Saturday Night in Saigon
I really had no idea what to expect when I visited Vietnam in 1998. The palpable energy I found in the streets of Saigon was only one of several surprises.
Feb. 14, 1998
Thinking ahead when I was teaching English to Vietnamese students in Dallas, I kept the name of someone to contact in Saigon. He and a friend wanted to show me Saturday night in Saigon. It is a riotous affair. The usual chaotic traffic patterns around the rotary intersections swell to bursting with the New York Rockette style of bikes, etc. slipping through the ever-moving line of traffic with an amazing and perplexing confidence.
“Vietnam — wonderful,” said my young Vietnamese companions with a look of joy on their faces. There is a hope, optimism, high-spirited, and fun-loving nature to these people who have gone through so much pain. Perhaps the insecurity of their lives makes them willingly, and even joyously “careless” as one of my new friends noted. They drive themselves into a good-natured frenzy of motorbikes, bicycles, and motorcycles. While old people were not too visible, children were everywhere, lining the sidewalks, parks, and islands in the middle of highways. Couples sat along curbsides looking for all the world like they were in privacy and solitude. I enjoyed the buoyancy and energy of it all from the seatbelt of my taxi.
Tags: Ho Chi Minh City, Travel, Vietnam; energy of Vietnam
