ChoLon

Saturday, September 27, 2008

We are here in Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived a few days ago. Jonathan gave a talk at the Center for Biodiversity. We've enjoyed hanging out here with Bert and Sherri. We've been wandering around town visiting markets and looking for chairs for the terrace at Bert and Sherri's house. Today we accomplished our mission of finding chairs!!

In the city, there are so many ways to travel. My favorite way to travel is by walking. It is nice to see the city at a slow pace and I have the opportunity to chat with people. If I get hot and tired I can take a rest and maybe have a soda or some water. The problem is that I can't go very far, though. If I need to get someplace quickly I can take a taxi, but taxis can be expensive. There are xe xiclos (bicycle taxi) and xe oms (motorcycles. OM actually means HUG). Sometimes they can be a bit scary, though with the traffic, but they will take you exactly where you need to go. The city buses are cheap- many people use them. The challenging part is that they have a route and you have to figure the  route out. I love trying to figure out how to use the buses- how do I get on? How do I tell the driver I want to get off? When do I get off? There is just so much involved in riding the bus!! It's so fun and a true accomplishment when I can figure it out. 

Well, Jonathan, Sherri, and I rode the bus down to Cholon!! That was kind of the easy part since the bus stopped right at the bus station in Cholon. We ventured out and got on a different bus coming home, and had no problems! WooHoo for us! :) 

We visited the market there, where we bought some things for dinner, and got some chairs for the terrace. Here are some pictures of the market!!