Vietnam Day 2

I have a headache because I did so much today (Day 3) and took 400pics that'll take forever to upload so I think i'll play catch up. I got up at 7:30am and planned on hitting the War Reminates museum and caught a moto there. We turned the corner and all I could see was a CH-47 Chinook sitting there. All I had was US funds and they took it, but gave me dong back and without a calculator I can't figure out if I'm getting ripped off. After that I stuck to dong since I can do the basic math (item is 480,000d, I give them 500,000 and get 20,000 back). I took pics of the UH-1 with wrongly mounted M134 minigun, A-1 Skyraider, A-37 Dragonfly, O-1 Bird Dog, F-5 Tiger, Tanks and the like. The museum is gruesome and mostly highlights how "evil" the US was. Granted war is hell, but showing me dead fetuses, torture, massacres, etc when you first walk in I find is overkill compared to Western museums haha. Saw some weapons I didn't know about, one being a heavy machine gun I'm guessing which was french. Did see some cool stuff like the China Lake Grenade Launcher (3+1 shotgun style), XM148 Grenade Launcher, BAR rifle, M76 Gustav sub machine guns, etc. Upstairs it got better and had a lot of pictures and a few displays. Had some good maps showing which units served in what areas and I got to learn that South Korea held part of II Corps from Qui Nhon down to Phan Rang and explains why there weren't many US troops there.

Earlier after I got in the gate there was a man who's arms just above the elbow were blown off from a land mine (either from doing something honourable like de-mining or from picking up unexploded ordinance to rig home made booby traps to kill Americans, who knows). He had sets of photos for sale and wanted $15 US. I tried to bargin but went on about feeding kids. I went into the bookshop in the museum and saw the same set of photos for $4 so I scammed for my first time! Yay! :D haha. I'm not too upset about it, just learning something new. My battery started dying and my other one was at the hotel charging so I didn't get as many pics as I wanted. I moved into the hotel room I booked and it's really nice. Pics are uploading now but it has air conditioning, a fan, big tv (which isn't being used), bathroom/shower combo which makes sense and a double bed. Honestly I don't need anything else in a room. The staff are great people and really nice too. By the time I was relocated and ready to rock again the Reunification Palace was going to close an hour after I got there so I hit Ben Thanh Market.

Ben Thanh Market is Saigon's biggest and busiest. It ranges from food, clothes, touristy items and fabrics for making new clothes. Every booth you walk past (and there's hundreds) since I'm from the West and have money every vendor "has special deal for you" haha. The first 15 times it's still funny but after 50 it's fucking annoying haha. It reminds me, on the Dave Chapelle show he visits the Internet which is laid out like a mall. Everywhere he walks two people act as pop ups wanting to sell penis pills and cheap medication and after the 4th time or so they ask and he slugs them both and yells "Spam blocker bitch!" haha. In the end I wanted them to fuck off and let me shop, but I kept my cool. It's very important not to get angry and "show face". It's very disrespectful, brings shame, lack of honour and all that asian cultural stuff. I could argue that assaulting me all the time with "numba one deal" is disrespectful but I'd be talking to the wind. All you can do is smile, put your hand out to distance yourself from them and say "No thank you". What was disrespectful was that one girl selling clothes talked to me and I said no and she grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me into her shop. I was in shock and didn't want to make a scene so I humoured her, told her I didn't want to buy clothes and was countered by the ever stumping "why" routine haha. I don't like clothes. "Why?" Because... I don't like clothes haha. Making things worse I told her (now I speak pidgeon english to the public) "I go home now" tried to make my escape and her business parter blocked my only exit. This was going too far and I was thinking of forcible confindement as it was against my will. I almost felt like running through her but got roped into buying stuff and when my exit was free I went for it.

I found a guy selling Vietnam War Zippos. These zippos are made locally and at random. They take US units, mix them with a city/area in Vietnam and a year so it seems like a US soldier made it custom for himself as a keep-sake, as many troops did. On the back is a phrase like the many in Brit's Zippo book. Now with my vast superior knowledge on the war I could easily call bullshit haha. For example there was a 9th Infantry Division lighter, and the place was Dong Ha which is in the north of the former South Vietnam and the 9th never went north of Saigon, so there's a few hundred km in between and the 9th wouldn't have been flown up there for a short period. They pulled out of Vietnam in 1970. The zippo was dated 1973-74 when all US ground troops were gone haha. As far as I'm concerned I'm getting a few zippos for the guys as a gift from Vietnam and myself as there $5. The only bad thing is that I couldn't find a USMC one for Josh with the date and place that makes sense and if I did, it had a stupid phrase on the back like "With dope there's hope" so it'll come down to unit or phrase as both is next to impossible. I'd like to stay in Saigon longer, but not going through 40,000 zippos. I got a custom zippo done so that I can have a 173rd Airborne Brigade logo, with the place as Dak To, their biggest battle and the year 1967. On the back I chose "Gimme your hearts and minds or I'll burn your fucking hooch down!" haha. I know, I'm going to hell and paid a vietnamese man to write it. My 2nd option would have been "Napalm sticks to kids" but I think I went with the lesser evil of the two :)

While I waited for my zippo I talked to the guy and stayed for two hours just talking about Canada and Vietnam. It was my first time sitting and sharing with someone from Vietnam and it was a good experience. After that I moto'd home to my room and did what I'm doing now, uploading and trying to catch up on the blog. Now I gotta start doing stuff from today! Also, the website where i uploaded my pics and vids, I've almost reached my limit so I paid for a google one that gives me 20gb for $5. When it's up I'll share the link here. one more pain in the ass :P