My travels over to Vietnam were pretty uneventful...I sat next to a Vietnamese monk on the plane, who told me in a sinister kind of way that scared me, "Trust no-one". My first night was spent trying to get used to airconditioning, seeing as my body has become accustomed to an electric blanket every night for the past few months. When I woke up, I had Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) waiting for me to explore. I was a little nervous because I was on my own, and I wasn't due to meet my group until 6pm. I made my way to the War Remnants Museum, which really was shocking because of the photographs they had on display. They also had US tanks and guns outside, which I found a little creepy when I saw a Vietnamese school group jumping all over them with joy. After this museum, I felt a little like I wanted to escape my white skin. I felt ashamed of being foreign, when a lot of the pain the photos showed was because of foreign people.
I went to the Reunification Palace in the city in the afternoon, after I had braved a trip on the back of a motorcycle to the hotel I would be staying in the next night. I held on for dear life, and ended up getting conned into paying the driver 5 times the amount he said it would be (trust no-one). At the Palace, I met a Japanese guy, Masa, who was also traveling alone. I was happy to find a friend to be in the big scary city with. There are so many motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh, and the sound of honking is constant. Masa showed me how to cross the road safely--you just walk slowly. No panic or you die. We went shopping in the afternoon and wandered around until it was time for me to meet my group. I was very thankful to make a new friend on my first day in Vietnam! I was diddled of my dong on my way into the hotel (once again, trust no-one).
There were to be nine of us in the group I would be traveling with for the next week and our leader, Marlo was from Australia. She told us that we would be leaving at 9 the next morning, and we went for dinner that night at a vegetarian restaurant. This was the first time I was faced with begging children. It was hard to know what to do. My roomate was called Joy and I knew straight away that we would get along.