Sài Gòn

Vietnam Airlines has promotion air fare for the autumn flights, only US$130 round trip between Hà Nội and Sài Gòn instead of US$200 as usual, so I decided to take office leave and travel in southern Vietnam for a week from 24 to 30 October. I've been to Sài Gòn (aka Hồ Chí Minh city) more than 10 times over the past 15 years, sometimes on business, but mostly I traveled for fun. In 1993 when I visited the city for the first time, I didn't hear much northern accent, but now everywhere I could hear northern, central and southern accents. Like a Vietnamese saying "Đất lành chim đậu" (a peaceful land where birds fly to), Sài Gòn is the most developed city in Vietnam, also a good place to do business and investment. There are more opportunities and various choices for the people to find jobs and develop their careers. My sister has lived in Sài Gòn for 9 years. Now she owns an apartment and has a very good job at a Swedish company and she said she would not go back to live in Hà Nội.

You may wonder why we often say "Sài Gòn", although it's an old name of the city. I think that when we say "Sài Gòn", we mean the major part of the city before 1975, while "Hồ Chí Minh city" is the larger area, including new districts and some other districts far from the center (like Thủ Đức or Củ Chi, 30-60km from the center). One more reason is that "Sài Gòn" is a shorter name, so it's easy for our communications. In official letters, we must write in full "Hồ Chí Minh city".

On 24 October, I landed at Tân Sơn Nhất airport at 2:30pm and took public bus No. 152 to Bến Thành market in District 1 which is located in the center of the city. While I was walking toward the market, it started raining, so I had to hide under statue of General Trần Nguyên Hãn on the park opposite the market and watched the city in the rain. At 5pm, I left for Sinh cafe office on Đề Thám street, bought my bus tickets to Mũi Né and booked a 2-day tour to the Mekong Delta for the next few days.

The next day, I spent time having lunch with a friend and visiting some relatives. My highlight on this trip is the foods. Bánh xèo, Bánh khọt, Bánh canh, Bò bía are the popular cakes, noodle and spring rolls in southern Vietnam. The feature in southern foods is that they have sweet taste, as the southerners love to put sugar into them and sometimes the foods are also very spicy. I also tried a restaurant with Huế foods (Huế is the famous city in central Vietnam). It's possible to say, Sài Gòn is a multi-cultural city, as the people living there come from different parts of Vietnam and bring their own life styles, foods and cultures, thus we can easily find and enjoy all the northern, central and southern dishes.

The photos in this blog were taken on 24 and 25 October 2008 at Bến Thành market, Notre Dame cathedral, Bánh xèo restaurant and some streets in Sài Gòn, southern Vietnam.

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