I love Saigon so much. I can't believe it took me 4 freaking trips to the place to realise how great it is. The first time I visited was when I was ~5, then again when I was ~12, then at ~15 and now at 17. My goodness I must have been an unappreciative hormonal ass hole (also known as a teenager) up until this year. Oops, guess I'm still technically a teen but with only 2 years til this teen dream is over I think maturity is creeping in. Guidebooks and travel blogs always mention something about being overwhelmed by the immense smells, traffic and constant noise, whether that be from construction or...overzealous beeping on the roads. I never got that. Beeping? Meh, it wasn't that "ball breaking" as people make it out to be. I never experienced that punch in the face from the sensory overload. In fact, I never got sensory overload. I'm going to thank Saturdays spent in the storage rooms of asian groceries for that. The only thing that hit me was the humidity. And even that lasted only briefly. Saigon is pretty wonderful at all times of day. I remember hating the crowd and traffic and the guilt that hit when people living in poverty thrust lottery tickets at you. But this time around I learnt how to cross a road without having a freak out mid way (just walk- motorists dodge you) and well, I still feel guilty about the beggars. I think what struck me most about Vietnam this time is how different each region is. Going to quiet cities like DaNang and Hue (where people shut up shop and go home at 8:30pm and where disparity rates are supposedly much lower compared to Saigon and Hanoi) made me realise that the rush of the big city is unparalleled. Whether it's walking down the most westernized street in town - Dong Khoi (hiii Gucci, Gloria Jeans, indie cafe. Um what are you doing here?) - or accidentally ending up in the red light district while dining with family (um say hello to the rows of girls sitting outside 'massage' parlours), every street is an adventure. Saigon is the glitziest city in the whole of Vietnam- locals say it has just about everything everything and it really does; if you look hard enough. I'm making plans to go back when I'm older. The darn city changes so much every year I get excited about what it's going to be like in the future. You can feel change coming through just standing in that place.