7/30 Tricked and Screwed

I was yearning to visit the famouos Pham Ngu Lao street the second day here in Ho Chih Min City, it's supposed to be another gathering for the backpackers beside De Tham, the area that I had been staying. However, it seemed to be really far away, even more to the North than yesterday's Big C according to the map.

I moved in a light pace with my camera in hand ready for any good view or beautiful landscape. I took different routes than yesterday's, hoping to encounter unfamiliar sights and other tourist spots.

Moving past the Saigon Square on the way, there was this magnificent rider with his big copper horse amid; on the left side was one of Saigon's famous local market, and I dodged in for a look and was instantly surrounded by crowd of buyers and sellers...

I struggled and tried my best to move forward in this chaos before finally giving up and just moved where the crowd stream was taking me. It took me some time to ditch the sardines and got back to the street, I checked the GPS for my location and continued on my destination.

I was so excited, full of adrenaline and thumping heart by the time I got to Pham Ngu Lao street, I checked again for the street sign before entering the backpacker heaven.

The road was pretty wide with some small shops, old barber shops and grocery stores, and it remained the same through the whole street! What's going on here? Where were the foreigners and the crowd? All seemed just too calm and empty for a so called backpackers gathering region.

I was pretty upset after a double-check on the address, all this 3 hour long walk for a poor street. In the end, I just dragged myself and hang around in the area, bought a pretty nice baggaet that only cost me 30 with lots of chicken and vegetable. Still, I felt a bit tricked by the information on the Internet and my map!

(There were lots of convenient stores here in HCMC which looked just like OK, indeed they were called Circle K and sold much cheaper products )

Rain started to land on my head heavy and fast, all of a sudden, and I was soon wet from the shower. I dropped to my knees and quickly pulled out my umbrella. And just when I held it up high against the in coming rain, the water dripping stopped and sun floated out of the cloud...

What? I stuffed the umbrella back into the bag with an unbelievable expression on my face. It was about another 5 minutes' work before the rain started to fall again, like cats and dogs! I sprang for my umbrella and managed to cover my whole before the rain spilled me wet, again. This time, it lasted for a small while before reducing to a light drizzle and faded out. The weather looked bad with graying clouds on my way home, so I held my umbrella close, just like a weapon, and would be ready for the rain anytime. But the rain never bothered me again even when I got back to the hostel. Screwed by the weather!

By the way, I had another close look at the information on the Internet and discovered that the region I had been staying was indeed the crossing of De Tham Street and Pham Ngu Lao street! Which meant that I had been at my destination all along. What's weird was that there was also another Pham Ngu Lao Street, the one that's not famous to the Northern side of the city, what a coincidence, and bad luck for me not to know that. (Blisters again on the soles of my feet!)