GONE! - just typical traffic on any given day in HCMC. As a pedestrian - you just go, exuding confidence, daring anyone to hit you!
MY TYPICAL DAY in HCMC - Up @ 6AM, breakfast + AM English paper 6-7:30AM, on streets exploring 7:30AM-5 or 6PM, hotel cool off/shower/rest 6-7PM, dinner and more street roaming 7-10 or 11PM or so.
BUDGET/FOOD - US$1 = VND16,600 (Vietnamese Dong) - so almost all transactions are in 10's or 100's of thousands of VND, e.g., VND1,000,000 = US$60! Hotel - was staying in a $90/nite AC/dbl bed/fridge/bkfst-included/window rm - moved to a $40/nite rm virtually the same but not in an as "fashionable" a neighborhood. I "nibble" about 4-5 times a day on street vendor food - if I am hungry and see something I like I stop and get it (I am addicted to tropical banana "smoothies" @ 32 cents ea) - ea "street food stop" normally cost < $1. I also stop in cafe's mid-PM's for iced coffees/milk.<- expensive @ $2. Some evenings I'll splurge on a meal in a cafe - like this evening I had pork loin w/cream mushroom sauce/FF/mixed veggies + iced coffee/milk for about $6. No - I have not experienced any symptoms of "Uncle Ho's revenge" as a result of consuming street food/iced drinks. BACON - Yes many places have what I consider "the perfect food" albeit more the English rather than American version. VN = Ba Roi FLAGS/BANNERS - Did I ever mention the ever-present (and for me still freakingly emotionally disturbing) gold sickle and gold star on red background flags/banners?! Hmmm ... I believe I did ... But not in a traffic context as the picture below illustrates! That's it for now - hope I answered most of your questions and, in doing so that I didn't bore you too much - sorry there are no critter pics to share as I had hoped there would be. Maybe/hopefully later! David
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