A quick breakfast pho, a stop to swap some currency, and visit to the mobile shop for a cheap esim ($8/month, 4gb/day, unlimited calls and texts!) and then back into the city on scooters, this time for some governmental paperwork. Yesterdays sandal shenanigans left me with a blister, so today I wore boots - and between the acclimatization, subconsciously learning to adjust my body position to the feel of the engine, and not worrying about losing a thong on the freeway, the ride was way more chill. I do have a new favorite part of the <emergent swarming behavior>: Traffic circles. The bigger and more complicated the better. Thousands of independent actors, reacting to hundreds of stimuli multiple times a second, and all being fed back into the system in an infinitely iterative loop. Anyways, enough bioinformatics nerd shit, on to government paperwork!
I wasn't allowed in the embassy, or consulate, or whatever it was, so I found a park attached to a nearby bank and posted up with my kindle, enjoying the shade and rubbing fountain water on my arms to stay cool. After a few chapters, Lou emerged from the bureaucracy with a form directing her to another branch of the bureaucracy. We made our way over, and then I settled in with a book for what was sure to be hours of good reading... However I was only a few pages in when she emerged! Apparently you can pay people to deal with the paperwork for you, and they deal with the lines and the forms - and just like that we suddenly had hours of unscheduled freetime!
After checking out the soviet tanks (known for barreling into the yard) and the US fighter jet (known for being stolen from an airbase by a brave hero of the revolution and bombing the palace) we headed inside to check out the staterooms, meeting rooms, living quarters, etc of the palace. While the history was cool, it's a stunning blend of 1960s/70s modernist architecture blended with traditional Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese design principals. And the interior was just as full of sleek design work - especially in the furniture. Classic examples of mid-century modern woodwork abound, and I was more into them than the history. We wound our way up to the roof, where they have a Huey parked on the roof, next to two red circles denoting the bombing run of the aforementioned F4 fighter. Technically the last chopper out of Saigon was at the US Embassy, but the evocation is powerful and hard to miss.
On the way down we exited through the bunkers, a set of radio-chambers, armories, shooting ranges, and bedrooms staggered beneath 1m and 2.5m of cement, all well preserved. The classic Mercedes alongside was a good reminder that the "Reunification Palace" (as it is now known) is as much flaunting the spoils of war as a museum. That's an aspect of most museums if you think too hard about it, communists just seem to be more blatant about it.
After the palace, the tickets also got us into a château on the property for an exhibition on the history of the palace, as a lens to review the history of the country from French colony to dictatorship, assassination, and civil war. To be honest, there was little architecture and no furniture so we skimmed the exhibits and quickly moved on.
Having experienced this amazing "touristy" site, Lou wanted to hit more touristy things she'd never seen. The iconic post office is now a tourist trap, and we tried to book a tour-bus around the city but that was a bust due to the timetables. So we went to the Cathedral! Which is closed for renovations. So we went to the famous opera house! Which won't let you in if you don't have a ticket for a show.... Having exhausted the classic "Tourist" things in the city center, we decided to do the "touristy" thing all the locals are doing: Riding the metro.
The very first metro line opened last week, and the second stop is at the opera house! Since it's free for the first month to drum up interest and sell the idea to the masses - everyone is riding it, posting about it (and the need for deodorant) on social media, etc etc. So we took it out to the end and back! Growing up outside DC, I've been riding the metro since I was in a stroller... which made it cute to see all the first-timers board, form orderly lines facing forward, and grab one handle apiece. Luckily it also means they didn't know the best seat in the house: Very back of the train, so you can look out in all three directions. The line starts off underground, so check out this sweet video. Is this an idea I stole from some random guy in an airport last year? Absolutely. But look how cool it turns out:
On the way back we figured we should pick one stop (metro is free!) to check out, so we picked the waterpark which had an artificial mountain with a giant face on it. The park was closed for the season, but that didn't stop us from taking dozens of pictures for Instagram, just like the locals. What I said before about the symbiology of victory as a cultural backdrop and the psyche of instagram... nah. Totally wrong. Every time the train rolled into a station, there were at least a dozen camera-phones clicking. There were tiktoks being filmed on the platforms, with or without the train there for context. One family got on the train just to take some instagram shots holding the handles and got off at the next station. Turns out any excuse is a an excellent reason, the Vietnamese love taking pictures. [I ran this by my local cultural consultant who said "it's not racist, it's just true." She's getting a manicure from her sister, while both she and a neighbor are filming.]
As we headed back into the city the train filled to the brim. Not quite as bad as Japan, but very nearly reaching those levels, and we exited the train at the first station (with this cool roof!) in a tide of humanity. From there, it was back onto scooter-taxis and back home.
The dinner plans were 1) family style at home, and 2) later, go out with friends for food. For family dinner one of Lou's school friends came by, and we all ate at her mom's apartment (off the same alley). Mom cooked chicken (one of "her chickens"), served with rice and vegetables. As always, they piled food into my bowl, and I did my best to politely eat it all, though I did graciously decline the butt and feet. After some fruit for dessert, another of Lou's friends came by and we all jumped back on the scooters. Quick trip, but at one point my driver asked "do you trust me" before executing a 3-point turn and heading into oncoming traffic - apparently we'd missed our turn by a block. And just like that, we pulled up on the sidewalk, sat down under an awning, and bam, second dinner.
I was still stuffed, but tried it all anyways. Prawns and clams are still delicious, snails are still gross. Plus one octopus dish that I swear I had constantly in Thailand, but this was made with Mango, not Papaya, which apparently makes it definitely a Vietnamese dish and not at all Thai. I spent most of the dinner following the conversation through snatched loan-words and gestures, but it was still a fun time hanging out with friends / experiencing the more traditional night life.
Friend: <Serves some octopus>
Brice: "Thanks"
Lou: "No, use your Vietnamese!"
Brice: "Your mother's a whore"*
*Probably, they still won't tell me what it means.
One post-script: I grabbed a shower (in the closet), and mid shower the whole family came to our room to hang out... they passed me my clothes over the wall, laughing something about traditional Vietnamese experiences.
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