21 June 2006 – 20:57 – Hotel Room - On Saturday – last weekend
I walked slowly toward to city center. Suddenly, the roads became clean and traffic became silent. There were less motorbikes, some luxury cars and high buildings –usually big hotels, HSBC and Citibank-. I saw a bookstore and without thinking much, I entered. There were not many books in English. Especially, I have not seen any book written by Vietnamese writers and translated into English. While looking around for Western classics, I found ‘Flowers of Evil’ by Baudelaire. I bought it because I believe only poetry can heal the wounds of crowd and noise. It was inexpensive too. I went out with Baudelaire’s book in my hand. Walking in the streets of HCMC and holding the book of the poet of ‘Albatros’, made me feel strange a little bit. There were young boys asking me for shining my shoes but I was wearing sports shoes. I told them it is not possible to make my shoes shine. They insisted. I said nothing and continued walking. I wish I could help them but I knew if I helped one of them, I would not be able to avoid all others.
After turning around large buildings, I found my way towards the infamous cathedral. First time in my life, I used the city map to find my direction. As a person who has very little sense of direction, it was very challenging. When I got to the circle, I sat on the center and took a few pictures of the cathedral. It was red and somehow looked new to me. The color of red reminded Hagia Sofia museum in Istanbul to me. The city municipality painted it red because otherwise it could be considered as church or mosque. I walked around the cathedral but could not find the entrance. I have not seen anyone going in or getting out of the cathedral either. I went back to the center of the circle, bought a bottle of water from a little girl. Suddenly, I realized that the rain started. The central post office was just beside the cathedral. I went there to wait for the rain to stop.
The post office had huge pictures of Ho Chi Minh on almost all walls. I did not take any picture since there were people working inside. I sat on a bench and started to look at my Vietnam book. A young girl at another bench asked me what I was looking for. I said I was not looking for something special. She was speaking pretty good English and apparently she wanted to speak English with a foreigner. Because it was still raining outside, I decided to continue talking. We talked about a lot of things. I especially asked her about Ho Chi Minh, history of Vietnam, her school and the city. She told that she studied banking and finance at a local university and she is just on her first year. She also studies English at British Council to improve her English, so she can go to Singapore next year as an exchange student. When I asked her about the books, she said she does not read books other than comics. She also told me that Ho Chi Minh was a great leader and he did great things for Vietnam. We later discussed about Vietnam war, America and possible bright future of Vietnam. She did not believe me when I said I am a math teacher and came to HCMC to teach statistics. According to her, that a math teacher who carries Baudelaire in his bag walks in the streets of HCMC is very strange. I could not blame her! When I talked about the religions, she confirmed the old muslim man’s words by saying that there were no any political pressure on any religions and people of Vietnam were always free to choose their religions. When I asked her religion –with hesitation-, she told me she believes in herself only. She does not believe in any of the ‘major religion’s. I did not want to ask many questions about religion since it is a sensitive topic and she might get offended. I changed the topic to history again. According to her, Vietnam never did any bad thing in the history. Vietnamese people were always peaceful, always helpful and always good. This also reminded me my country’s ultra-nationalist ideologists. They say that Turks never did any bad things in history. Turks did not kill innocent people, did not execute any kind of genocide… Turks were always good, always peaceful and always helpful to their neighbors. I again did not want to argue with a young girl I have just met. When I noticed that the rain already stopped, I gave her my e-mail address and went outside. I also learnt her name –Jub- just before leaving the post office.
I went to Independence Museum after that. I went inside, surprised with the questions of the girls at the entrance. They first asked me where I was from, then asked me where I bought the T-shirt I was wearing. The last thing they said –after I handed them my ticket- was that I was very handsome. I laughed and joined to a group of tourists with a guide which was assigned by the museum. I took many photos and tried to look at the war pictures as near as possible.
It was almost 4 pm when I finished walking in the museum. I walked back to my hotel and there has been no electricity yet. I went to internet café to spend time. Until 9 pm, I could not go to my room because of the power cut.
The only good thing after all these things on one day was a comfortable sleep without interruptions…
I walked slowly toward to city center. Suddenly, the roads became clean and traffic became silent. There were less motorbikes, some luxury cars and high buildings –usually big hotels, HSBC and Citibank-. I saw a bookstore and without thinking much, I entered. There were not many books in English. Especially, I have not seen any book written by Vietnamese writers and translated into English. While looking around for Western classics, I found ‘Flowers of Evil’ by Baudelaire. I bought it because I believe only poetry can heal the wounds of crowd and noise. It was inexpensive too. I went out with Baudelaire’s book in my hand. Walking in the streets of HCMC and holding the book of the poet of ‘Albatros’, made me feel strange a little bit. There were young boys asking me for shining my shoes but I was wearing sports shoes. I told them it is not possible to make my shoes shine. They insisted. I said nothing and continued walking. I wish I could help them but I knew if I helped one of them, I would not be able to avoid all others.
After turning around large buildings, I found my way towards the infamous cathedral. First time in my life, I used the city map to find my direction. As a person who has very little sense of direction, it was very challenging. When I got to the circle, I sat on the center and took a few pictures of the cathedral. It was red and somehow looked new to me. The color of red reminded Hagia Sofia museum in Istanbul to me. The city municipality painted it red because otherwise it could be considered as church or mosque. I walked around the cathedral but could not find the entrance. I have not seen anyone going in or getting out of the cathedral either. I went back to the center of the circle, bought a bottle of water from a little girl. Suddenly, I realized that the rain started. The central post office was just beside the cathedral. I went there to wait for the rain to stop.
The post office had huge pictures of Ho Chi Minh on almost all walls. I did not take any picture since there were people working inside. I sat on a bench and started to look at my Vietnam book. A young girl at another bench asked me what I was looking for. I said I was not looking for something special. She was speaking pretty good English and apparently she wanted to speak English with a foreigner. Because it was still raining outside, I decided to continue talking. We talked about a lot of things. I especially asked her about Ho Chi Minh, history of Vietnam, her school and the city. She told that she studied banking and finance at a local university and she is just on her first year. She also studies English at British Council to improve her English, so she can go to Singapore next year as an exchange student. When I asked her about the books, she said she does not read books other than comics. She also told me that Ho Chi Minh was a great leader and he did great things for Vietnam. We later discussed about Vietnam war, America and possible bright future of Vietnam. She did not believe me when I said I am a math teacher and came to HCMC to teach statistics. According to her, that a math teacher who carries Baudelaire in his bag walks in the streets of HCMC is very strange. I could not blame her! When I talked about the religions, she confirmed the old muslim man’s words by saying that there were no any political pressure on any religions and people of Vietnam were always free to choose their religions. When I asked her religion –with hesitation-, she told me she believes in herself only. She does not believe in any of the ‘major religion’s. I did not want to ask many questions about religion since it is a sensitive topic and she might get offended. I changed the topic to history again. According to her, Vietnam never did any bad thing in the history. Vietnamese people were always peaceful, always helpful and always good. This also reminded me my country’s ultra-nationalist ideologists. They say that Turks never did any bad things in history. Turks did not kill innocent people, did not execute any kind of genocide… Turks were always good, always peaceful and always helpful to their neighbors. I again did not want to argue with a young girl I have just met. When I noticed that the rain already stopped, I gave her my e-mail address and went outside. I also learnt her name –Jub- just before leaving the post office.
I went to Independence Museum after that. I went inside, surprised with the questions of the girls at the entrance. They first asked me where I was from, then asked me where I bought the T-shirt I was wearing. The last thing they said –after I handed them my ticket- was that I was very handsome. I laughed and joined to a group of tourists with a guide which was assigned by the museum. I took many photos and tried to look at the war pictures as near as possible.
It was almost 4 pm when I finished walking in the museum. I walked back to my hotel and there has been no electricity yet. I went to internet café to spend time. Until 9 pm, I could not go to my room because of the power cut.
The only good thing after all these things on one day was a comfortable sleep without interruptions…
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