Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Hung had booked Monk and Saavas seats on the 9:00 bus to Saigon. Phuong Trang seems to be one of the better Vietnam bus companies. It's a 4-hour journey for a fare of 80000 dong ($4) and that included the mini-bus pick-up from the road bridge near Hung's house. The seats are numbered and reserved and there's no overcrowding. It also includes a mini-bus from the bus station on the outskirts of Saigon to a drop-off point in District 10, close to the centre, from where you can get a taxi for the short distance into District 1.

Monk and Saavas had booked a hotel overlooking the river in the Dong Khoi area for a couple of nights. This area is fine and there are some reasonable restaurants and bars within walking distance, however, most of the action seems to be around the backpacker area of Pham Ngu Lao where they moved for the remaining 3 nights.

There's lot to see in Saigon but 5 days is maybe just a bit too long. Originally Monk had planned another couple of nights somewhere else in the delta before moving on to Saigon for the last 3 or 4 days. However, Saavas needed his fix of beach action so plans changed to spend the last 3 nights at the beach resort of Nha Trang.

The Lonely Planet walking tour of Saigon is worth following. It takes in all the major sites and gives one a feel for the character of the city and of the people. The Ben Thanh market has an amazing selection of just about everything. The street markets are on a smaller scale than some of the central markets of most towns. The night market around Ben Thanh is ablaze with light and colour until late at night (if you can manage to cross the road to get to it).

If there's a single place you have to see in Saigon it's the War Remnants Museum. It's an extremely moving series of exhibitions of the struggles of the Vietnamese people and the horrors inflicted upon them. The section dealing with Agent Orange and the other defoliants that caused, and are still causing, such dreadful abnormalities and birth defects is the most harrowing of all the themes of the museum.

There are many excellent Vietnamese restaurants in the City offering more sophisiticated cuisine than is found around the 'backpacker' area, so it's worth exploring further afield to try some traditional, regional cooking. Pham Ngu Lao, however, is still probably the focal point for most visitors. Its bars and restaurants are buzzing for most of the day until well into the early hours.

Saigon Traffic, Pavements and Pedestrians

The traffic is Saigon is hell. Mostly motorbikes and mopeds in an endless stream making it almost impossible to cross the road. One has to brave and identify a possible route through the string of motorbikes and cars rushing at you 100 metres ahead. Once you spot a possible gap you have to boldly walk and not hesitate. The theory is that the cars and bikes will see you and will plan their route around your projected route - if you falter, the whole system breaks down. It doesn't always work. Sometimes the traffic is so dense or moving so fast that it's impossible to find a gap.

The other dangers are numerous. When turning left, it seems to be a rule that they always cut the corner meaning that you might be looking to your left and it's clear so you step out, only to be directly in the path of someone cutting the corner coming from your right (on the wrong side of the road). Even on the pavement, bikes can come at you from just about any direction.

There are actually zebra crossings marked on some roads - don't think they mean anything - it was just a job for someone to paint them - they've got nothing to do with crossing the road safely.

The Vietnamese are generally very helpful and polite people. Put them behind a set of handlebars or a steering wheel and they become another species entirely. Pedestrains are like mere ants to them and running them over doesn't seem to rate too highly on their list of morals - they are blind and selfish to anything but their own route and their own purpose. Even on the pavement they expect pedestrians to move out of their way - if you don't, they'll go straight for you. This might all be driven by some kind of sense of survival. There are 4.5 million motorbikes in Saigon and a further 1 million commute into the city each day together with 600,000 cars. The term 'rats in a cage' comes to mind.

With so many bikes moving around the city, they have to park somewhere. Just about every empty space is pressed into service as a bike park, even some hotel lobbies, and, of course, pavements.

Walking on the pavement is almost as hazardous as crossing the road. Apart from the bikes mentioned above getting to and from their parking spots and viewing the pavement as just part of their route to that space, it's not unusual for bikes to use the pavement as a means of getting up a one-way street - it's obviously a greater crime to go against the traffic flow than it is to run pedestrians over, or maybe it's just that hitting a pedestrian does less damage to the bike than hitting an oncoming car.

Pavements are an obstacle course. Apart from the parked, and moving, bikes, just about everything else occupies the pavement - parked cars, street food stalls, groups of men playing cards and chequers, building material, even municipal flower planters - the list is endless. In some places, every few metres you have to step into the road just to get past the obstacles on the pavement - so we come full circle to the dangers already mentioned on the roads.

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