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Published: January 24th 2007
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Our journey to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) was one I'd rather forget! The look of sheer horror on the Cabin Crew's face when 30 minutes into the flight, the thick grey clouds outside continued to throw the plane in every direction except, it felt, the way we wanted to go! Thankfully, however, we arrived in Saigon in one piece ready to embrace life on the road, Vietnam style....
..."Thank you for travelling Tiger Airways, we hope to welcome you on board again soon...." Not a chance!
I am struggling to put down in words what greeted us as we exited the sanctuary of the airport and headed into the city by taxi. The Lonely Planet has Saigon down as a city which "fumes, ferments, bubbles and churns." They aren't far wrong - motorbikes, mopeds, cars, taxis, buses, cyclos heading in every and any direction (the highway code not having reached the streets of Vietnam); horns beeping constantly; telephone wires hanging limply from posts; tattered clothes hanging from crumbling balconies; stalls set up on every street corner (actually they don't need a corner, anywhere will do) selling everything from cigarettes to fresh fruit; old women with
The view from my cyclo
It really did feel like you were on a rollercoaster - ducking and diving between the traffic! their conical hats walking the streets laden with goods for sale - it really was sensory overload!
We (and our white knuckles) eventually made it to the sanctuary of our hotel - The Redsun Hotel - in the Pham Ngu Lao area of the city. We spent our first afternoon wandering the streets taking it all in and also managed a trip to Ben Thanh Market - a place where you can pick up anything worn, eaten or used by the Saigonese. I settled for some knock-off aftershave for the pricely sum of US$4.
On arrival at our hotel we had been accosted by a Cyclo (a three-wheeled rickshaw, operated by pedal power, with a seat attached to the front) driver offering to take on a city tour but fearful that his English wouldn't give us the best introduction to Saigon, we decided on day 2 to track down a Cyclo driver whose English was "slightly" better...Finding a willing Cyclo driver is like trying to find a blade of grass on a football field...yes, very easy - they jump at you from every direction!
Many cyclo drivers are former doctors, teachers etc but were punished for siding
with the Americans during the War and after the cease-fire, many of them were stripped of their citizenship and sent to re-education camps for years. Even now, 20 years after the war, they cannot return to their jobs, as many do not have an official residence permit (which means they cannot own property or a business) and it is technically illegal for them to be in the city. Sadly, my driver had a similar story. He cycled 12km into the city every morning, touted for business all day and if he earned enough to support his wife and 3 children, he would make the 12km journey back home at night. If, however, he didn't make enough, he would sleep out on the streets in the front seat of his cyclo hoping to drum up some further business when the pubs and clubs closed. He made for a fanatastic city guide...
We took in the Reunification Palace where the first Communist tanks to arrive in Saigon charged on the morning of 30 April 1975; the Binh Soup Shop, the secret HQ of the Communists in Saigon in which US soldiers would eat completely unaware that staff were Communist infiltrators; Notre
Damn Cathredral, the impressive Post Office Building and the city's commercial centre, wide boulevards lined with designer shops and big cars - a far cry from the "real" Saigon only minutes away.
That afternoon, we took a cyclo over to An Dong Market in Chalon only to run screaming from it 30 minutes later - the busy streets of Saigon were beginning to take their toll!
On our way back to the hotel, I decided I needed my haircut. The salon looked respectable, the haircut was fine and Jo even managed to get a pedicure. After finishing with my hair, she asked, what I thought, was "do you want some hair wax?" Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I said yes, only to be escorted to the back room for an hour long head and shoulder massage which ended with her grabbing my groin and asking, in broken english, "anything else for you sir?" I have since read in the lonely planet that many hairdressers double up as brothels!
That night we went for a traditional Vietnamese meal at a restaurant packed with locals so in true Saigon style we were stared at
for the duration of our meal. Only one thing on the menu appealed to us so we ordered up, only to be served up something entirely different (whatever it was, we weren't going to eat it) - I think what the waiter wanted to say was that they'd ran out of what ever we'd ordered!! I eventually settled for Hot Spicey Hue Beef Soup which was surprisingly palatable. I quickly finished up, and we made a sharp exit! At least we tried! After all the excitement of the day, we needed a drink so headed to a bar where we were hounded by children as young as four to buy everything from chewing gum to postcards! The Vietamese really do know how to pull at your heart strings...we needed chewing gum anyway!
On our third day in Saigon, we went on a tour of the Cao Dai Great Temple where we saw one of the daily worship services. Afterwards, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels - a network of underground tunnels dug by the Viet Cong (Communists) during the war.
Our Saigon adventures were over and we boarded the overnight bus to Nah Trang...Ho Chi Minh had
really taken it out of us but we thoroughly enjoyed it all the same!
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You must the only person alive that goes on holiday and doesn't put on weight!! I'll get you fattened up once you're home. Mind you there wasn't much room in those tunnels. Think Tam could have been in trouble!!!!