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Published: April 23rd 2013
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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam7 April 2013
Ho Chi Minh City
Arriving at Saigon station is a little like arriving at any small town station in Vietnam, chaotic and unorganised and you still have to clamber over the tracks. But Saigon is by no means a small or primitive town. With a population of 10 million plus and growing by the second, we have made bets as to how much this city is going to change in the next 10 to 20 years. I believe it is going to go the same route as Shanghai, Andrew thinks I am being ambitious, but the place is already massive and far more "sophisticated" than anywhere else in Vietnam.
I use the word sophisticated with caution because it is not the same sophistication as that of the more culturally aware Hanoi. It is a brasher, more commercial sophistication. It's about Money. Amazing how capitalist communism can be! Ho Chi Minh City is hot and happening.
We went up to the top of the swanky newish glass skyscraper in town, to the Saigon Skydeck on the 49th floor of the Bitexco Tower, to see the lay of the land. Ho Chi Minh City is massive (did
Notre Dame Cathedral
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam I say that already?). The city sits on the west bank of the Saigon river and across the river (already linked by an under-river highway tunnel) is what will become the new financial district. The area which once only housed a Catholic mission and some trees has been cleared and is ready for development, and it is a huge area reminiscent of Pudong in Shanghai. All around Saigon new towers are being built and it seems like there is construction happening on every block. We took panoramic photographs to compare when we visit next time, and I think it is going to be the city which changes the most of all the cities we are visiting on this trip, in the near future. Ok, you get the picture.
But, fortunately there is more to Saigon than the glossy new Gucci and Chanel boutiques and the glistening skyscrapers-in-the-making. This is a really great and diverse city to explore.
Saigon is where the Americans installed their "man in Vietnam", the useless and corrupt Diem, and his megalomaniac brother; and it is the city hard fought for and eventually liberated by the Vietcong and the NVA. Pictures of tanks crashing through
Cathedral interior
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam the fences of the presidential palace and Americans being evacuated from their embassy roof by helicopter are vivid in my cache of photographic memories of the 70s. As is the picture of the girl running naked and burning away from napalm bombing, which is displayed in the excellent War Remnants Museum along with a huge collection of other similar photographs which anyone growing up in the west in the seventies will recognise.
If you are not already anti American when you walk into The War Remnants Museum, you will be by the time you leave; and I think these sentiments are even stronger if you have just travelled from North to South in Vietnam and have experienced the remnants of this feckless, pointless and stupid war on the ground.
Outside the front door of the museum is just another collection of the vehicles of war for anyone interested in the mechanics of malevolence, but these are totally overshadowed by what is inside. The displays are obviously slanted and propaganda reigns supreme, but the reality is that this war was the first "televised " war in history and there is so much documentation available that the Americans can't cover
up or play down, that I am inclined to lean heavily towards the propagandist bias. Of course I realise that both sides did terrible things to each other and to civilians, but the Americans should never have been here in the first place. And they would perhaps be more forgivable if they had stopped their willy waggling after this disastrous war, but they are still at it in Afghanistan, Iraq, South America etc etc etc.....
The museum display devoted to the press photographers who lost their lives, was for me a potent part of the exhibition as reportage has always been close to my heart and these black and white photographs say so much more than words can say, for both sides. Around 135 photographers and correspondents were killed in the two decades that this war lasted.
But, the section documenting the effects of dioxins like Agent Orange, which continue to this day, and can still be seen all over Vietnam, made me cry and will haunt me forever. I find it completely obscene that the companies and governments responsible for developing and using this form of chemical warfare are not being held responsible for the mess they
left in Vietnam. American soldiers affected by this evil have fought for and some have eventually been compensated for their damaged lives, but the Vietnamese case was thrown out of the US Supreme Court. It is not acceptable that companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemicals continue their wicked works with impunity.
Alright, I am starting to sound like a Southern Baptist reverend so will stop the raving, but there should be some justice handed down!!
On to the other black and white press shots that left an impression on a youngster: The American embassy no longer exists in the same form as seen in the pictures of hurried desertion once broadcast all over the world; but the Reunification Palace, formerly the presidential palace and seat of the disgusting Diem, remains and is a fascinating visit for an interior designer. Lets skip the politics on this one and move straight to the aesthetics.
Some have described it as " a whitewashed concrete edifice with all the charm of a municiple library" but it is beautiful and I love it. Built in the mid 1960's on the ruins of the previous French-built mansion, it is a classical example of
retro architecture reminiscent of the work of one of my favourite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright. To me it is the most elegant building in all of Vietnam. Even Andrew was impressed!!
The interior architecture is inspiring, with its lofty spaces and rectilinear lines and massive chandeliers, and leaves you feeling like this could be heaven. The light fittings and rugs are especially awesome, and my favourite accessories are the bank of ice cream coloured telephones in one of the offices and the red upholstered bar on the top floor. The gardens are also quite sublime.
Don't believe the Rough Guide, you don't need to visit as part of a group. You can just wander in and wander around to your heart's content. And my heart was contented.
Some other architectural gems remain in Ho Chi Minh City too. They all predate the Reunification Palace by about a century and for purists may be more impressive than the Palace. My favourite is the old General Post Office - probably the prettiest post office I have ever seen, and it works too. We sent a parcel home from here and hopefully it will eventually arrive in the UK. This
Colonial edifice was completed in the 1880's and is only slightly spoilt by the telecoms tower pricking the sky above it.
The red brick Notre Dame Cathedral next door is also worth a look. The only grand old hotel that still retains an air of graciousness is the Hotel Continental on Lam Son Square. As does the restored Municiple Theatre on the same square.
Enough architecture? How about some more politics? Chinese this time. Chinatown or Cho Lon has a colourfully nefarious history. It grew up in the 1900's as a twin city to Saigon, populated by the Hoa ( ethnically Chinese) people. It is now connected and very much a part of the city, but its shabby and scrambling alleyways and markets could still be from another time.
The Bin Tay market, the only one we visited, looks like a massive temple complex on approach. The tiered roof with dragons galore, and an internal courtyard with fountain and turtle pond are quite charming and befitting of a temple built purely for the worship of money. The place is laid out over two levels and packed to the rafters, and once you are caught up in the
maze of narrow spaces between stalls inside, it feels like it just keeps going on and on forever. You can buy pretty much anything here and in the more modern covered markets around it, from silk to soya beans and secret potions. It is not the only place we saw endangered animal parts for sale.
For much of its history Cho Lon was run by gangs, and the wealth created here was spent here at opium dens, bordellos, and gambling halls. Anyone from outside who ventured in was usually after one of these three vices, so not the type of place you'd take your wife and children for a stroll on a Sunday morning.
It was also a good place to go if you wanted to "disappear" for a while and so became a hideout for political dissidents through the ages, including the Vietcong during the American war. A jeep full of western correspondents was ambushed here on 5 May 1968, and the Australian journalist, Frank Palmos, was the sole survivor of the incident, and wrote about it in his autobiographical "Ridding The Devils".
Cho Lon is also where the dreadful Diem and his brother tried to
War Remnants Museum logo
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam hide out, but they were eventually picked up from the Cha Tam Church in an armoured vehicle and didn't make it to central Saigon alive.
Cho Lon has since cleaned up its act and if you are not claustrophobic, it is one of the best places in HCMC to shop. I bought good quality silk tafetta for £2/m, plus all the odds and sods we needed like flip flops and T-shirts.
HCMC has other great shopping too. Andrew's favourite market is the air conditioned Saigon Square on Le Loi where you can buy not fake A&F at fantastic prices. Ben Thanh Market was a little too expensive for us considering where we had been before, but had a good selection of fabrics and trinkets amongst the food stalls.
Speaking of food, we had the best ever baked tofu at Chieu Saigon, next door to our favourite coffee stop "Coffee is my Life", opposite the new LEED certified office block with the orange latticed window panels, on the corner opposite to the corner of the Reunification Palace grounds. Find that!! Next time I'll remember to write down street names too.
The fried tofu with shrimp paste at
Saigon traffic
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam the young and trendy Goi 89 was fab too, if you can get your nose past the shrimp paste that is. We also stumbled on a travel festival in the park near Ben Thanh Market, and the variety of Vietnamese food from all over the country was awesome. All in all Ho Chi Minh has excellent food.
We stayed at the brand new and very chintzy shiny La Jolie Hotel and had the best bathroom yet on our trip. The shower was actually separate and not over the wc, which is always nice. A little luxury to end our Vietnamese adventure.
So, I am now on to my third pair of flip flops. Two pairs worn right through to pavement. You know you've been in Asia for long when you have flip flop calluses on your in steps. We are down to our last third of this trip, and it is flying by!! Off to China we go.
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