Me Love You Long Time, Vietnam

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Our two night stay at the four star Grand Silverland hotel cost more than all our other hotels in Vietnam put together, but after all that travelling, interspersed by illness and mountain bike crashes, I think we were due a treat. And still, the nightly rate worked out not much more than something like one of those hotels that Lenny Henry does those awful adverts for. We were supremely well looked after and the room was beautiful; this would be a great place to come back to after a day of sight seeing in Saigon.

The fact that Saigon is Vietnam's economic power house is clearly evident, the skyline is littered with gleaming skyscrapers and new ones under construction. On the ground meanwhile, we spotted plenty of upmarket designer retail establishments and coffee shops, and the roads seemed to be used by far more privately owned cars (mostly a preserve of the well-off in Vietnam) than we'd seen elsewhere in the country.

We took a leisurely stroll towards the river to take in sights such as the cathedral, opera house and a statue of 13th-century military leader Tran Hung Dao, who seemed to have a road named after him (along with a number of other Vietnamese heroes) in every place we'd visited. After working up a bit of an appetite, we headed for Ciao Bella, you've guessed it, another Italian restaurant... I promise we would have been more adventurous with food, had it not been for our little food poisoning episode! In any case, the food was superb and reasonably priced, and we were impressed enough to visit again the next day.

Next up was the War Remnants Museum. As with Hanoi's military history museum, the courtyard was dominated by a collection of old military hardware. The inside was a mostly photographic look at the impact of the Vietnam war on the country's civilians. It made for sobering viewing, and certainly not for the faint-hearted, but the visit was tarnished a little by the very one-sided nature of the museum, much like the museum in Hanoi. Countless exhibits documented dreadful atrocities carried out by US soldiers - and dreadful they were - such as the My Lai massacre, but any mention of war crimes committed by the North and the Viet Cong, such as the brutal 1968 massacre at Hue, were completely absent. Surely the denial of such things is a hindrance to moving on and learning from the past?

As with most of our destinations in 'nam, Saigon was intensely hot and humid, so we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the rooftop pool and to soak up the great view of the city. I wish we stayed in hotels like this more often.

Waking up to our last day in Vietnam, we kicked the day off with another swim on the roof, before heading out for more sight seeing. A visit to a nearby Hindu temple resulted in our first, and as it turned out only experience of being ripped off, when it came to a couple of joss sticks. Long story. After another delicious lunch at Ciao Bella, we explored Reunification Palace. When North Vietnamese tanks (indeed, two North Vietnamese tanks are on display in the palace grounds) crashed through the gates in 1975, it marked the end of the Vietnam War. The site is full of interesting stories, and we spent some time wandering the grand halls and exploring the extensive basement former operations area.

After exploring the palace, there wasn't really a lot else we wanted to see, so we went back to the hotel for a rest before our airport pick up arrived. Naturally, my paranoia about missing flights meant that even with the near gridlock traffic on the way, we got to the airport far too early, giving us plenty of time to mull over our trip and come to some conclusions.

There's no doubt that our journey had its ups and downs, but it was a fantastic experience that I'll never forget. Hoi An was firmly my favourite destination, I'd have quite happily spent a whole week there. With that in mind, we probably did cram a few too many places into our two week stay. When including our Ha Long Bay cruise, we stopped in 6 different places. While we had about the right amount of time in Hanoi and Saigon, we really didn't want to leave either Hoi An or Nha Trang when we did. Overall though, what a country. I initially thought I'd be pleased to get home to a little normality, but even a week later, I found myself staring out of my pokey study window at the miserable, grey sky, wishing I was still in Vietnam. At times hectic, at times charming, often beautiful, and always fascinating, I'll miss you, Vietnam.

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Photos

Saigon Rooftop
The view from the roof of our fabulous hotel in Saigon