Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

As soon as we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), I new that this was different than any other place I'd seen in Vietnam to date. First of all, there were more motorbikes (scooters) than I had ever seen before- estimated by one local as 1 for every 4 people in the city- men, women, and children. The fluid but slow movement of traffic was a clue to the bustling activity that lay ahead. The city shows clear signs of development, with skyscrapers and automobiles, and stores selling genuine Nike and Louis Vuitton goods instead of the knock-offs you see in all the markets in the rest of the country. There is a clear sense that Vietnam is on the move, and it's all being driven by this city, whose residents still use the name Saigon in daily discourse.

We started our trip with a view from the 9th floor penthouse bar of a hotel, watching the sunset from that height lended a sense of serenity to the city that stirred beneath (even though the drink prices clearly reflected the corporate clientele). After a delicious dinner of grilled squid in a low-key but excellent restaurant, we returned to our hotel to rest up.

The next day, we decided to get a better sense of the history of Vietnam, and visited the Reunification (a.k.a. Independence) Palace. This was a large building with distinctive modern architecture that went through the tumultuous changes surrounding the war, and it's peculiar history is marked by the map rooms and bunkers that are interlaced with corporate looking conference rooms and imperial sleeping quarters.

Afterwards, we moved on to the War Remnants Museum, which offers a harrowing perspective on the atrocities that were committed during what Americans refer to as the Vietnam War. A collection a weapons, artifacts and photographs all paint a grim and sobering picture of the horrible things that result from war. This was a no-holds-barred collection, including a few unborn babies preserved in formaldehyde to demonstrate the birth defects caused by agent orange. It was gut wrenching, and even though I wasn't even alive when it all happened, made me feel guilty just for being an American.

We decided that we needed to clear our heads from the weighty content of that days activities, and went for massages as the local blind massage school. For around 4-5 dollars, you can get a professional quality, muscle-melting massage from a blind masseur, and all the profits go to maintaining the program which supports the blind community- it was good for the body and the soul. On my way out, I passed a hair salon and decided that my thick, curly hair was not cut out for the weather (or the hygiene) that accompanies backpacking in Southeast Asia. The haircut was great, and included a 10 minute shampoo and head massage- all for under 5 bucks. Feeling vastly more relaxed and refreshed, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.

The next day, we took a tour of the Mekhong Delta (see next post), and returned to HCMH in the evening. We were meeting with a friend-of-a-friend, Trung, who lived in the city and promised to show us around. We ate at a great seafood restaurant, enjoying oysters, crab cakes, and a dish of shrimp surrounded by a ring of fire. It was quite a show. He then brought us to a club, which, as the night went on, rapidly filled up with a young, fast, and beautiful crowd that spent their money liberally on drinks. This was a scene I could not have imagined anywhere else in the country, and further solidified the city's place in my mind as a beacon of rapid growth and modernity. We thanked Trung for showing us the city from a local's perspective, and then went back to our hotel, overstimulated and exhausted at the same time.