Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

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Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City

I am so happy I could publish pictures of Saigon while we were in Singapore. Thanks to McDonald’s wireless connection and a very nice young Chinese man who allowed us to use his password to get on the internet, I published three entries there while consuming two diet cokes. Now I can write about what we saw and heard.

This tour from the port to Saigon, now named Ho Chi Minh City but still referred to by both names, took about an hour and a half. This time we had an excellent guide we could easily understand and who was able to answer questions as well as tell us much about the country. Saigon is in the south, and because Viet Nam is a long, narrow country, it is quite far from the capitol of Hanoi in the north. The people are more “liberal” here, and don’t rigidly follow the communist doctrine as they do in the north or even central part of the country. There is a great deal of nepotism in the government - the real haves and have nots depend on who you know and who you are. The central part near Da Nang is the poorer part while the south is more prosperous as the land is rich for farming and the climate quite mild year round.

Our first stop was at a Chinese tea shop to have a cup of traditional Chinese tea made the traditional way. They were very proud of the fact that Queen Elizabeth had been there years ago, and a picture of here was featured on the entrance wall. The tea was good, but a curious stop, I thought.

When asked about education, Sa (our guide) said that the poor families cannot afford to educate their children since they earn maybe $100 to $150 per month and school costs $13 per month per child. Then, they add costs of books and supplies plus frequent bonuses for teachers because they are poorly paid. They also have to feed and clothe and pay rent with that money. So education is not mandatory, and is almost a luxury to some families. The wealthy can afford to send their children to private schools which further separate the poorer families. However, the literacy rate is 90 per cent, believe it or not. Parents or siblings educate those who cannot attend school, and at least teach them to read.

Health care requires insurance and those who cannot afford insurance cannot afford to pay for hospital care either. If they can’t pay, they don’t get treatment. There is no free medical care so they are just out of luck and have to go without any care or medicine. The country is recovering slowly from the war and rebuilding as funds permit. Taiwan, Japan, USA, Germany and China are the countries making the most foreign investments into the country at this time. Near Hue there are miles of beautiful beach front property just waiting to be developed into resorts and hotels. Saigon already has some large shopping centers and some hotels, but there is a need for more.

We stopped at the Reunification Hall, which was the US Headquarters and now has reception halls and meeting rooms. The kitchen still contains huge pots and stoves used to feed hundreds of troops. The basement is fortified with thick concrete walls, and the sub-basement was used as a communications center and some living quarters. A large room upstairs is where the surrender took place.

Our lunch was in a very nice, modern hotel. The Vietnamese buffet was delicious. We sat at tables of ten. Roger and another man at the table both had been here during the war. When Roger was asked if he ever ate at a certain Chinese restaurant, he said he had almost every Monday when the Officer’s Club was closed. This brought back memories for the other man, and he had to excuse himself before he could return to the table. We all took a deep breath.

After lunch we drove around the city past the Rex Hotel, made famous by Dan Rather who broadcast the CBS Evening News from there. It was a briefing place and mess hall for soldiers, too. One night in the mess hall, one of the commanding officers didn’t appreciate some of the comments Rather made and told him to shut up or get out of there. Since then they have expanded the hotel until it now comprises a whole city block. Then, of course, we had to make a stop for shopping before our return trip.

The traffic, as you can see in the photos, is horrific. At one of the major roundabouts where two major roads come together, Sa said can result in an hour’s delay as traffic comes to a grinding halt while everyone tries to be first. We asked about the electric company - the one that strings all those wires. He just laughed and said there are lots of outages and lots of waiting to get things fixed. The phone wires run together with the electric wires making things very interesting.

On the way back, Sa told us about his life a bit. His father wanted desperately to leave the country at the end of the war. Sa was a boy then, and he said his mother worked hard to save the money needed for dad to pay for the boat trip. The first time he tried to go he got the money and actually got on a boat. He had to trust the people, but felt it was safe so he left one night for the boat. When the boat was loaded and all the money collected, the boat man called the authorities. If caught, two years in jail so his dad jumped into the river and got away. He watched as the policemen and the boat man split the money they had collected. He tried again but the same thing happened, and the third time he was arrested and spent two years in jail.

His uncle, on the other hand, was a stubborn man who kept trying, too. Sa was going to go with him since he was the oldest son and the hope of the family since his father gave up trying and Sa was now old enough to go alone. They left one dark night and got on a boat. People kept coming on and they could see the boat going lower and lower in the water. His uncle said they should get their money back and get off the boat if they could. Luckily, there were plenty of people to take their places, so the boat man gave them back the money. They do not know what happened to that boat or the people. They never heard. Finally, his uncle decided to buy a boat with friends he could trust. They would disguise themselves as sailors but hire real sailors to come with them. About this time Sa developed pink eye. There was no money for medicine, just lime juice to squirt in the eye. His uncle would not take him because pink eye is very contagious and he didn’t want any complications on the trip. So, Sa didn’t get to go and to this day, his father and his uncle have not spoken. Sa knows his uncle lives somewhere near Atlanta, but that’s about all. After hearing his story, we all rode in silence the rest of the way to the ship. Wow.

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