miss (and mr.) saigon

Some weeks ago, Aman and I touched down in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), the port of entry for our Vietnam adventures.  We were pretty excited.  More accurately, I was borderline giddy.  For no particular reason (other than the love of travel to interesting places), I have been fascinated with Vietnam for quite awhile now.  When I told Aman, over a year and a half ago, that I wanted to travel to Vietnam someday, he told me that he wanted to check it out too.  I bought him a Lonely Planet Vietnam guidebook for the holidays that year, just in case we might need it some day…

Excited as we were, Aman and I did not intend on spending much time in HCMC.  We had plans to depart via Hanoi in three weeks, and there were too many other towns/cities we wanted to see along the way while we were in Vietnam.  (Plus, we were planning a seven-day motorcycle ride around the northwest.)  We had heard that the cheapest and easiest way to travel north within Vietnam was to take the open bus.  Thus, our first priority after we arrived in HCMC was to procure our open bus tickets. 

We hit the streets of HCMC on a pleasant afternoon in search of a booking agent.  And when we say the streets, we literally mean the streets.  You can’t really walk on the sidewalks in HCMC (at least not in many parts), because they are packed with, among other odds and ends, (a) clusters of women in conical hats selling fresh fruit and drinks, (b) miniature tables and chairs set up for the multitude of sidewalk “restaurants” serving up Vietnamese street food, and (c) and dozens and dozens of parked scooters/motorbikes. 

In fact, one of the first things that struck us about HCMC as we walked around that day was the amount of two-wheeler traffic.  The roads were PACKED with an endless procession of motorbikes.  Even Aman who had grown up in India had never seen so many motorbikes on the road at once!  This made crossing the street into an interesting experience.  You see, it requires some degree of strategy – you have to allow some traffic to pass in front of you, and some to pass in back, as you make your way very carefully, one step at a time, to the opposite side of the street.  If you made a mad dash for it (as one would do in India, for example), you would be asking to get hit – the roads are so packed with two-wheelers in Vietnam that the drivers would have no time to react in any other way.

After a good long walk on the busy streets, we finally reached a slew of travel agents that sold open bus tickets.  We opted for a ticket that would allow us to travel north from HCMC to Mui Ne, and beyond – to Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, and Hue (at which point, we planned to jump on a plane to Hanoi).  The big advantage of the open bus is that you can get off in any city and spend as much time there as you want, before moving onward (you just call the bus company the day before you want to leave to make a reservation).  And, for $40 per person, it was a no-brainer for us.

By the time we had arranged our tickets, it was dark and we started making our way back to the Dong Khoi area where we were staying.  We had heard that the Sheraton, which was right across the street from our hotel, had a great rooftop bar with amazing views of the city at night, and we felt compelled to check it out.  When we got there, we sipped our drinks and talked mostly about how developed Saigon is, way more than we thought it would be.  More like Bangkok than Phnom Penh, with giant skyscrapers bearing corporate logos and high-end retail boutiques in the upscale Dong Khoi neighborhood. 

After soaking in the colorful nocturnal skyline, Aman and I went off in search of pho, a national culinary favorite of the Vietnamese (pronounced fuh), which is basically a big bowl of seasoned broth, flat rice noodles, spring onions and either beef (pho bo) or chicken (pho ga).  At the recommendation of Lonely Planet, we tried Pho 24.  Sadly, it was probably the most tasteless of the many bowls of pho that we ate during our time in Vietnam, and I plan on writing a letter to Lonely Planet about this…

We started the next day with a half-day tour of the nearby tunnels of Cu Chi, which we booked the day before.  Unfortunately, I was tasked with waking us up on time that morning and completely misunderstood that we needed to be downstairs and ready to be picked up by 8 a.m., not simply up at 8 a.m.…  Huge rush to get ready.  We ran downstairs and took our complimentary breakfast to go, packing two little plastic containers to the brim and carrying our iced coffees away, as they were served, without any lids in thin plastic bags.  We were so proud of ourselves for making it downstairs only ten minutes late.  Naturally, there was someone else in our hotel on the tour who we waited on for another ten minutes… the irony of it.

The tunnels themselves were very interesting.  The biggest plus was learning about the history of the tunnel system, which was used by the Viet Cong to simultaneously fight and evade detection by the Americans during the Vietnam War (or the American War, to the Vietnamese), and the surrounding vicinity of Cu Chi, which was completely devastated by the war.  The extensive network of tunnels (complete with hidden trapdoors, weapons factories, kitchens, and living quarters) originally stretched over 250 kilometers in the district of Cu Chi (some have collapsed since they were built), and was, at times, dug three levels deep.  The only minus about the tunnels is that they are very, very touristy.  But, we expected that, so it was okay.  We knew that the tunnels, indeed, had been modified from their original state (i.e., enlarged) for tourism purposes.  This is probably a good thing since we got claustrophobic after being in the tiny, tiny passageway for only 20 meters (they allow you to go up to 100 meters, but there are exits every 20 meters).  In addition to exploring the tunnels, they also have a shooting range where you can fire machine guns and AK47s.  The sound of gunfire in the background makes for quite an eerie/dramatic effect as you tour the dense, green forest where the tunnels are located and where the war took place.

When our tour was completed, we went back to the city, opting to get dropped off at centrally located Benh Thanh market.  We wanted to check out the market, but also (and more importantly), there was another pho place nearby that we wanted to try – Pho 2000, which got its claim to fame after a visit from former U.S. President Bill Clinton.  After getting let off in the market area, it took us a few minutes to get oriented amidst the stalls of food and drink vendors lining the corners of the marketplace, and scooters whizzing by.  Aman studied the map, as I looked for street signs.  All the while, a group of shopkeepers kept pointing us in the direction of the market.  From what I could tell, they were genuinely trying to help us and thought we were looking for the market, which is a fairly popular destination for tourists.  I just kept politely shaking my head, I didn’t have the words (in Vietnamese) to explain that we were looking for a specific pho joint, or much confidence that they knew where Pho 2000 was located among the crowded shops.  

We eventually made it there on our own.  Consistent with all of the other restaurants on this block, Pho 2000 was a cheap, no-frills kind of place, with photos of menu items (and Bill Clinton) decorating the otherwise bare walls.  The tabletops were made of a hard plastic, and each one had a canister of spoons and chopsticks sitting on top.  A handful of flies were constantly present, which has not been that unusual for us lately...

We pointed to pictures of spring rolls (quite possibly, the most popular food item in Vietnamese restaurants) and pho bo, and put up two fingers.  Minutes later, we were served.  Talk about a huge improvement from the night before, we thought the pho was delicious.  We garnished it with fresh mint leaves, red chilies and lime (a common practice), and dug in.  Pho heaven.

After lunch, we embarked upon a mini-walking tour, which we tailored from a much longer walking tour suggested by Lonely Planet (that didn’t work for us, because we had already seen half of what they suggested while we were walking around the night before).  We made our way first – through the stifling heat, the scooter/motorbike traffic and the street food vendors – to the War Remnants Museum, which we had heard good things about.  Along the way, I was tempted to buy a traditional Vietnamese conical hat, a widely available retail item.  But common sense told me that I didn’t have the capacity to carry it around, so I resisted.  That didn’t stop me from trying a couple on though...

The War Remnants Museum was very worth the visit.  It is a three-story building, mostly filled with (amazing) photography of images from the Vietnam (American) War.  I was especially moved by part of the museum that was dedicated to journalists who lost their lives in the war.  Several of the photos on display were taken from the last canister of film that was found on the journalists before they were killed.  There was also a gallery devoted to the third- and fourth-generation effects of Agent Orange, which was a startling reminder about the unintended consequences of war.

We ambled back in the direction of our hotel after a couple of hours of walking around the museum, enjoying the sight of the scooter/motorbike traffic that continued to fill the streets at every turn.  Our plans were to relax for a little while and freshen up before hitting Sheridan’s, the most popular (of three) Irish pubs in HCMC.  The occasion:  St. Patty’s Day.

Sheridan’s was a scene.  We got there fairly early in the evening, and it was packed with folks who looked as though they had already had a Guinness or three.  A traditional Irish band was setting up on one side of the modest-sized room.  Waitresses flew by left and right trying to keep up with the orders, and the place continued to fill after we arrived.  At first, it was impossible to find a seat.  But, we spied a table with four chairs that was only occupied by two people.  Aman asked the couple if we could join, and they kindly obliged.  By this time, the band was really going.  Some girls were dancing (a very drunken) jig, while the men in their party sung along to the music in a drunk-man’s embrace, standing next to each other with their arms slung lifelessly over each other’s shoulders and swaying to the music.  It was a proper Irish pub.

The people at our table turned out to be quite lovely.  A couple of Canadian expats, they had been living in Vietnam for some time.  Shortly after we all started talking, we were joined by one of their friends, Erik, another Canadian expat who had been living in HCMC for seven months.  An incredibly nice guy of Vietnamese descent, Erik shared stories with us about some of the more interesting experiences that he had since moving to Vietnam – mostly involving crazy food encounters.  It was a fun night.  At some point, we all moved outside where half the bar had spilled out on to the sidewalk.  If I had to guess, I would say that this place saw more customers that night than it did in a typical week.

Aman and I left the bar shortly before midnight in search of something to eat, only to find that all of the restaurants in HCMC had already closed.  Surely, we thought, something must be open…  We made inquiries at the reception desk of the Sheraton, and were referred to a Chinese restaurant around the corner, which was apparently the ONLY place open in the late hours.  We devoured several plates of dumplings and steamed pork buns, all of which was very delicious, before calling it a night.

The next day, we had an early morning appointment to catch the open bus to Mui Ne.  I did a far better job of waking us up that morning than I had done the day before.  We even had time to eat breakfast before we got on the road.

In all, it was a great time in HCMC, and a good start to our adventures in Vietnam.  Here are some gratuitous shots from the streets of HCMC, just a couple of our favorites.