Saigon and our last few hours in Vietnam...

To begin with we would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, wherever you are!
We spent it in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, either names are used indifferently) and Christmas Eve was a bit of a nightmare, as everyone comes out onto the streets, on foot or on motorbikes, and the whole city is just a gigantic gridlock. Add to that the heat and the humidity in the air and the result is rather uncomfortable... Today was uncomfortable as well, but in a different way, as Pete went to visit some war tunnels in Cu Chi and we then met up to visit the war remnants museum in Saigon. It was a dark and emotional day, and we came out thinking that the Vietnamese are incredible people : Westerners made their lives hell for decades (through colonialism, war...) and they still welcome us with open arms. Everyone is so friendly, you are never alone for long in Vietnam. Pete was a little late back from his tour so i was waiting for him and after a few minutes a young woman came to chat with me, then followed by several other people, and we all had a chat and laughed like we'd always known each other (everyone - except tour guides for some reason - speaks very good English). In Hoi An we were walking through a market and an old lady asked Pete to grab her basket for her because it was out of her reach : this is Vietnam for you, everywhere you go you just feel like part of the family.
The past doesn't seem to be a main concern of Vietnamese people : no one mentions the war or the colonialism era, it's like the floods of the Autumn : a very painful memory but it is over now and it doesn't do much good dwelling over it, so let's just move on. The only visible scars are the ones you see when riding a bus through the countryside : next to every bridge you cross there are the ruined remains of the previous bridge. Everywhere else resolute optimism seems to prevail : everyone has a smile on their face despite the mostly difficult living conditions, and, like in China, as house are small and cramped because the whole family lives under one roof, if there is homework to do the little girl will sit on a stool on the pavement, and if dad wants to practise his guitar or his yoga he will go to the nearest park to do it, just like anyone else! Nothing seems to be a problem.
South Vietnam seemed much mor Christian than the North, where you see mostly the Vietnamese version of Buddhism . In Southern parts of Vietnam, come Christmas, we drove through villages where every house had a (oh so tacky) 3 metre high nativity scene, and where there were brand new churches every 500 metre. In Saigon Christmas is celebrated by many (as proven by the number of people on the streets yesterday), and it appears as a strang mix of religion and westernised consumerism : children dressed up as Santa's little helpers and polystyrene snowmen under the palm trees. In most places though both Christianity and Buddhism cohabit, and most houses have a little alter where they place offerings of bananas and incense to Buddha.
Unfortunately for us, despite the luminescent Buddha attached to the dash board and the incense sticks that the driver stuck in the radiator of the bus to burn before the journey, we didn't avoid the accident... Nothing major, no one was hurt, but we damaged quite badly the side of an oncoming minibus whilst forcing our way onto a (too) narrow bridge... this resulted in the drivers of thew two vehicles staring silently at the damaged bus for over an hour, before each going their seperate ways!
You have to say that traffic in this country is a nightmare. There are only two types of vehicles : buses and cycles. Private cars are just not something people can afford. But the main problem is that motorbikes just don't obey any rules : they don't believe in one way systems, red lights, often drive on the wrong side of the road, and if the traffic has come to a standstill (which could be caused by a red light) they just ride on the pavement instead! And you do wonder if the brakes are optional, as if you attempt to cross the road bikes will just head straight for you and bib their horn, and they just will not stop, even if that means they have to squeeze between you and the oncoming traffic... You need strong nerves.
So that's it for Vietnam, today we celebrated Christmas with a tin of lychees and tomorrow we are off to Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
Hope you all digest your chocolates well, lots of love from the two monkeys, see you soon!