Saigon is our last destination and we spend three relaxing and enjoyable days there. The city is clean and efficient, and full of contrasts. For example, the grand old main Post Office in 19th century French colonial style, crowned by a modern (and much less beautiful) communication tower.
Next to it, facing the same square, is Notre Dame cathedral, symbol of another French heritage—catholicism. Right behind it the ultra-modern glass front of a big hotel.
A similar example is right in front of some American-owned hotels, the monument to Tran Hung Dao, a popular hero ever since in the 13th century he defeated a half-a-million strong Chinese invasion force under Kublai Khan. A gentle reminder that the Vietnamese have a long history of defeating major powers...
We visited a number of museums, including the War Remnants Museum (formerly called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes). This museum is, apart from a small introductory propaganda section, mostly a display of the war (to a lesser degree the French War and mostly about the "American War" as the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War). It focuses on the war's effect on the population via pictures and text excerpts originally published in the Western print media—a very impressive and depressive exhibition. They also had a few artifacts like US tanks, air planes and bombers all duly with war damage.
We also visit the Ho Chi Minh War Museum, which is interesting for completely different reasons. The museum is dedicated to the battle leading to the fall of Saigon in 1975. It is clearly a propaganda piece set up soon after for the indoctrination of the South Vietnamese. There is very little explanation in English, almost everything is labelled only in Vietnamese. On request the guards turn on an English version of a video that explains the battle. However, the video is so badly deteriorated that we understand almost nothing. The video is symptomatic for the whole museum, which is very run down and looks like no work has been done to it for decades. Clearly, Vietnam has moved on.
Right across the road from the museum is an incredible atrocity of a building, whose original purpose escapes us but which is clearly no longer in use. Fortunately, we don't see many of this kind otherwise in Saigon.
Even the central parts of the city have many beautiful small alleyways.
There are some impressively-proportioned buildings: Narrow, one-room-wide buildings not unlike Sydney terrace houses, but 5-7 stories tall, and often free-standing (at least the upper levels), leaving the observer wondering whether the houses left and right went missing somehow ;-) The Saigonese also don't shy away from throwing in some almost pop-art design—not only a contrast to the existing architecture but even more an indication of the lively, hip nature of the city.
The massage in the hotel, quite pricey by Vietnamese standards, is a big disappointment, and seems to be mostly a pretext to selling other services. The next day we locate a Blind Massage place tucked away in one of these alleys, where we make up for the previous day's disappointment.
Our hotel is right in the centre, across from the Hilton, which has "White Christmas" oozing out of it. Nice and appropriate ;-) just like the reindeer running around the Saigon Centre across from our favourite café. Incidentally, iced coffee there means strong coffee freshly brewed at the table, poured over ice cubes, and condensed milk added.
Our general impression of Saigon confirms the first impression that we got of Vietnam. Saigon seems somewhere halfway between Hong Kong and Singapore. It is clean and quite organised (compared to where we have been the past two weeks). This is, in particular, clearly evident in the food section of the market, which seems to be clean and fairly hygienic.
In spite of repeated warnings about pick-pockets, we have no evidence whatsoever that this is a real issue. Like in all the other places we were, we never got the impression that anyone was trying to cheat us, even in some of the explicitly mentioned hot spots. In Saigon it could have been part of a general cleanup, as Vietnam was preparing to host the 21st South-East-Asia Games, which started the day we left. It was the first time the SEA Games were held in Vietnam, and they were clearly set on leaving a good impression. Certainly, the whole city looked very neat and clean, including plenty of garbage bins. (We wonder, does hay bo rac vao thung mean "do the right thing"? And check that tidy, orderly bike park: all wheels turned in the same direction :-)
We also noticed their efficient way of moving motorcades with official parties very quickly through the dense traffic—uniformed police pop up seemingly out of nowhere, traffic lights all turn red and the convoy moves through swiftly. The sort of stuff authoritarian regimes tend to do well...
In Saigon we are, for the first time, on our own for dinner, no guide. Not a problem, of course, as we can at least read the menus! Also, many people speak reasonable English. We end up in a small place around the corner from the hotel, which, surprisingly, didn't seem to attract any other westerners.
On the last morning we go for quite a hike and walk all the way to the main train station. It turns out not to be the big bustle and commotion as we had expected, but a relatively low-key affair. But it has only a dozen or so train departures per day, so it isn't a major traffic hub.
For our last meal in Vietnam (Sunday lunch) we go to a soup place (which, as we find out, has fed President Clinton when he visited Saigon). We feast on our favourites from Newtown's Thanh Binh restaurant: Pho Thai for Gernot and Bun Thit Bo Xao for Trudy!
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