Two Days In Saigon - Part 1

What's in a name:
Technically it's called Ho Chi Minh City - renamed as part of the "re-unification" activities carried out after the fall of the city.

Everyone calls it Saigon.

Operational efficiency (I.e. laziness) means it will be referred to as HCMC from now on :-)

But first:
I wasn't that keen on HCMC if I'm being honest. The second day was the better of the two, but I was glad to get on the road again. It's not that there's nothing to see here - but it's very very different from Cambodia, and the Mekong Delta.

Would I come here again? Yes - there's stuff worth seeing here, but it's not the best stop along the way.

So here we go:
The cheapest, most centrally located places to stay are in the "Backpacker Ghetto" of Pham Ngu Lao - which is wall to wall bars, tour offices, hotels, and westerner friendly restaurants. It was a bit of a shock to see bars full of westerners drinking Heineken!

To paraphrase one of the characters in Alex Garland's excellent novel The Beach: "Next time I see a Lonely Planet writer I'm going to tell them: There's nothing lonely about Pham Ngu Lao."

I'd decided to stay two days, and it really wasn't what I'd expected - and didn't match in any way the picture I'd built up in my mind of what the city would be. It suffers from Big City Syndrome in a big way.

Today I decided to walk around and cover the main sights. After a quick look in the market it was off to the Fine Arts Gallery.

It felt like someone had said, "I know - we need a fine arts gallery - go and set one up." There wasn't much that could be described as fine - and some of it couldn't be called art. Hardly anything in the three story building could justify both descriptions.

What there was felt like Propaganda Art: happy workers in the fields type pictures. Although the great thing about visiting the gallery was, that this is the first gallery I've ever been to where they had to switch the lights on as I went around so I could see the pictures. Kind of weird, and unique.

Here's a few random pictures of HCMC:







The opera house by day:



The opera house by night:



Inside the main post office - check out the picture of Ho Chi Minh on the wall in the back:



The Hotel De Ville: alleged to be the most photographed building in HCMC - here's another one to add to the tally:



I stopped in at a great place for lunch, which was a square building with a bar in the centre. On the outside there was a courtyard with tables and chairs, and around the outside of this, lots of little micro kitchens that each made a different type of food.

I ordered tofu with shrimp paste and noodles, and the guy said to me: "we have many other nice things on the menu, would you like to try something else". I told him that I was happy with the choice, and he kept asking me if I was sure. He told me they don't usually serve the shrimp paste to westerners as they don't like the smell or the taste.

I said I really really wanted to try it, so he set off to get it from the little kitchen place across the way. It was pretty good - although it did take some getting use to as it was a bit pongy and tasted a bit weird at first.

Here's one of the kitchens:



In the afternoon I went to the War Remnants Museum, which tells some of the history of the Vietnam War.

Much of the content was disturbing as you'd expect. What has happened in SE Asia is truly troubling, and one wonders how the area has returned to normality after so many terrible years.

But - it did feel as if the presentation was very one sided. As they say - there are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth. And it felt very much that this presentation only covered one side of the story. For example, there was hardly any mention of the South Vietnamese Army...it just felt like the "local people" versus America.

It's clear that the memories of this period are still raw in some peoples minds. Which is no surprise given some of the terrible terrible things that the American Government of the time did in Vietnam.

If you didn't know anything about the war in Vietnam, any visitor would think that the Americans had simply invaded and started killing innocent civilians. But in reality (as with most things in life), it was a bit more complicated than that.

Tanks at the War Remnants Museum:



From there, it was on to a different type of memorial.

One of the images that has always had a very powerful effect on me is the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức taken by the Journalist Malcolm Browne, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.

It's been re-produced many times, perhaps it's most famous reproduction is the album cover of the self titled album by Rage Against The Machine.

Here's the picture for anyone who may not have seen it.



Knowing I'd be in Saigon, I decided to go to the site where this picture was taken. It looks very ordinary, and apart from a small memorial, you'd never know that anything took place here. It's clearly not a place that's visited that often - it was an unusual experience standing on the corner of this busy street where such a powerful and iconic event in history took place.





That evening I decided to have a splurge - and having put on my best shirt - headed for the Sheraton and the bar on the 23rd floor. It has incredible views of the city, and I arrived just in time to watch the sun set.

It was a really really expensive treat - the glass of wine I had cost $14USD (about 10 pounds). To put it into perspective - my hotel room cost 1 US dollar less per night than the glass of wine - needless to say - I made it last.

Here's a pic from the top - it's slightly lop-sided - which is down to the fact that the balcony I was leaning the camera on for the long exposure shot wasn't level with the skyline. It had absolutely nothing to do with the wine :-)