VPs Blog: Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)

Good Morning Vietnam!

We are bright and early, looking forward to our first day in Vietnam, in the erstwhile capital of South Vietnam, Saigon. It is now called HoChiMin city, or Uncle Ho’s City. The city was renamed after the fall of Saigon (the North Vietnamese called it the liberation of Saigon).

We went up to the 11^th floor for breakfast. Nicely laid out restautrant with food for western as well as Vietnamese tastes. I decided to be a Vietnamese in Vietnam and went for the noodle soup and fried rice. Had a good hearty breakfast.

The plan was to do a city tour in the morning and a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels in the afternoon with a 1-hour break in between.

The Notre Dame Church

We headed out to the French quarter. First, we took a look at the Notre Dame cathedral. Beautiful construction. It took them 10 years to build it. We were told the bricks were imported from France by sea. The color of the stones is reddish. I don’t remember the Notre Dame cathedral having reddish stone. The floor plan is identical to the one in Paris. I was surprised to learn that there are still a large number of Catholics in Vietnam. In fact, our guide was himself catholic. We also saw Buddhist and Hindu temples. For a communist country, there was plenty of visible religion. I guess it is a brand of communism that tolerates religion.

The Post Office

Then there was the Post Office across the street from the Cathedral. It is a large building in the French style. It is typical of a Post Office in the olden days where inside the building the ceilings were high. I suppose they were high to keep the building cool during the hot season. There were phone booths that looked exactly like the ones in the post offices in Paris. I particularly liked the two maps on the wall on two opposite sides of Indo-China as the French colonies were called.

We got a bit of recap of history from our guide on this. It turns out that the French controlled Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and these were known under the name Indo-Chine. Vietnam and Saigon, in particular, were considered the crown jewel of their possessions. Saigon was in fact known as the Paris of the Orient. The city lay out is spread out with wide boulevards, plazas and colonial era buildings. We certainly did notice that the city was much, much cleaner than Siem Reap in Cambodia that we just left.

Motorcycle Mania

One defining characteristic of HoChiMin city is the large number of motorcycles, mopeds and scooters. We happened to be on the road during rush hour and saw the swarm of motorcycles. Despite so many 2-wheelers the traffic is smooth. The roads have a dedicated path for motorcycles on many of the major thoroughfares. What should be chaos but is not. Another important tip for pedestrians while crossing streets—start moving across slowly and steadily. Do not panic if it feels like you are getting killed. Do not go faster or slower. Steadiness is the key. Also, zebra crossings are not safer. When you are on a zebra crossing no vehicle is going to stop for you. But then the drivers seemed skilful in dodging humans as well other vehicles. From the bus I noticed a couple of close calls. But every one seems to just move on. Fascinating!

The Binh Tay market

We also visited an artisanal workshop where they were creating inlaid work with duck egg shells and mother-of-pearl. Beautiful artwork but pricey. There was a creation I liked that costed $3,300. A bit out of my price range. We then went to the Binh Tay market. This market houses thousands of small shacks selling everything from fish heads to fabric.

After a short break of about an hour, we were off to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. The Cu Chi area was the last terminal along the Ho Chi Min trail that ran from North Vietnam to the South. The trail mostly ran through Laos. It was an ancient trail that was put to use by the North Vietnamese to supply the Viet Cong fighting the South and the American groups. Cu Chi is very near Saigon, only about a 40 minute drive. The Vietcong dug a series of tunnels underground to serve as an escape route as well as for hiding from american troups. They also laid out ingenious booby traps to inflict maximum possible pain and a lingering death. They had elaborate construction to cook underground without revealing their presence with smoke.

We also had the experience of going down into a tunnel and coming out at the other end. We had a choice of 15m, 30m and 60m length tunnels. The guide suggested we do the 15m first. If we thought that was not challenging enough we could do the longer tunnels. We all agreed. The tunnels are extremely claustrophobia inducing. There are a series of steps to descend and then a very narrow tunnel twists and turns before coming out of the other end. One has to bend and stay bent while walking in a stooped position all the while. At the same time the tunnel is below ground, the air is suffocating and pretty soon you are drenched in sweat and desperate to get back about ground.