Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam (Post #84)
Hi! Michele here on Jan 30th….(in Cambodia now but catching up on Vietnam blogs)
We were pleased that everything went smoothly getting from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). On Jan 22nd, we took a 45 min taxi ride from Hoi An to Danang Airport then flew to Saigon and took a taxi into downtown Saigon. We had a business card of a hotel in “backpacker land” in Saigon that someone gave us so we just went there to see if they had a room. For $15, we got a great room on the top floor overlooking a busy street below. (See photo below.) The room included free breakfast and free dinner (dinner = fried spring rolls and noodle soup).
The first thing we had to do in Saigon was set up travel arrangements for the next week. This is when we learned how much TET (Vietnamese New Year) was going to affect things. We now have to leave Vietnam before we were planning to because everything shuts down for about 5 days during TET and if you’re in Vietnam, you’re going to be stuck in Vietnam. Tourist buses don’t run anywhere during this time – and although it might be culturally enriching, we wouldn’t think of taking the public buses. We’ve seen these public buses with loads of people and bags and boxes and bikes packed inside like sardines tightly squeezed together and there’s no air conditioning – I did mention how hot and humid it was here, right? In fact, the tourist buses are usually filled with half tourists and half Vietnamese people who also don’t want to take the public bus.
O.k., so this meant we would have only one full day in Saigon before heading to Mui Ne, Vietnam, a beach town we wanted to go to. During our one day in Saigon, we saw the city getting ready for the Chineese/Vietnamese New Year, which is on January 28th (at midnight). There are decorations everywhere and stages are being set up in the public parks. There are also large flower markets set up in town for people to buy flowers, flowering trees, and flowering plants for the New Year. The New Year decorations are different from ours in the states and typically involve a mixture of Christmas decorations, gold and red foil, and flowers. Here is a picture I took of some New Year’s decorations in a park: (Chuc Mung Nam Moi means Happy New Year in Vietnamese)
Unfortunately, we would not be able to go to the Cu Chi tunnels and do everything else we had to do during our one day in Saigon. This was disappointing but we had heard mixed reviews about the Cu Chi tunnel tour and exhibition. (FYI: The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Vietnamese for fighting/hiding during the Vietnam war.)
The night we arrived in Saigon (Jan 22nd) we went out to dinner and, even in the restaurants, sellers come in and walk right up to your table where they try to sell you everything and anything. You can’t go 5 minutes without a seller coming to your table. We were offered lighters, hats, perfume, books, books, and more books, newspapers, clothing, and an assortment of drugs including pot, cocaine, and opium.
The next day (on Jan 23rd) we bought tickets for a bus going from Saigon to Mui Ne, scheduled to leave at 7:00pm, so we had the day to spend in Saigon. After changing our flight from Singapore to New Zealand (cutting a week out of South East Asia and adding a week to our upcoming travels in New Zealand), we headed to the War Remnants Museum. The museum highlighted the ugliness of this war. There was a special exhibit of the “tiger cages” where prisoners of war were shakled and tortured and there were several buildings of photographs by Vietnam photographers, most of whom were eventually killed during the war. There were also pictures of young children born with birth defects due to the parents’ exposure to Agent Orange (that’s what the captions to the photos said). Agent Orange was a defoliant dropped by American planes. Photos of men, women, and children who were victims of napalm were also displayed as were photos of women, children, and old Vietnamese villagers who were either being tortured, were scared out of their minds or were laying dead in their village or the streets. A very clear photo that stands out in our minds is one of an American soldier holding a piece of a Vietnamese man’s body. The piece included a head, shoulders, and part of a shirt. There was also a photo of Americans standing around several Vietnamese heads that had been cut off. These photos were pretty shocking. (Of course that was the idea.) My personal opinion is that the exhibit was fairly one-sided and didn’t mention any of the atrocities commited by the North Vietnamese.
At night we left for Mui Ne, Vietnam on the 7:00pm bus. Read the next blog for more on that fun bus ride….
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Tags: Category #22: Vietnam
Michele Harmon
Hey, thanks for the Laotian postcard – we’ve got quite a collection on the Buzz Board here at Westat!
Don’t sweat skipping the Cu Chi tunnels – they’re interesting, but they would probably rank pretty low compared to all the other exciting stuff you’ve been up to!
have you any advice on hotels or hostels in vietnam in ho chi minh city? any recomondations?