Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

There is a T shirt that is worn a lot in Cambodia and Vietnam with “same, same, but different” on it.  This mirrors our first impression of coming over the border.  We stopped overnight in quite a large city, not another westerner in sight, the ATM swallowed a card and we had some difficulty getting assistance, in the end we had to wait until we got to HCMC where there is a CBA branch, they were very nice but our card was never to be seen again and we had to cancel it.  The road signs in Thailand and Cambodia were in English, but not in Vietnam, luckily the road we needed to follow was straight ahead and we could understand Sai’ Gon. In fact everywhere in HCMC is referred to as Saigon with the exception of guides who stick to the official HCMC.  We thought we had ridden busy roads before but Vietnam is something again, motor bikes everywhere, thousands of them ahead, behind, to our left and to our right just a sea of bikes all weaving in and out, coming out of side streets just expecting that they have right of way, they don’t even look.  When we got into HCMC we found our way through the city to District 1 with assistance from people who spoke English and eventually arrived at the narrow alleys which house the guest houses and restaurants we were seeking. The food here is very good and Mike with a full tummy is a happy man.  There are women with scales in all the markets and you pay them to weigh yourself.  Mike has lost weight and wanted to know what he weighed so he approached a woman but she would not let him get on, a stallholder who spoke English explained that Vietnamese people are small and her scales only go to 70 kls  We passed her every day we were in HCMC and she recognized us and we all had a laugh. We visited the Unification Palace, we went with an English speaking guide first then wandered around on our own. This is recent history and we saw the gates where the tanks smashed through when they claimed the city and the helicopter pad where the American embassy staff fled from, all things we had seen on the news at the time. We went to visit the history museum but it was shut so we walked under large shady trees in the botanical gardens and the zoo next door. The outside cafes have kindergarten size plastic chairs to sit on, it is a sight to see Mike in one of these, if he still weighed his original weight he would probably wouldn’t fit in one. The post office was built during the French era, one of the few left standing so of interest to us, as was the Notre Dame Cathedral. A highlight for us was a performance of water puppets. Using instruments from the 11^th century the musician told the story while they played as the puppets acted out the scenes in a pool that was the stage, we could not understand a word of what was said but we got the gist of the story and understood the humour.  We had been told about the night market restaurant so went along for dinner.  There are a number of places to eat, they set up each night and cook in the open and have tables under marques to cater for the hundreds of people they serve each night.  The place is very busy and has a great atmosphere which we enjoyed as well as the excellent meal.  We felt obliged to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels with over 200 km of intricate network tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war, our English speaking guide related the history, and as at the Unification Palace, indulged in a bit of propaganda.  In both Cambodia and Vietnam the “places of interest” promoted to tourists are about war and we are both over it.  While we have enjoyed staying in HCMC are looking forward to the next part of our trip in the highlands of Vietnam as we head towards Dalat.