The Bright Lights of Saigon
Travel Location: Asia
Arrived in Saigon feeling none too shabby despite the journey – arrived in the early evening right in the heart of backpacker / tourist ville, with huge numbers of hotels, bars and tourists of all shapes and sizes. We spent a couple of days roaming the streets, which was pretty good fun, watching the city swarm around us with its busy inhabitants. The city didn’t have the charm of Hanoi, and even the manic streets weren’t quite the same with more zebra crossings and traffic lights – but crossing the road was still an event. And yes the moped still rules supreme (although definately more cars). The moped carries everything, some of the best were flower deliveries with massive bouquets obscuring the drivers view, and a tree delivery man, with a 2m tree strapped to the back. My personal favourite – on our last day I saw a moped carrying a massive saw blade, at least 2m long but coiled up and held on the moped with string. One crash and I don’t want to imagine the carnage. And then there are the people, Rach is doing well with her game of spotting the most people on a moped, up to 6 so far – mum driving with 5 kids all stacked on like books on a bookshelf….but with no book stop at the end!
The sites were impressive, from Ho Chi Minh City Museum, the French colonial cathedral, post office and opera house, markets and street markets. We did one bus trip to Cholon (the Chinese district) with huge numbers of beautiful, ornate pagodas in various states of repair and use, and incredibly busy streets including traditional herb and spice stalls with beautiful smells wafting out, although from God knows what. But it was the War Remnants Museum which really stuck out. Very well done displays, in particular a large number of photographs (including some of the most graphic I have seen, but also some incredibly stunning, if hard hitting, ones) from the large number of journalists who all died during the war. This really drove home how long Vietnam had been under war – internal, Chinese, Japanese, French, and of course US – most recently in the fight for reunification from 1950′s to 70′s. It showed the incredible extremes that were gone to in the name of halting communism, although a quote from Eisenhower in the 50′s, while the US were funding the French war, cited the need to maintain tungsten and tin resources for the US. In particular this included the massive use of chemicals without any consideration of the long term effects. This was dealt with very well in the museum, highlighting how it was not just the North Vietnamese who suffered (as the stuff was dropped on their heads) but also the US soldiers and their allies who simply handled the stuff – leaving the widespread and long term impact of birth defects. So far on our trip through Vietnam we have seen a large number of people missing limbs from mines etc. as expected, but also a large number of disabled and deformed, probably at least in part due to Agent Orange and its friends. The museum included some very touching photos and biographies of children and parents who are living with the effects.
To lighten the mood (!), we went to see the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre which was quite fun – very short traditional tales using ‘upside down’ puppets i.e. the puppets were controlled from below by poles and pullies etc (I presume!) which were under water. On the way from this back to the hotel, another great moment when Rach and I got invited in to the Mariamman Hindu Temple to join in a clebration of some sort, not sure what! At first we were dubious as we were given incense, expecting to be charged for something! And then the guilt kicks in when you realise it is just a kind offer and nothing sinister – you just get too used to be on gaurd (as you need to be). We were then talked through in broken english, and joined in a circular walk around the temple, depositing our lit incense sticks in 8 large pots of ash (presumably all from incense) at points around the edge, where others were in prayer. We got lots of smiles, although me, being a bit paranoid, kept thinking we were intruding.
Apart from that, we managed our usual three large meals a day to keep us going on our march through town!
