Vietnam Post Number Mot

Flight was long, but uneventful, not much to say. Terrible movies. Second flight was better since I had three seats to myself. I think it was 7ish hours, making for about 19 hours of flight time, 24 overall. The HCMC airport is pretty nice and getting through immigration was very quick and easy, a bit surprising. Leaving customs I saw a crush of people waiting for family and friends, hundreds pressed up against the fence. Fortunately I had Linh's tennis racket and she picked me out pretty easily. A 20 minute ride and we were at my hotel. Room is very clean and plenty big, a good deal for 20/night. After not sleeping much, I got up and walked out onto the street around 9 am the next day. Not much of a plan in mind, just to go out and see what's around. I learned very quickly that motorbikes are the only way to get around - every person is either riding one, fixing one, or sitting on one along the sidewalks. They are everywhere. A not very pushy bike/taxi guy convinced me that is the best way to get around and I agreed. No price was set ('its up to you') and we headed for reunification palace. The palace was the headquarters for the government of the south during the war (built in 1966). It is one of the places that tanks crashed through the gates in 1975 as the VC took control of HCMC. It has been used sparingly since then and the entire building is like a time warp back to the 60s and 70s, both in architecture and furnishings. The basement has a bomb shelter where they operated that looks fairly close to the structure that Winston Churchill used in WW II. After that, we went for lunch, seafood with noodles and two beers each for us - all for about 5 dollars. He then suggested a massage, and I was skeptical, but he seemed like a good guy and had many handwritten recommendations from all over the world. When I got there they quickly offered me a 'lowlob' for 70 dollars and tried to take off my pants right away...I declined and knew this was getting a little strange. The massage wasn't that great, I don't think they do that as much as offer other services. Afterwards we stopped by my hotel and had some drinks and squid with his fellow cycle/taxi buddies. All were very nice and to my surprise really like Americans (I suppose its related to money, but they seemed sincere). Things were fine until their loan shark mafia boss(?) showed up. It was a woman wearing lots of gold jewelry. She loans them money when things are down, several men at the table owed her 1-2 million dong (70-150 dollars). I asked my driver to take me back and I gave him a very, very generous amount, but he was under the impression I was going to give him the full amount of his debt - which I didn't have even if I wanted to. It was kind of a weird ending, he hugged me and took off. After a nap, met up with Linh and had dinner in an open market area, definitely a little more low-key then earlier in the day. Pictures and videos forthcoming...