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Published: April 22nd 2007
Ho Chi Minh
or Uncle Ho - as he is known to the VietnameseHO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - (April 2007)
Sat 21st - Tues 24th April - (Saigon) I set off from Phnom Pehn (Cambodia) by bus in the morning heading to Saigon in Vietnam, or to use the official Vietnamese Government name for the city, Ho Chi Minh City. There’s not much to say about the journey itself as it was fairly uneventful except for the condition of the road to the border which was dreadful being full of pot holes every few meters and not being surfaced.
However, there were no problems at the border, unlike previous border crossings on this trip, although I still had my passport checked to see if I had the right stamps and visa in about 6 different times over a distance of about 10m - It must be a way of giving people something to do!
Unlike the road from Phnom Pehn to the border, the road on the Vietnamese side was good and was properly surfaced so the bus made good time to Saigon and arrived late in the afternoon/ early evening. (How silly of me at this time to think that every bus journey in Vietnam was going
to be as smooth as this!).
After spending time in Cambodia, you can instantly notice that Vietnam is a richer and more developed country than Cambodia. However this must have only come about in the last decade as Vietnam was apparently nearly bankrupt in the late 1980's. Realising this, the Vietnamese Communist Party apparently decided to follow the Chinese way of '
One Party - Two Systems' with the consequence that Vietnam is now apparently the latest 'Asian Tiger' economy.
Vietnam is home to about 85 million people and is the 13th most populated country in the world. Incredibly the population of the country doubled between 1970 and 2000 and 80%!o(MISSING)f the population are under 40.
Saigon is Vietnam's biggest city and is also what could be described as a proper city, the first one that I'd come across since leaving Bangkok. Saigon has its fair share of skyscrapers and has a modern trendy district with quite a few trendy modern shops, cafe bars, restaurants etc and even some burger bars, the first ones I've seen since leaving Bangkok. However, for some strange reason there is only 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' and as I've never been to a
KFC in the UK or anywhere else in the world for that matter, managing to pass one without going in didn't prove to be a problem.
Saigon's streets are chaotic with motorbikes everywhere. A local told me that there are three million motorcycles in Saigon although how he came to this figure I've absolutely no idea. Apparently 10 years ago everyone was on a bicycle and now everyone is on a motorbike! And in another 10 years no doubt everyone will be in a car! If so, and if this same scenario is carried out all over the developing world, it makes the western world's efforts to cut car emissions for the 'sake of the planet' immaterial and irrelevant!
With so many motorbikes around, crossing the street can be an event in itself. There is rarely a gap in the traffic (motorbikes) so you just have to step off the kerb and walk in a straight line at a constant pace to the other side of the road letting the motorbikes pass either side of you. Fortunately this isn't as dramatic or as nerve racking as it sounds as the speed of the traffic is a lot less
than it would be in any European or Australian City.
As in most places in South East Asia where there are backpackers, there is an area of the city that all the backpackers seem to congregate and stay - and I am no different to the majority. Cheap hotels and what you would think cheap eating and drinking places scatter this area. However, if you do go out of the travellers ghetto you realise how inflated food and drink in the restaurants and bars where the travellers congregate is compared to what the locals pay (which is fair enough I suppose as its still very cheap).
However, one thing that is universally cheap in Vietnam is Pho (noodle soup), which Vietnamese seem to eat all day long together with Bia Hoi, which is draught beer. A Bia Hoi usually costs around 4000 dong (less than 50c) for a litre - You would have thought that at this price I would be in heaven!! However, it comes in a plastic tupperware container and it’s not the best tasting beer ever and it will certainly not become my beer of choice!
(Interesting fact....... or probably not........ - as I've
wandered around South East Asia I've noticed that at any time of day, people seem to be eating. However, you rarely see a fat South East Asian person. Apparently, according to CNN, (I was bored one morning) South East Asians on average eat around 50% more per day than your average American. However, what makes South East Asians healthier is that a lot of this is soup and they also eat a lot more vegetables, and above all, they don’t generally eat beef burgers!!)
Anyway, getting back to the real point of this blog which is not eating advice, as for Saigon there is not too much to see or do apart from seeing sights/ places connected with the Vietnam war (The Communist North verses the American backed South), or the American war as the Vietnamese call it.
There are a few interesting museums showing some fantastic photo journalist shots together with relics from the war such as planes, tanks, shells etc. One thing that did surprise me a bit was that I didn't get the impression that the museums were particularly anti-American per-say. The museums generally gave the impression that most of the American soldiers were forced
to come to fight in Vietnam against their will (which I’m not sure is true as at the beginning of the war at least, the majority of the American troops were regular army and not conscripts/ draftees).
While in Saigon, you can visit a Viet Cong tunnel network called the Cu Chi tunnels which are located only about 30km from Saigon. During the war there were apparently over 200km of tunnels built in this particular area in which the Viet Cong fought, slept and eat in the tunnels when American patrols were about in the area. (The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese who were on the side of the North). The tunnels are so small that it’s hard to imagine that anyone could spend any length of time in them. The tunnels were/ are so well hidden that the Americans had a hard time fighting in this area and had to resort to large scale bombing of the area even though it is relatively close to Saigon.
Whilst going around the tunnel complex lots of gun shots were going off in the distance........ (had someone forgotten to tell people that the war had finished 30 years ago!!) Strangely
Reunification Palace
Built in 1966 to serve as South Vietnam's Presidential Palace. Famous for the pictures of helicopters taking off from the roof and for a North Vietnamese tank barging down the gate. Now converted into the Reunification Palace. enough, or perhaps not, there is a firing range right in the middle of the tunnel complex. For $10 US you can buy 10 bullets and fire an AK47. This was the first time that I'd fired a gun and whilst I had been told to expect a real kickback when firing, I didn't realize how loud it would be, even with ear muffs on. You can only imagine how loud a full scale battle going on around you must be! All I can say about my firing is that in any war the enemy would have nothing to fear!
Our group were shown around the tunnels by an ex South Vietnamese soldier who during the war was assigned to the American Army as a translator. He now shows veterans from both sides of the war around the tunnels.
Not surprisingly perhaps, he told us that it usually depended on whether you came from the north or from the south as to which side you fought on in the war and not on whether you were of a particular political persuasion (i.e. Communist or not). This said, he went on to say that the majority of Vietnamese who
did support the South Vietnamese Government were generally from the cities while the majority of those living in the countryside, who were mostly poorer peasantry, generally supported the north, i.e. were Viet Cong.
However from what I've been reading, the Northern Communist Government appear to have largely recruited people from the countryside to their cause by playing the nationalist, anti imperialist card, and not by extolling the virtues of Communism and certainly not by telling the peasants that after the war they were going to collectivise all their small holdings!
Although not speaking about it in great detail, after the war our guide was sent away to a 're-education' camp. From what I have read from foreign journalists, while executions and torture were rare, the camps were still not pleasant places to be sent to with 'political re-education' and 'self criticism classes', hard labour in the fields and no outside contact with families the order of the day.
Whilst you wouldn't know it from the museums, all Southern Vietnamese seem to have been treated fairly shoddily by the victorious Northern Communist Government after the war even the Viet Cong - One reason perhaps why there was such a
huge boat exodus of South Vietnamese in the late 70's and 80's.
Saigon was an interesting city to visit. However, after spending a few interesting days in and around the city it was time to see what else Vietnam had to offer!
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Frank
non-member comment
Beer in a Container
Hi Mike, hope you are still fine. Beer in containers sounds like carrots in tubes or bread in tins ;) Guess there are beautiful places at the see, remember any Bond Movie with this rocks near the beach. Vietnam? Life here is still the same (lots of sun, beer (bottled) and good humoured people). Take care Best wishes Frank