mister saigon?

I had 3 different beers already; Tiger, Saigon and La Rue in respective order (one at arrival in Pham Ngu lao, breakfast then late lunch), no wonder i'm feeling a bit woozy while typing this blog.

From the airport I thought i would be able to take bus 512 (i think) to Pham Ngu Lao but that would be nowhere near possible since my flight from Cebu Pacific arrived 1 am this morning. No buses and no motorcycles, the only other transport available is... you guessed it; those gotdarn friggin' taxicabs. Their original asking price was $15 dollars to District 1, the backpacker area--the nerve!!! fortunately I found a group of Filipinos willing to share a cab with me, and we haggled down the driver to just use the meter (after several nosebleeds of course).

ok payn!

The group I went with was met by their friend, Sheri, a Filipina working in Saigon headed to District 3. So in many ways she added to our haggling power hehe... just when we thought everything was ok (I agreed to drop them off first since District 3 is nearer the airport) the driver still managed to do a sneak attack from behind. In short we went in circles and he dropped me off first at District 1 with 100,000 dong already on the meter,(70,000 would be enough for the whole trip) ,, why that sneaky little bastardo! I wanted to pay for the whole 100.000 dong since I felt that I was partly at fault but sweet Sheri said "hindi na, fifty na lang bayaran mo, marami naman kami eh" [just pay fifty...]) aww aren't you just glad you have kababayans around :-) I took my bag thanked them and the taxi sped off leaving me alone at around 2:00 am in the heart of Pham Ngu Lao on De Tham st.

There were still bars open with several drunken tourists and locals alike wobbling the streets. I was just glad there were no after party rumbles i witnessed or else I wouldn't be able to run fast enough with my uber large bag on my back hahaha. I tried searching a cheap hostel since i'd only sleep there for a few hours, after several dark alley crossing and walking while locals calling me on the side with their drunken banter... which I survived eventually. I ended up in Hong Kong Hotel for $12 on Bu vien. I thought, I guess it's ok for the night and i'm dead beat anyways so I placed my bag in my room and then still went out to eat, the only dinner I had was a small sandwich at the airport.
...again walked on a dark alley w/ drunk locals and survived whew!

Just before going to sleep I saw this small jar near the sink that says "OK free" I opened it and saw 2 condoms inside.

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crazy motobikes

I then looked at the hotel's buss. card and saw that they also rent the place on an hourly basis; 100.000 for the first two hours hehe (motel ampucha!) no wonder there were old stains on the sheets that chlorox can't remove... yummmmyyy!!!
I wouldn't recommend that "hotel" obviously hehe, but the guy at the front desk was nice and very informative with the buses and other stuff like Cu Chi tunnel tours etc...

I wouldn't recommend taking a super late evening flight with Cebu Pac either unless you're into the unknown and prepared to gut it out with those lame excuse for a taxi driver.
Regardless, I loved my first "night" in Saigon and would take Cebu Pac again unless there was a cheaper airline available, the experience was priceless; to know that you're all alone in the middle of the night in a place where swindlers abound... and survived :-)