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Sunday, April 01, 2007

[Sat 24 March 2007 - Ho Chi Minh City]

Ho Chi Minh City, I'm in love with it! Its smell, noisy streets and taste... all so nicely blended to make up a city as it moves gradually away from a third world status.

A warm and dense air greeted us as we emerged from Tan Son Nhat International Airport. 20 minutes' taxi ride took us to Pham Ngu Lao Street - full of backpackers, where we called home to Que Huong Liberty 3 Hotel for the next 3 nights. Jv and I had our first attempt crossing the notorious road of Pham Ngu Lao to the other side of the road where our hotel was located. Thanks to the bellhop who spotted us from opposite, and came to our assistance.

The chaotic traffic conditions are perhaps the first culture shock that any tourists to Ho Chi Minh City will experience. But the trick to crossing the roads with countless bikes and cars from all directions is to 'continue walking in a slow pace WITHOUT EVER turning back.' The traffic will divert itself away from you, mysteriously.

Stylo woman on scooter

Still early for check-in, we walked a short distance to Sinh Cafe to book tours for the next 2 days - Cu Chi Tunnel and Mekong Delta.

One could feel the pulse of the city at Cholon - Chinatown of Ho Chi Minh City. Bought some Vina banana chips at Binh Tay Market, which also sells outdated fashions, dried food stuff and sundries. Here I tried Vietnam's famous Banh Cang Cua - or pork noodle soup.

Outside Binh Tay Market, Cholon

Banh Canh Cua

We returned to the hotel for check-in, and unfortunately, got a low-floor on the 4th level. So as we retired each night on the hotel bed, it was as though we were sleeping alongside the noisy streets. I couldn't have fallen asleep without my 'zopiclone' (or sleeping pills).

Without further delay, we got ourselves to the Reunification Palace. 30 April 1975 saw Communist tanks from North Vietnam smasing through it gates as Ho Chi Minh (president of North Vietnam) took over the south, henceforth renaming Saigon as Ho Chi Minh City. At the basement was a tunnel and radio station used during war time.

View of Reunification Palace from entrance

Banquet Room - North Vietnamese seat on the left, South Vietnamese on the right

Total figures of soldiers from different areas

From the palace, our handy city map guided us to the War Remnants Museum. Housed in a former United States administration building, this is one of the most popular and sobering museums in the city. Photographs depicting the injured and dead at the hands of the French and American forces are both haunting and sickening.

War remnants

Victims of war

Thorxo abdermine pagus

Belongings of a dead woman

Suspected Viet Cong being rounded up aboard helicopter by U.S. Marines for interrogation

The massacre at Huong Dien

"A little girl who had been set afire by napalm
ran in pain and terror along with other children.
Her arms were swung out
to relieve the pain of her burned flesh.
She was sent to the
Centre for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Her name, it was reported,
is Phan Thi Kim Phuc.
She is 9 years old.
A half dozen children came running out.
A girl held a small boy by the hand.
The oldest among them was
a boy of about twelve
in a white shirt and dark shorts.
He pleaded 'Help my sister!'"

(Extracted from The Girl in the Picture written by Denise Chong)

The photo was a Pulitzer Prize award winner.

Our visit to the History Museum was a fruitless one, as we doesn't seem to comprehend the exhibits which dated back to even the prehistoric era. The last dynasty that ruled Vietnam was the Nguyen Dynasty. That's all I know.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed a Water Puppet Show at the theatre situated within the museum (at separate charge). Fighting and footballing dragons and dogs as well as life-like people puppets are brought to life with grace, precision and power on the surface of the water. Simply a traditional Vietnamese art form.

We commenced our actual walking tour to the following:-

Somehow this tree reminded me of my trip to Angkor

1. U.S. Consulate - formerly the U.S. Embassy where the most dramatic scenes of the final days of the war played out as Marine guards tried to keep thousands of desperate South Vietnamese from mobbing the helicopters evacuating personnel from the roof-top.

U.S. Consulate - no photographs allowed but I hid behind a tree out of view from the security officer

2. Diamond Plaza - selling high-end goods; Mont Blanc is one of them. It was a quick stop for us as we simply have no pennies to purchase them.

Old set amidst the new

Entrance to Diamond Plaza

3. General Post Office - the oldest post office in Vietnam, with a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh hung in the centre. Telephone booths here are air-conditioned, so sitting in them are a good escape from the city heat.

4. Notre Dame Cathedral - just across the General Post Office, this cathedral was designed by Gustav Eiffel, the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was built between October 1877 and April 1880 at a cost of 2.5 million French francs.

5. Dong Khoi Street - with numerous elegant boutiques selling the finest Vietnamese skills, pottery and other crafts. Hard as it may be to believe today, North Vietnamese tanks rolled down this very street on April 20 1975 and soon after, most of the stores were shuttered as the new nation plunged into a decade-long economic slump.

Ho Chi Minh Museum

We popped by at Lemongrass Restaurant (recommended by Frommer's travel guide) along Nguyen Thiep Street, having our first Vietnamese spring rolls dipped in fish sauce, salad with pork/prawns, seafood fried rice, sauteed chicken with cashew nuts and morning glory.

We continued our walk to Nguyen Hue Boulevard (another shopping street) before stumbling upon the People's Committee Building. The exquisite former Hotel de Villle built for the French bureaucrats of Indochina in 1901 houses a statue of Ho Chi Minh, remarkably known as "Uncle Ho."

People's Committee Building, with 'Uncle Ho' guarding the entrance

We parambulated along Le Loi Street, ending up at Ben Thanh Market. Clothes, shoe and fabric dominate the front, before giving over to kitchenware, cooked food and fresh vegetables. I bought 1kg of Trung Nguyen coffeebeans for around S$35.00. Vietnam is known for its Vietnamese coffee!

Ben Thanh Market at night

After figuring for quite some time the direction to our hotel, we finally reached the doorstep of the hotel. I was so reluctant to rely on taxis, even though they were cheap. I enjoyed walking alot, and got increasingly exhilarated crossing the formidable traffic.

Labels: First Taste of Vietnam

|Melvin Ng| 3:00 pm|