Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

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<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thursday 29^th March 2012:



Neither of us knew what to expect from Vietnam but somehow we weren’t prepared for what we got. We are moored on the Saigon River but that’s a 2-hour drive from the city of Saigon, more properly now called Ho Chi Minh City. And that 2-hour drive was an absolute eye opener. There are very few cars here, only tourist buses, a few lorries and thousands and thousands of mopeds. There are no rules whatsoever about how much stuff or how many people you can put on one moped so the people get very creative. We’ve seen mum, dad and two kids on a single scooter or 3 adults plus a load of shopping or a pile of stuff just about balanced on the back. There is no lane discipline, largely because there are no lanes! And what looks like a 4-lane highway has most people travelling in the same direction … but not all of them. It is very common to see quite a few people on mopeds riding in the wrong direction. And no-one takes any notice. It is totally bizarre.



Ho Chi Minh City itself was fascinating especially as we’re both old enough to remember the Vietnam war so it was brilliant to see places like the old American embassy where I remember pictures of helicopters taking the last Americans out of the city as the Vietcong arrived in it. The old post office was the biggest surprise of all with the most beautiful architecture. There are lots of catholic churches but they don’t all look like churches. The cathedral – Notre Dame – is impressive but some of the churches are built exactly like temples so apart from the cross, you wouldn’t know it was a church.



The National History Museum was just like any museum anywhere in the world but it has one brilliant and totally unique thing that you might not expect but that we had managed to find online before we came here. That is the old Vietnamese art of water puppetry. The puppeteers stand behind a screen and operate water borne puppets – swimmers, dragons, swans - that are beguiling and a little bit mad.



Lunch was stunning today at the fabulous Rex Hotel. The room looked like it was set for a wedding, the food was fantastic and we had local dancers and musicians entertaining us while we ate. In the afternoon we visited a temple – fast becoming the main theme of our visits in this part of the globe – and then went to a gorgeous lacquer factory. The workmanship on display here was beautiful with designs made from mother of pearl, egg shells or hand painted. They manage to make even a simple pair of chop sticks into something stunning and the full sized room screens were beautiful. I’m sorry but I’m running out of superlatives for their work. It was a very special place.



And I can’t really finish blogging about Ho Chi Minh City without mentioning the other key feature of the place: the dirt. Our guide was clearly very proud of the progress his country has made since the war ended but by crikey it’s still got a long way to go. Many of the shops, cafes and homes are little more than shacks with palm leaves for a roof. Often the floor is just well trodden dirt and there are very few pavements. I can’t imagine eating or drinking anything from the local vendors and some of the toilets defy description. I thought Japan and China had some awful loos, but they were palaces compared to some of these.



But Vietnam and its people are fascinating. Starbucks launched itself here and then withdrew; the people just aren’t ready for western ways yet. Their coffee bars are on the street edges with lots of hammocks so you can have a sleep after your coffee. Much as I love that thought, I can’t imagine it going down well anywhere other than Vietnam. Sorry today’s blog is long, but it was quite a day!

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