Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon)

I arrived very late last night, (Friday January 6 in this part of the world) and successfully connected with my travel mate for this first part of the trip.  I met Donna in NZ last year, and we discovered a common interest in travel and so will explore Vietnam and Cambodia together.  The airport was crazy busy, as were the streets, even as late as it was. The city was still lit up from the New Year, so it was a very festive drive into the heart of the old section of Ho Chi Minh City.

The jet lag is pretty intense — I’m 15 hours ahead of LA, and Donna is completely flipped with being 12 hours ahead from Boston.  But with better living through pharmaceuticals we both slept until morning.  We set off with a map, a list of a few “must sees”, our cameras, and walked.

Rudyard Kipling wrote that “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” and I will note that in just one day the differences in the sounds and sights and smells would verify that opinion.  Everything, absolutely everything (except maybe the Starbucks on the corner), is startling.  Such as:

Cars and Vespas by the thousands with stop lights acting as mere suggestions. Crossing the street as a pedestrian takes intense concentration. The sidewalks are barely much safer, with some scooters taking to them to avoid the streets, and vendors of all sorts along the shops. Seeing whole families riding together on a Vespa, or a vendor with huge flower arrangements navigating the mass of riders is like watching a choreographed dance.

The Ben Thanh market, a huge mostly wholesale sales arena for everything from raw meat to dried nuts to dishware to sparkly fabric and knockoff t’s, polos, bags and sandals, all housed in a building with a colonial style clock tower. The displays are pure art, whether dried fruit, or flowers depicting the year of the Rooster.

The Reunification Palace (aka Independence Palace) is where the famous scene of the tank breaking down the wrought iron gates in April, 1975 brought an end to the Vietnam civil war.  Most of the plaques and posters tell the story from the perspective of the Vietnamese, where the Americans were the bad guys and Ho Chi Minh a savior.

The architecture shows the old French colonial style, along with the new office buildings towering overhead.  The Gustav Eiffel-designed Post Office is still functioning, as is the People’s Committee building behind the statue of Ho Chi Minh, right next to the Bottega Veneta store.

We are pleased to have come in a few days ahead of the bike tour we are starting on Monday. There’s much to see here, and just taking in the culture is a feast for all the senses.