Owls, Bats, Shuttlecocks

The daily weather pattern is thus: sunny and temperate in the mornings, hot as hell and sticky in the afternoons, and heavenly once the sun goes down. Saigon has numerous beautiful parks scattered throughout the city and its citizens make good use of them especially once the heat of the day has mercifully broken. You'll see many different forms of exercise and diversion from the usual jogging and calisthenics and tai chi to dancing and shuttlecock. The dancing is done under the roof of a gazebo complete with speakers and music and I've seen tango and waltzing and swing. Often 2 female partners join up for a dance since there seems to be a dearth of male participants. I believe this is a common global problem! Many of you may be sitting there asking yourself wtf is shuttlecock?! See video below. It's played with a plastic springy device that's kicked with the foot. I don't know if there are rules in force when 2 people are just kicking back and forth, but I do know that many of them are impressive to watch. The video shows 2 guys doing the back kick style in which the shuttlecock is kicked with the bottom of the foot from behind. I can only imagine this takes a lot of practice.

Bats also love the parks. At dusk they can be spotted flitting about overhead. A few nights ago I was hanging out my hotel window and saw a large bird approaching below. As it flew by underneath my window I was able to get a good look at it and it was an OWL! I was surprised to see it in the middle of Saigon, but it has obviously found a way to survive here. Perhaps it's lost its characteristic of silent flying since it wouldn't need that in this place. As a matter of fact, having wings that produce a motorbike throb would be the best possible cover it could have!

Between the main streets that form the grids of Saigon are many labyrinthine alleyways where one will find street (alley?) markets during the mornings and shops and apartments. Walking through these is a good way to see how native Saigonites (not sure of the demonym here!) live as many will be lying on a sofa watching TV or listening to music as you go by. I think many of them are still caught a little off-guard by seeing a foreigner wending his way by their front door.

I've discovered that prices are actually quite good here in the backpacker district, often less than what you see real Saigonites (there it is again!) pay, at least for basic necessities like bottled water and canned drinks and hotel rooms. I assume this is because of the density and volume of vendors that line the streets here and the density of buyers walking about. And there seems to be a provider for all the basic services like laundry, apartment hunting, etc.








View out my hotel window on a typical Saigon morning for this time of year. It's a very nice time of day. That's a cathedral in the background.
















A view down an alleyway in the morning. Lots of activity, lots for sale. But watch out for motorbikes! Hardly any place in this city is safe from them. They'll even cruise into a hotel lobby.