Saigon and South

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Well as we left Bangkok the Red Shirt protesters had swapped their AK47’s for water pistols and started celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year where everyone gets soaked and covered in flour, so on the way to the local 7-11 to get supplies we duly succumbed to a bit of water. Can’t see it being allowed in Trafalgar Square! Back to being the dynamic duo again, we boarded our Air Asia flight to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as a lot of people still call it (even the locals). We had heard lots of stories, read lots of blogs and couldn’t wait.

Landing at Saigon airport was a bit weird, as you taxi in the runway and surrounding area aren’t in the best state of repair and then you see a barrier and realise that when the plane passes it’s raised and the runway reverts into Vietnam’s B3257 or some such number, surreal. After a swift pass through immigration and customs (due to being the only plane) we walked outside to find that one of the worst things about Asia was here as well - the airport taxi scam. Driver number 1 offered to take us to the city for about $30, we asked if he would use the meter instead and the answer “no, not at this time of day, roads too busy” arrived. Move on $25 from driver 2 & “toll too expensive” (there isn’t one), $20 from driver 3, but nobody willing to use the meter. Luckily we had read on the Travelblog forums that if you walk to the left as you exit there is a rank of sorts and you might find an honest driver, if you have picked a four leaf clover that day. Finally we found a driver willing to put the meter on and take us to our hotel. Funny old thing, traffic wasn’t too bad and the fare was $5. Beware if you are coming to Asia, in every single country the taxis/transport is the biggest scam going.

At least taking a cab did give us a great chance to see the infamous Saigon traffic in action and well it is completely and utterly mad, about a billion scooters driving both ways on whatever side of the road they choose, or even on the pavement when the road gets too busy, only moving over when something bigger honks it’s horn behind. Red at traffic lights mean stop, except if you’re on a scooter; traffic drives on the right hand side, except if you’re a scooter; pavements are for stalls and pedestrians, except if you’re a scooter; street markets are for selling goods to customers, oh and a short cut for scooters, you see a pattern developing? Yep it’s mad and we were so looking forward to taking our lives in our hands and trying to cross the road - not!

We dropped our bags off at the excellent Madam Cuc Hotel in the backpacker district. Cheap rooms and great staff, really helpful & friendly & the free breakfast, oh, well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. OK out into Saigon and immediately you realise that by walking you become one of the food chain on the road because the word pavement in Vietnamese means scooter car park. We wandered around the De Tham area where a lot of the tour operators are based and looked at our transport options for our time in the country. We decided on a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta and then a sort of hop-on hop-off bus type ticket for the journey north. But we did our first bit of extreme sports here in Saigon, cross the road. Yep I realise that those of you raised in the comfort of sunny Weymouth or gentile Keyworth won’t be that impressed but let me tell you, jumping out of a plane was less nerve wracking and had a far lower chance of bodily harm. We came to our first major intersection and stood and watched, figuring that watching the locals would give us some tips on how you cross a never ending stream of scooters 4 abreast in each direction, except then we realised that the locals aren’t stupid enough to cross the road, they use their scooter and drive across. OK, here’s what we were told, just step off the pavement and walk steadily across the road, don’t speed up and don’t stop and the mass of traffic will simply move around you - simples eh.... Well here it goes, and do you know, it actually works, this mass of motorised madness, this heaving, breathing Honda snake, simply separates one side of you and rejoins on the other. After we did this 3 or 4 times Chris noted that Lisa was always ‘down traffic’ of him, ummm, cunning plan by Mrs E. We decided to walk the longer (but slightly quieter) way back to the hotel and what a great decision that turned out to be, hidden away down a little street was a shabby little building with the words “Irish Pub” on the window, well actually it was “Iris Pub” but we didn’t see any flowers for sale. Inside was waiting that little slice of heaven, a pint of Draught Guinness, ensuring that Cambodia still remains the only country on Earth to have let Chris down.

Like many cities in Vietnam, Saigon did not escape the wrath of war and since its beginning it has had quite a traumatic history. There are many citations to the birth of Saigon and the origin of its name. According to one theory, Saigon, or Sai Con, has its root in a Khmer word Prei Kor (Kapok Tree Forest). The name Saigon was first used officially in 1698, when Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu sent Mr Nguyen Huu Canh to this region to create various districts and to form a government for this southern outpost. Because of its strategic location for trade and commerce, as well as military importance, Saigon continued to grow and became a bonafide city. In the mid 19th century, the French with the aid of the Spanish, invaded this port city. This event was the precursor to the long struggle between the people of Vietnam and France leading to the French finally being kicked out in 1954. Soon after, Vietnam split into 2 countries and the city became the go to destination for immigrants from the North. In the 60's and 70's, Saigon was buzzing, the capital and cultural heart of South Vietnam. Already heavily influenced by the French in terms of culture and style, the city had an air of a French provincial town with a Vietnamese twist. Saigon was dubbed the "Pearl of the Orient" by the foreign press. Then came the Vietnam War, or the War of Liberation, but luckily despite the massive amount of ordinance used the city survived relatively intact. After the fall of South Vietnam to communism in 1975, the city and many of its inhabitants didn’t know what to expect and in 1976 the new government renamed the city Ho Chi Minh City and shut its doors to the rest of the world. Although recognized worldwide as Ho Chi Minh City, to the people of Vietnam the city is still lovingly referred to as Saigon. Finally, in the mid 90’s Saigon once again was open for business and let the world back in and was able to shine again. And shine it does.

The following day there was a tough decision to be made, take our lives in our hands by hopping on the back of a moto (scooter) for a tour of the city or take our lives in our hands by walking and trying to not get killed by all the motos. We opted for the latter as it seemed the lesser of two evils and Lisa had made it perfectly clear she wasn’t going on the back of one. We set off through the beautiful streets, many still lined with small colonial dwellings, most now shop houses where the family business if the ground floor with the living space above. Oh and with the scooter parked in the living room as befits a beloved member of the family!! A stroll through the huge Ben Thanh market selling, well, everything really, was a joy or a nightmare depending on which author tells the tale. We strolled onward to the Independence Palace only to find it closed for lunch. Next the beautiful Nha Tho Duc Ba - Cathedral of our Lady, or Notre Dame as it’s commonly referred to, apparently France’s most ambitious project in Indochina, well until it tried to retain the World Cup in 2002.

Nearby you come across the lovely Hotel de Ville, sitting at the top of Nguyen Hue, a picturesque boulevard of high end shops, restaurants and cafes. A statue of Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) adorns the park and keeps a watchful eye over the capitalist comings and goings. A stroll to the end of the street brings you to the Saigon River, now a busy port again. We then returned back to the Reunification Palace (formerly the Independence Palace) and found it open this time, it turns out that it wasn’t closed for lunch earlier but a meeting of the parliament which is still held here on occasions. Palace isn’t a word you’d use to describe the outside of the structure, it’s more like the residence of Ernst Stavro Blofeld straight out of the 70’s. It’s the former Presidential Palace of South Vietnam - and it was here on April 30, 1975, tanks from the North Vietnamese Army crashed through the gate and ended the war. A replica of one of the tanks sits proudly on the lawn outside the Palace. The first palace on the site of the Reunification Palace was the Norodom Palace built in 1871. It was the French Governor General’s headquarters and palace, but was destroyed by bombs in 1962. The current palace was completed in 1966 after 3 years of construction, just after the former President, who ordered it as his new home, was assassinated, tough eh. Inside a lot remains as it did in ’75; a curious mix of family and state memorabilia. It’s an odd building with even odder exhibits but probably important to those for whom Vietnam’s recent history is living memory.

A final swing through the HCMC Museum, which is a bit pants really, but does contain a lot of info about the French and Reunification struggles. It is interesting to hear and see things from a non-American or Hollywood perspective. Just about visited out we took our lives in our hands again and returned to our accommodation.

That evening we ventured out again and across to a local park where loads of blokes were playing a curious game of keepy-up but with a kind of shuttlecock, heck these boys were good, Ronaldo would have been proud. What made the evening really interesting though was a group of kids, well 17-20 year olds approached us and asked if they could practice their English on us. Sceptically we said yes as everywhere we had been in Asia there was always an ‘angle’, but what a great hour we spent with them. There were about 10 or 12 and they were studying to become accountants, town planners and various other professions but off their own backs they knew that good English opened lots of doors. So we had a great conversation about the West, about Vietnam, about football (of course) and about the lives of teenagers in a socialist country. Brilliant, they were intelligent, interesting, polite and ambitious. If these kids are the future Vietnam will fly.

All too soon it was time to leave HCMC and head south into the Mekong Delta. We had booked a ‘mostly by boat’ tour so we headed off to the docks and boarded a dodgy looking boat which was deceptively quick. A 2 hour trip took us down the Saigon River and into the Mighty Mekong, the majestic river that we had sat by in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The boat dropped us at My Tho in the Delta and we didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t this. It was quite a large industrial town and large port. There we transferred to a local boat for the short trip to Unicorn Island. Here we were taken into the deepest darkest delta, well actually we weren’t, we were rowed down a canal that seemed to be specifically dug for tourists along with hundreds of other small rowing boats carrying tourist wearing silly hats. Neither of us were really sure what we were supposed to be looking at but the plants were nice. Back onto no 2 boat for a short trip to see some local crafts, a coconut candy making operation. I won’t bore you with the details but surprisingly the product wasn’t that great. Onwards via stops at a fruit stall and a honey making operation (1 hive) there wasn’t really much explanation but there were a lot of opportunities to part with our money. Next to a restaurant for lunch, belonging to a friend of the guide no doubt, at which point they told us we had 1 ½ hrs free time, stuck on a small Island in the middle of the Mekong Delta and no map, thanks. Chris opted to borrow a bike and set off to see what he could find, after 40 minutes riding along past a load of Vietnamese people leading very normal lives he turned around and rode 40 minutes back past the same smiling locals. Time to move on.

We were next put on to a bus for our 2 hour trip further into the Delta and our overnight stop. Well two hours got you to the other side of the river to where we needed to be but the wait for the ferry to take you the last few yards added another hour. Apparently we were lucky, a 4 hour wait isn’t uncommon. The reason is that the Mekong actually splits into 9 rivers in the Delta and about 20 years ago they decided that bridges over them might be a good idea to help shift the millions of tons of rice and other produce from the region to Saigon and all points North. So far 2 have been completed, with the third nearly finished. We arrived at our hotel and with a young couple from Holland that we had met, headed out to find dinner. Well what a dinner it was, thanks again to Rough Guide we headed for a small place called the Mekong, took some time coming up with that one, and we were treated to a wonderful Chateaubriand that any UK restaurant would be proud of and chips, mmmm, and the cost of this magnificent repast, £2.50, Happy Days.

The next day, and another early start, we were off for more ‘genuine’ local experiences. We first boarded a boat to the area’s largest floating market at Cai Rang, which is basically a wholesale fruit market, traders buy from the villages deeper in the Delta and sail up here for 3 or 4 days and try to get the best price for their produce from the local merchants who visit each day. Nice to see but not very interesting. Then it was off to a rice noodle factory to see how rice paper and rice noodles are made then the last stop on our 2 day tour was to a rice mill. This was actually the most interesting part of the trip, not only finding out about how rice and it’s various by-products are produced but also how and when it’s farmed, how the family structure works here and what a raw deal a lot of southerners got after the north ‘s victory.

Then it was back on a bus for the nightmare journey back to Saigon. I’d like to say it was incident free but the shocking reality of a nation with minimal road sense or traffic law enforcement and too many scooters was vividly rammed home when we saw a large truck crush a scooter and it’s rider between its wheels and the concrete barriers, the first time either of us had seen a dead body. A gruesome end to a couple of days that promised so much, but actually was a little tacky and a bit of a waste of time.

Back in Saigon for just one night before heading north we again wandered the streets revelling in the sounds, the smells, the friendly smiles and the explosion of energy and excitement that promises much for the rest of our time in Vietnam.

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Photos

BT
eat your heart out

Moto Madness
a law unto themselves

C'est Magnifique
and the best bit is it's still standing after the war

Capitalist St
Lisa is off and running

Stavros's Pad
so how are you getting in here James?

Ho Ho Ho
Uncle Ho and the Hotel de Ville

All it needs
is Miss Moneypenny

Amazing what you find
just left on the side of the road

Mekong Transport
and this is the express

Floating Market
pound of nanna's darlin'

Leftover Candy
The knife is for those who try to nick it

Eye Eye
supposed to scare off the Sea Demons

Riverview Cottages
some are going for $50000 !!!!!!

Comments

[Kitty]

heya just read your blog... sounds interesting!!! love you Kitty xoxoxox