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Ho Chi Minh City - Something Happening Here April, 2008 |
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At first, it seemed daunting to attempt to cross the streets with hundreds of motorbikes buzzing around, yet you really have three choices: cross hesitantly with your head on a swivel constantly scanning the faces of the oncoming drivers – cross confidently, your eyes straight ahead, no hesitation, just a steady direction and constant speed – or cross with a group of locals using them as both a shield and template for when and where to move. If you maintain a constant direction and speed, the drivers will swerve to one side of the other and after a while you experience what Moses must have when he parted the Red Sea. In a 5 hour timeframe - the
time is takes to ride a bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Saigon, Vietnam
– you are presented with the reality of We both loved Saigon, or as it’s called here, Ho Chi Minh City, named after the great liberator Uncle Ho. We spent three nights at the 5 star Sheraton Saigon Towers in a great location downtown, close to all the major attractions. Again, because of our Platinum status, we were upgraded to a rather large suite, given complimentary buffet breakfast, and nightly happy hour with open bar and tons of food.
It was very refreshing to see Saigon as such a modern and dynamic city, throbbing with life, where capitalists flock to invest in new enterprises, and local people are free to pursue personal ventures. As our friend JW from the wine bar in Luang Prabang commented, he enjoyed the frenetic energy of Saigon, and I quite agree, there’s something happening here and it’s clearly very good. Our itinerary for Vietnam (30 days) includes 3 days in Saigon, a couple of days in the quiet beach community of Mui Ne, then up into the hills to Dalat for a few days, then back to the coast to Nga Trang, Moi Ann, Hue, HaLong Bay, the hillside town of Sapa and finally Hanoi before exiting into China the first of May.
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As
we balanced on the curb assessing more motorbikes than I had seen in my
entire lifetime, a hunchbacked 150 year old Mother Teresa look-alike
walked up, and, without hesitation, stepped off the curb into the
seemingly uninhibited traffic. Acting quickly, we selfishly tucked into
her 80 pound leeward shoulder and mirrored her movements across the busy
thoroughfare, gently offering words of encouragement only we understood.
After a few frightful moments we were successfully across, our first
introduction to crossing the notorious streets of Saigon.
comparing and contrasting a backward, dirty, and seedy capital versus a
thriving, dynamic and clean center of commerce. Phnom Penh is no Saigon
- I’m not sure it ever will be. As we walked the streets of downtown
Saigon, there were industrious and motivated vendors lining every open
space, with people on bikes selling everything imaginable, and
enterprising locals on every corner with compressors and spare tires for
those motorbikes in need. Despite the constant horn blowing and
heightened anxiety, there seems to be a coordinated coexistence between
everyone, as hundreds and hundreds of motorbikes constantly jockey for
position within a laneless fifty foot swath of concrete.
Some
of the highlights include, War Remembrance Museum, although we thought
it was really slanted against the Americans. Coming out of this museum,
I really felt like the bad guy after seeing pictures of My Lai massacre,
the consequences of Agent Orange (including deformed babies in a jar),
scenes of torture and effects of napalm, and many photographs
illustrating American atrocities. The Presidential Palace, another
historic structure, has been preserved as it stood on that fateful day
in 1975 when the Republic of Vietnam was taken over by the Communist
North Vietnamese. Another interesting side trip was to the Jade Emperor
Pagoda, a very colorful Chinese temple filled with wonderful
woodcarvings and dark and sometimes menacing figures, all surrounded by
the smoky essence of incense, backlit by rays of the sun sneaking
through cracks in the roof. 
