I'm writing this Thursday, February 11 while it is still Wednesday evening in the U.S. One of the strange things we saw in Saigon (no one really calls it Ho Chi Minh City) was the Superbowl being received live on a large screen TV in the Vietnamese equivalent of a sports bar at 9 in the morning on Monday.
Whatever today's Vietnam is, it didn't meet any of my preconceptions. We approached the city from the Mekong Delta, making our way up the Saigon River as the sun rose on Sunday morning. There were mangrove and palmetto forests but there were also a lot of container shipping ports, oil refineries and cement plants. Intermixed with modern development were cobbled together wooden boats that were really motorized barges carrying rice, sand, flowers, melons and other things. The river twisted and turned. The city appeared in the distance to the front, then to the left, to the right and back. We gradually approached a city of older buildings being rapidly replaced with tall modern glass and steel. (We had tours every day - I'm finishing this account after returning home to Colorado.)
The Vietnamese government apparently believes that if one immigration officer can do the job, twelve or thirteen are even better. They have spiffy green uniforms. All appear to have at least four stars on their epaulets - they cant' possibly all be generals, can they? Most of them stood around watching the one officer who was actually doing something. I guess a socialist country has to ensure full employment and this is one of the ways they do. We finally disembarked after the immigration officers decided on a procedure. This entailed lengthy discussion amongst themselves and a cell phone call for guidance. They waited about ten minutes for an answer and then decided on their own to stamp our special visa documents and let us off the ship.
Michael and I had signed up for a basic tour of the city. The tour guide, a local, didn't give us any anti imperialist propaganda. He came across as up-beat and friendly. I had been concerned as Michael said that on his Vietnam visit fourteen years ago the tourists were subjected to incessant anti American speeches.
We visited the Rex Hotel, where western reporters hung out during the war. It's a modern, up-scale hotel today. On the other side of the same square we saw a yellow French Colonial building that our guide identified as the city hall. This is the historic Hotel de Ville, now officially, the People's Committee's Hall. No one ever calls it that. We then drove by the landmark Notre Dame Cathedral to the Post Office. The building is impressive. The Post Office was designed by the same Eiffel who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris and was erected by the French. It looks something like an elegant train station. It was interesting to note that the phones in the public telephone booths had been replaced with desk set models and two of the phone booths had been converted to ATMs. Not what I expected in a Communist dictatorship. About the only overt signs of the Communist government were banners in all Vietnam's public squares proclaiming the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Our next stop was the History Museum. On the way we passed by the War Remnants Museum. The guide, born after the Vietnam War, said that it was awaiting a new use as nobody was interested in old tanks any more. We passed the site of the former US embassy. There is a small US Consulate building; the old embassy building has been torn down.
The Museum of Vietnamese History was built in the French era. A beautiful French Colonial building houses exhibitions from the bronze age to the modern day. Our whirlwind tour hinted at the succession of civilizations that have inhabited the area. Michael and I were both impressed by the fact that Vietnam has been an occupied country or countries for most of its history. Our guide seemed most proud that the early Vietnamese defeated the Mongols by sinking the invaders' fleet with stakes below the water in the twelfth century. Other than that it would seem that their history is one of corrupt rulers, civil war and conquest by outsiders until the final victory of Ho Chi Minh in 1975.
Next we experienced a cyclo, also known as a tri-shaw or rickshaw ride to a lacquer factory. We each sat in a seat on the front of a three wheeled cycle. It was something else to be pedaled slowly through congested traffic of motor bikes, cars and trucks. I should have been frightened but I found it exhilarating weaving in and out of traffic. Saigon may have been quiet and sleepy a dozen years ago but it is now bustling with traffic. I had expected bicycles but they were rare. Our guide had mentioned that the cyclos were being phased out as new jobs were found for the men pedaling them. He told us that almost everyone has motor bikes. They are one of the few things that can be purchased on credit. The streets are thick with them. It was Sunday and traffic was a lot less than normal yet there was heavy congestion.
I'm sure the lacquer factory and later the Chinese market were the highlights of the tour from the point of view of the tour operator. A theme of all the tours in Vietnam was to allow multiple shopping opportunities. The lacquer factory produced exquisite work, even if it was a tourist trap. I purchased a small but beautifully made jewelry box. I paid in U.S. dollars. U.S. dollars are readily accepted throughout Vietnam. The inflation of the local currency, the dong, is so bad that hardly anyone uses the banks, there is a tremendous black market and even regular retail is often conducted with dollars. I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons the government is encouraging tourism is to get U.S. dollars, Euros and Chinese currency. Hawkers at all the tourist sites try to sell post cards and trinkets. Their cry is "One dolla, one dolla!"
From the lacquer factory we drove to Reunification Hall, the former presidential palace. It's first floor and basement are now a museum. A quick tour of the conference and dining rooms with a brief description of the events that lead to the end of the war from a decidedly non-western perspective, and we descended to the basement to view the war room and the ancient telecommunications equipment supposedly left by the Americans. Michael, who used 60's era ham equipment and knows this stuff well, said a lot of it was fake. The average age of the Vietnamese population is under 30 and not many are much interested in war relics. This set up was patently for the tourists.
Thien Hau Pagoda and Temple, while getting tourist revenue, is clearly a functioning Chinese temple. We entered the back way, through two adjoining buildings, and viewed this astonishing space filled with figurines and incense, dedicated to the Goddess protector of sailors.
Our tour concluded with a visit to Cholon, or Chinatown, the big market. We walked through a very crowded noisy market selling all manner of things. One thing hard to get used to was motorbikes driving everywhere. They were on the streets, on the sidewalks, even in the narrow passages between market stalls. Chinatown market in Singapore was somewhat similar but very reserved compared to Saigon. Here people haggled exuberantly. There appeared to be little order. Somehow people got where they needed to go and did what needed to be done despite the heat, noise and crowding.
We spent the evening on the ship's deck watching party boats leave and later return. There were a lot of them on Sunday night. Each was lit up fancifully. One was supposed to look like a shark with teeth painted in the front and fins painted on the stern,
They were floating restaurants. Some sailed with full tables, others with only a few patrons.
Monday we went on the shuttle bus by ourselves to downtown Saigon. We walked around a long block featuring an indoor mall and countless small shops. It was interesting to see noodle shops on every corner, sometimes several next to each other; each specializing in a different dish. Some of the shops were in store fronts. Others were ad hoc. The owners set up small plastic tables and stools on the sidewalk where patrons slurped noodles from inexpensive bowls. The meals were served from huge pots on the sidewalk, sometimes warmed by home made stoves made of cans. This occurred in the same block that had the sports bar with the 60 inch flat screen HDTV. There were electronics stores among the clothing boutiques.
I was also surprised by the number of small stores that had been converted into parking garages for motor bikes. The tiny garages were full. Bikes were parked on the sidewalk and into the street. The boulevard side of the block had larger stores and even an inside mall filled with merchandise aimed at tourists. I don't know how many stores sold $10 Rolexes and $7.00 Ralph Lauren Polo shirts. Certainly in the following days many Silver Shadow passengers sported them. A visit to the marble and glass lobby of the Rex hotel completed our trip to the city. I took lots and lots of pictures.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the ship watching the river traffic. Lunar New Year, Tet, was the coming Sunday. Small boats laden with fruit or flowers or small trees motored between the rice boats and freighters. Hydrofoil river taxis made their way up and down the river. Two small ferries crossed simultaneously in opposite directions every few minutes. They carried a lot of people with motor bikes. A lot of sand and earth was being moved by small boats. There is a project to build a tunnel under the Saigon River underway with cranes and barges in use.
We sailed out of Saigon just before dark Monday. I have great photos of the city turning into countryside. Again, the Vietnamese river villages were a surprise. Most had the look of small towns complete with streets and church spires. The buildings looked substantial. The population gradually thinned to the point where we saw only fishing shacks among the mangroves.
I have spent a lot of time on this Saigon entry. The city may be more vibrant than those in the north but the contrasts between backward and modern were apparent throughout the whole country. Everywhere the Vietnamese are reasonably well fed and well clothed. Most have cell phones and motor bikes. By any reasonable standards there is a growing middle class. The country is rebuilding, not so much from the war at this point as from the economic disasters of central planning and state confiscation of all private property. Much small business has been privatized. Yet it is still a dictatorship. New development projects are financed by joint ventures between the government and foreign firms. Individuals have no access to credit keeping private ventures small. It is definitely a work in progress.
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