Postcards from Saigon


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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » District 1
January 3rd 2016
Published: January 4th 2016
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I will never again complain about traffic on the interstate.
Yes, it’s OK to call it Saigon. The official name is Ho Chi Minh City, but the Saigon River is still flowing, and many businesses have Saigon in their name. I asked two college students who were giving me a tour of the Chinese quarter if it was OK to call their city Saigon. “Sure,” one of them said. “It’s easier to say, and it has only two syllables instead of the five in Ho Chi Minh City.” In fact, I got the definite impression that most people would like to change the name back to Saigon.

When I think about Saigon the first thing that comes to mind is motorbikes. The roaring, stinking, ubiquitous, fracking motorbikes. I was told that Saigon is a city of ten million people and seven million motorbikes. I think that number is too low; I’d bet there are at least twelve million motorbikes in Saigon.

And it’s not just the motorbikes on the road; it’s the bikes on the sidewalks. Traffic moving too slow? No problem – ride on the sidewalk! Want to go the wrong way down a one way street? Ride on the sidewalk instead. And all these motorbikes
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People end up walking in the street.
need a place to park, right? No problem – park on the sidewalk. In fact, it appears that there is a thriving business in renting slivers of sidewalk to the bikers. In some cases, you’re lucky to find a narrow passage through the bikes leading to the door of a shop or restaurant. And in the few inches of actual free space someone will be sitting, or standing, or there will be tables from an impromptu food stall. The end result is that people end up walking in the street while the bikes take over the sidewalk.

There is a tremendous amount of construction going on in the city. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t skyscrapers like the Bitexco Financial Center the soars 68 stories above its surroundings, and boasts its own helicopter pad on the fifty-second floor. However, for various reasons – wind vortices around the building, weight restrictions, to name a few – the helipad is never used.

I had a lot of people want to practice their English with me. Some were students on class assignments who had a specific list of questions to ask. One asked me what my
bikes and postersbikes and postersbikes and posters

The poster on the right encourage taking care of the environment
favorite type of music was. I tried to explain the blues to her, and I really hope she looked up a Youtube video of B.B. King as I suggested.

I found Vietnamese to be very difficult to speak with any semblance accuracy, and I think the same is true for many Vietnamese people speaking English. Try telling a male student the difference between “eunuch” and “unique” without embarrassing him horribly and you’ll see what I mean. Of course, when I would try to speak my few words of Vietnamese' people would laugh uproariously, in part because I was using the wrong honorific and in part because my accent was so bad.

Even though Vietnam has enthusiastically embraced a market economy, there are still reminders of its communist present, and the relationship with the former Soviet Union. This is mostly seen in the uniforms of the police and immigration officers, and in the style of government posters. I rather like this style of art, and fortunately today these posters are extolling the benefits of being environmentally conscious, rather than saying “Death to America.” It is a little bit disquieting though to see the hammer and sickle displayed around town.

And, surprisingly, America is held in pretty high regard here. There have been times in my travels when I have let people think I was Canadian (eh?) but there was no need of that here. Maybe it’s because as tourists we spread money around, maybe it’s because as travelers we are generally pretty well-behaved. (Note I said generally. There are jerks of every nationality.) One of the students I talked with was rather excited when he heard I was from the US. “Everyone wants to go to America,“ he told me. I explained to him that some people in the US were poor, and some parts of the country didn’t have much, but I’m not sure he believed me.

In my humble opinion, I think Saigon is on the cusp of becoming a 21st century city and it will be interesting to see how it develops. Currently there is subway system being constructed in partnership with the Japanese, but it is already two years behind schedule. There is a lot of history and architectural beauty that deserves to be preserved, and I hope it doesn’t get swept away in the rush to modernize.


Additional photos below
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old and new

The Bitexco Tower is in the background, with its helipad.
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Nhan and Toan

College students who gave me a tour of Cholon and wanted to practice their English.
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fishing

There are still reminders of the old ways
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teacher

This gentleman was teaching martial arts in the park. Turns out he is a famous teacher - even with just one leg.


4th January 2016

Saigon
Hi Karen! Love your pictures and comments about Saigon; especially the pic labeled "teacher." Stay happy in this 2016 new year! I'll be home on the 11th - see you soon. Hey, any Pilate's in Viet Nam? What kind of Marshall arts do they do? xoxoElizabeth
4th January 2016

Martial Arts Teacher
The teacher in the picture is Ta Anh Dung, who lost his leg when he was 21. He has master Akido, Shaolin, Takewondo, and is pretty good at Muay Thai. If you look closely at the photo, the blur you see by his standing leg is actually a sword. I can imagine that a student dare not say "That's too hard!" in Ta Anh Dung's presence.
4th January 2016

Again
V E R Y interesting! Keep on posting, please! Email me, as I have an interesting opportunity to tell you about.
5th January 2016
Rush hour

Saigon
It is amazing isn't it?

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