slumming saigon

It was clean, cute and had a comfortable bed, at at $15 a night, probably not the cheapest i could score, but not going to break the bank. Guest houses are stacked one next to the other, so if I had wanted to, I could have checked out a couple of hundred places, but there’s always a business on the ground floor which the family running the place lives above, so the rooms available are often up on the highest floor. each lot is the same 15 feet wide, like NY tenements, and its kind of hard to believe theres enough room for a stairwell, but they somehow jam them in. Lots of little old two story dwellings with elderly people living in them, right next door to 10 story glass clad sliver towers. others are chinese style, that is to say tacky as shit, horribly overdone with columns and garish chandeliers. A handful have super chic styling and their narrow little lobbies could double as trendy cafes, but I’m not the sort to pay extra for a flat screen TV.

this area known as the Backpacker central is on the sight of where the train depot used to be. Tho the trains no longer run, the central station charm remains. Staying in the local equivalent of 42nd and 8th, youre an easy target for petty scams. It’s not long before you tire of getting solicited. Stuff as innocuous as touts trying to get you into restaurants with menus that forgo local dishes for all varieties of western standards, like burgers, fries, fish and chips, spaghetti and full English breakfasts. Frequent offers for weed. Mobile hookers are nothing new I guess, pages and pages of every cities telephone directory dedicated to escorts. here, the ass business consists of very young looking girls who get driven around on the backs of motorbikes, in one case the driver being a grandmothers age. makes an already sketchy biz even more unappealing. Also sad are all the children trying to sell you gum. There are also many varieties of people who are severely disfigured being wheeled about in hopes of getting spare change.

Street vendors sell some pretty tasty treats. by day, you will periodically hear a loud recording, kinda like the mister softee truck, which encourages people to buy sticky rice pastries. late nite, stir fried noodles and meat is popular, as are places to get a big bowl of pho. guys who ride around slowly on bicycles rattling something, means they give massages. Although they don’t have any kind of tables, I think you either invite them up to your room, which doesn’t seem particularly safe, or take your massage lying in the street, a park bench, whatever. Other guys have an over-sized set of old metal scissors that they open and close repeatedly. Can’t even guess what service they offer. Late night tailoring or knife sharpening? anything is possible in this weird place.