well:

Scooooootteeeeeeeer!

Since this was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City we wanted to check out a War Museum and hopefully a proper shopping mall that carried decent goods that weren’t knock offs or cheap imitations. Being hungry as hell, we grabbed a taxi to this place called Diamond Plaza. It was a shopping mall with food court. That meant we could grab breakfast AND do some shopping. We stumbled upon this food court at the 5th floor that had Lotteria, Fresco and some japanese and korean food outetls. I ended up with a medium sized pepperoni pizza from Fresco:

Good pizzas here

Best pizza i've had in a while

The pizza was outstanding! Pepperoni and cheese…REAL god damn cheese! I’m not ever eating a pizza from Dolly Dimples again. Maybe if they start using REAL cheese and not the plant-based, non-cream “cheese” they use, i’ll consider it. This pizza marks the end of my carbohydrate intake for a while now.

We didn’t really find anything exciting to buy at the mall, so we headed directly  to the War Museum. When we arrived there the time was 1200..and guess what? The museum closed at 1200 and opened again at 1330! Good game. We popped into a nearby cafe and sat there to wait it out. I was being quite pissy by now because 1)i had some shit in my right eye that annoyed the hell out of me and 2) i was getting really tired by the amount of pushy sellers and beggers outside the cafe and the musem entrance. This one guy came up to us at the cafe and just stood there with his stolen t-shirts that he wanted to sell. We said “No, we don’t wanna buy anything”. He didn’t move, just pointed his finger towards my father and smiled, continuing to pester us. I just snapped and yelled at him..told him to take his t-shirts and fuck off. He smiled some more before finally going away. Where’s my blood pressure monitor when you need it?

The clock finally hit 1330 and we entered the War Museum. It was 2 floors worth of history and artifacts from the Vietnam war (mostly from the 65-75 era). They had weapons, mines, photographs etc on display accompanied by both vietnamese and english texts. The history was of course told from a pure Vietnamese perspective and tried as hard as possible to make the US seem like heartless and coldblooded child killers. Which, of course, they are…or..were?

Here are some shots from the museum:

Don't let the army fuck over your mind

The second floor of the War Musem had a huge history part where the entire progression of the Vietnamese wars (including the french occupation) were explained in detail, chronologically. It was quite an interesting read. I recommend everyone who visits Ho Chi Minh City to take a peak at this War Museum.

It was time to go to the airport to say goodbye to my parents, Ole-G and Tommy. I joined them for the check-in of the luggage. We came back outside to let Na and her parents say goodbye to them. I already felt that i was gonna miss them. I really wanted Na and me to join them and go home. We said goodbye to them.

Me, Na and her parents were now gonna visit a place that was located about an hours drive outside Ho Chi Minh City. Nas sister and her husband was staying there at the moment, and we were gonna join them for some supper and social togetherness.

We had a good meal together that night with a whole bunch of people. Me and Na retired to a small hotel that night..a SMALL…hotel:

The matress was harder than wood

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I didn’t even bother to try the shower, because taking a look at it i almost popped a brain vessel in my forehead. The AC in the room was located directly above the bed and was noisy as hell. Im surprised i even got a minute of sleep.

The next day..we are going back to Dalat via bus. A 6-7 hour bus ride. Not gonna enjoy that.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting more very soon!