Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Daron filling in for a water vendor!

With over nine million residents, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam.  Prior to the Vietnam War, the city was called Saigon.  On April 30, 1975, the date the Vietnam War ended, the city came under the control of the Vietnamese People’s Army.  Among those fighting for the south, this event is commonly called the “Fall of Saigon,” while the communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam (or the north) calls it the "Liberation of Saigon.”  In the U.S. we know this war as the “Vietnam War,” while here in Vietnam it is known as the “American War.”  

Reunification Palace and liberating tank

There are no tuk tuks in Vietnam, so our only choice for transportation here is a taxi, a cyclo (bicycle rickshaw), or a motorbike.  The taxis are too much money for short distances and the cyclos are way too slow – plus only one person can ride a cyclo so we would need two, and we could probably walk faster than they could cycle us around.  So we’ve been taking motorbikes wherever we need to go.  They don’t put both of us on the same motorbike like they did in Cambodia.  We always get our own driver and a helmet (which never fits me, it’s usually fallen to the back of my head halfway through the ride).  I’m starting to like riding on the back of a moto – the drivers are confident and know how to get around the traffic – I (almost) always feel safe, and it’s such a thrill!  I wouldn’t want to drive one myself as I’m sure I’d get in an accident.  The traffic in Saigon is crazy, and yet somehow it seems to work.  Here the sidewalks are fair game, especially during rush hour when they are teeming with motorbikes.  Nobody but us crazy tourists walk around town – and crossing the street is like taking your life into your hands!  We’ve learned to cross at a slow and steady pace – the motos just buzz around you like bees.

Don't push that button!  ;)

Speaking of taxis, we heard a few horror stories about them during our time here.  They like to prey on unsuspecting tourists, either by not using the meter and overcharging or by using the meter and then interpreting the amount due with an extra zero.  Friends of ours had a taxi driver try to tell them the meter that showed 65,000 dong ($3.25) due was actually 650,000 dong ($30.25)!  With their wallet out ready to pay, they were protesting, and the taxi driver reached over and swiped all their money out of the wallet!  After heated words, they got their money back, although they are not sure if they got all of it.  This is not an isolated incident, as we heard of this happening to others too. 

War Remnants Museum

The money here in Vietnam is called the dong and 20,000 dong is worth roughly $1.  The smallest note we used was 500 dong, although Daron did find a 200 dong note on the ground one day.  It seems that everything is rounded to the nearest thousandth, so we rarely used the 500 dong notes and ended up giving away the 200 dong note.  The denominations most commonly used are 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, and 500,000.  We never used coins and rarely even saw them - the only time we did was when Daron found a 200 dong coin on the ground (he's really good at finding money!). American dollars are also used here - in fact, many prices are quoted in U.S. dollars.  The ATMs here spit out dong and not U.S. dollars like in Cambodia.  We stocked up on U.S. money before we left Cambodia just in case, which I'm glad we did.   

Actual war remnants

During our time here we visited the Reunification Palace, which was once the symbol of the South Vietnamese government.   On that fateful day (April 30, 1975) North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the grounds and the South Vietnamese government officially surrendered to the North.  The building seems to have been frozen in time – not much has changed since that day.  The most interesting part of the building was the basement, which looked like command central with giant maps on the walls, old radios, rotary phones, and even manual typewriters!  Has technology ever changed!   

We also visited the War Remnants Museum, which used to be called the American War Crimes Museum before many of the foreigners complained about the name.   It was quite the gruesome place, with terrible photos of wartime atrocities, all performed by Americans.   There was photo after photo of “here is another American doing x and y” and “yet another American doing…”  Not a very pretty picture of us Americans.  It was a very one-sided view, as I know that similar acts were performed by the North Vietnamese as well.  As they say, the victors get to write the history books.  As they also say, war is hell, which this museum definitely proved.  I was almost afraid to speak in the museum as I didn’t want anyone to hear that I had an American accent – that was a first on this trip!  There was a whole exhibit on Agent Orange that was also very sobering.  It showed the effects of the poison on generations born after the war – mutations, deformities, etc.   Most inspiring were the people who had become successful despite their handicaps – one was a famous artist, and another a successful writer.   If nothing else, the museum showed how terrible war is. 

At Cafe Zoom, our favorite place to watch traffic!

On to another less depressing subject – we are finally in a country with good coffee, which Daron and I are both happy about.  The Vietnamese make excellent coffee, and are even famous for their “weasel coffee,” where the coffee beans are fed to weasels and then harvested from their droppings.  We didn’t have the pleasure of trying this type, as the regular stuff was good enough for us.  The rest of our time in Saigon was spent eating the local food (love the fresh springrolls!), wandering around the neighborhoods, and our favorite pastime – watching the traffic!  I cannot get enough of watching all the buzzing motorbikes – it looks like total chaos and yet somehow it all works!