Saigon a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh City

The drive from Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) takes you through the Mekong Delta where towns are situated directly on the river banks and boats are constantly on the move with goods or people. We had to cross the river with the ferry, and had to wait for about an hour to get on because it was so crowded (and they had more than one ferry going at the same time). The landscape is made up of water or rice fields - and this stretches for kilometers on end! All the people seem to have a purpose and are pursuing some sort of work/acitivity. In comparison to Cambodia there seems to be much more activity and more people out on the streets. When we drove through the countryside in Cambodia you could hardly see anybody working in the fields; instead many could be seen lying in hammocks in their homes. Somehow Vietnam just looks more productive - whether that really is the case or not, I do not know.

Arriving in HCMC is an experience in itself; all of a sudden there is a great influx in the number of mopeds speeding around and the buildings go from simple huts to huge skyscrapers in a modern city. The contrast to the countryside is huge! When walking around the city it is clear that there is a very large amount of development going on, most of the old buildings are being knocked down and redeveloped. The government relocates the tenants and gives them 1/5th of the market price of the value for their properties and then redevelops the land into modern office buildings or shopping complexes and some apartments. The classes of people also vary greatly - some walk - or rather drive - around in designer clothes and go to expensive places, where others seem like they can barely make a living. I think that's probably really a sign of the speed with which the city has developed and how quickly the economic position of Vietnam has risen. Maybe a bit too fast for its people to keep up?

Walking in central Saigon is like walking on any European high end shopping street, with all the high end fashion stores lining the road. The difference being in the huge amount of mopeds flying by from all directions, the odd old house that's still there and communist flags everywhere. It's quite funny if you think of it - this capitalist communism! The central market is a reminder of what Asian culture is like - with lots of food stalls in the centre. The stalls themselves, however, seem to solely cater towards tourists and so being hassled is inevitable. We did have some good food at the market though!

Our second day in HCMC started early, with our guide picking us up in the morning for a walking tour of the city. We started off with a walk through the park where we found many people doing their morning exercise - there is free open air gym equipment and it seems that there are many classes, raning from dance to tai chi. Our guide told us that the majority of the people who come to exercise are middle aged women who want to make sure they still look good for their husbands so that they don't stray. I must say that there were quite a lot of men there too though! Daily exercise seems to be a common thing in Vietnam and is integrated into most people's lifestyles (at least in the city). After walking through the park and feeling bad about myself for not doing any exercise at all, we walked on towards the War Memorial Museum.

The museum is full of Vietnam war memorabilia, including posters of solidarity from all over the world. The American and Vietnamese war planes and tanks were also on show - the inequality in terms of military strength was crazy. Of course the museum is also filled with many stories of the families that were affected and the long lasting effects of agent orange. These can still be witnessed today in people on the street with a variety of  genetic deformities that were clearly passed on by parents who had been exposed to it. Reading all these stories and seeing the pictures honestly made me feel quite sick and I eventually had enough and left.

We then walked to the Reunification Palace where the Southern Vietnamese ran their government from until the Northern troops invaded, took over the South and then unified the country again. Our guide did mention that there are still significant discords between the Northerners and Southerners and that they generally did not like each other. He married a Northern girl (he did not know that she was from the North until they were getting engaged); it took him two years to convince his parents that it was ok for him to marry her and that it made a difference that she had grown up in the South. This just goes to show that although the country is officially unified, the people - or at least many of them - still don't identify with the reunification.

Also in central HCMC are the Notre Dame de Saigon church that was built by the French, who solely used materials that they had imported from France, and the Post Office, also a French building that is still used today.

When we finished the walking tour, we checked out of our hotel and went and found a nice local place to have lunch. As usual, the food was great and we ate a lot! We then went and relaxed in the park for a while, getting back to the hotel just before it started storming. In the evening we caught the night train to Nha Trang.