And It's On to Vietnam

We entered Vietnam with some slight apprehension after a fairly consensus opinion that the locals here were not very friendly and our own intuition that Americans would get a particularly chilly reception in the country, but so far we have been pleasantly wrong on both accounts. Our first week in Vietnam has been awesome! We're going to limit this post to just Saigon and its surroundings, but suffice it to say that so far we've had a great time here. Let's start with the expected - the food has been sensational. We are pretty familiar with Vietnamese cuisine after living in SF and thus far the real stuff has not disappointed. What was more surprising is how accommodating if not friendly the people here have been. Guesthouse owners, moto-taxi drivers, the post office staff - for the most part, they have all been willing to lend a helping hand and to chat about the history and current state of their country. Although we hear that northern Vietnam is a bit less hospitable, we are thrilled with how we've been treated thus far.

We took the night bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon (officially named Ho Chi Minh City), arriving in the late morning/early afternoon. We spent our first day in the city getting oriented, which for us means finding out where our preferred eating spots would be. After scoping out the Pham Ngu Lao area (the city's main backpacker zone) we hoofed it over to the night market for some souvenir and fruit shopping and people watching. Our next day was spent taking in the city's tourist sites - although we have to say that we loved walking around and experiencing the city more than visiting the designated attractions in our guidebook. We started off with walk to the Reunification Palace, which serves as a reception, meeting, and residential quarters for state and foreign dignitaries. The site has historical significance dating back to the French colonial era and is most notable for marking the official fall of Saigon to the Northern Communist forces on April 30, 1975 when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates. We toured the grounds and the interior and, most importantly, watched a film about the history of the site and the Vietnam War in an air-conditioned room.

Reunification Palace

Having felt like we didn't get a proper dose of America bashing yet, we moved from the palace to the War Remnants Museum to delve further into the devastation of the Vietnam War. Although most of the exhibits were strongly propagandist in nature, we did learn a lot. Two of the more interesting exhibits were "Requiem" - a photologue of the landscape and people of Vietnam during the war that was put together by two American photographers - and an exhibition about the lasting effects of Agent Orange and other defoliation chemicals used by the Americans in their effort to clear out VC jungle hiding spots.

Artillery Shell Casing At the War Museum

We then took a lovely stroll through the Dong Khoi area - an upscale shopping and hotel area with many, lovely shaded streets full of cafes and galleries - eventually ending up at the river front. From the river we opted for the scenic route back to our guesthouse, stopping by the Notre Dame de Saigon cathedral and a colorful Hindu temple on the way.


Notre Dame Cathedral

Stained Glass Inside the Cathedral

Statue of One of the Many Gods At the Hindu Temple

A Relatively Tame Intersection In Saigon - Home To 12 Million People and 7 Million Motorbikes

Locals Hard At Work

Since Saigon is close to the Mekong River Delta, it is a great place to book tours to visit the "ricebowl of Vietnam." We opted for a two day one night tour that included a home stay with a local village family. The first day was spent boating around from island to island along the village where the locals where hawking anything from coconut taffy-like candy to snake wine. We did enjoy the boat rides through the town and villages, but for the most part, the day was wasted carting us around from one shop to another. We then met up with Mr. Chi, our host for the night. The home-stay turned out to be more of a house-stay, as in guesthouse, but we can't complain because we got a lovely ride through Mr. Chi's village on the way to his house, we got to chat with him for a bit about life on the Mekong, and we were led on a brief tour of the village and its agricultural fields by Mr. Chi's father. The real highlight of the home-stay though was the dinner. We were presented with a make your own spring roll kit that included rice paper wraps, some lettuce-like greens, warm pickled cabbage, noodles, and delicious steamed fish. It was fun to assemble our own food - putting to use the rolling technique we picked up in our cooking class - and it was obviously good eats. The next day we took a tour of the floating market, which is a collection of people selling grains and produce on the river directly from their boats. Each "stand" has a flag-pole with the products that it offers hung up so that shoppers - cruising along in their own boats - can identify which vendor is selling which product. We wrapped up the tour by visiting a workshop where they make rice paper and noodles and then took the drive back to Saigon. All in all, a pleasant outing.