We're Not in Minnesota Anymore...

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh!!!!! It's my second full day here, and I'm at the Duc Vuong hotel in the Pham Ngu Lao district, aka the bacpackers district. My time here so far has been amazing. I once thought the streets of New York were crazy, and the traffic dreadful, but it pales in comparison to Ho Chi Minh. There's a vibrancy and a life to this city that is unlike anything I've experienced. The streets are endless, and there's only one skyscraper. Each street is a beehive of activity. Not a square inch is left unused it seems. Vendors come out of the woodwork, offering a menagerie of cheap goods. From photocopied books to bootlegged movies, and even hammocks. The narow streets meld into the sidewalks, and bikes weave in between the throng of people walking about. Elderly women with their iconic conical hats crouch beside their small open flame ovens and grills, baking treats for passing tourists and hungry locals. Coming from Minnesota, the heat and the humidity are forces to be reckoned with.
Last night I stayed with a mutual friend who lived not far outside the center of Ho Chi Minh. We took his motorbike back to where we lived. To better illustrate the implications of tis form of travel, allow me to introduce you to how traffic works here. There are few cars, and the versatile motorbike is well adapted to the anarchy of the city streets. The bigger and louder vehicle has right of way, no questons asked. Crossing the streets either strong faith or a willfull ignorance. There is no light that tells you when to walk, you just start walking, and like the Red Sea, the bikes and cars and buses swerve sometimes within inches of you. There are few obeyed rules of the road.
Oh yeah, and I've never ridden on a motorcycle before. It was a little nerve racking at first, but after the initial shock, it turned out to be amazing. I can't imagine anything quite like it. Riding out of the city into the suburbs, passing shantytowns with their tin roof shacks next to their small fisheries, the men resting in hammocks as the sun set in the distance. My friend lived in a gated commuity that was apart of a large area of new development. His apartment's balcony overlooked a winding river, with the city far off in the distance.
Now I'm getting ready to see some more of the city again, as well as shopping for a much needed second set of clothes.
I hope everyone back home and elsewhere is doing well! I'll try to write some more tonight.

-Adam
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam