History Lessons in Saigon
This is my second attempt at a Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC – formerly Saigon) blog. The first one was more like a history lesson; I don’t even like history that much. I’ve redone it and hopefully this is more what I’m after. I may do a good, chunky historically-factual blog in due course but for now I’ll try this…
This was our final stop in Vietnam. We had started to whizz through the towns and cover hundreds of miles of coast line in days. I think we were slightly concerned that we were spending longer in Vietnam than planned. After our 9 hour train journey in the day from Hoi An to Nha Trang we thought we would try the train again and booked ourselves on the sleeper train leaving Nha Trang at 8:30pm and due to arrive in HCMC at 7:00am the following morning.
I was expecting HCMC to be a bit like Hanoi, not totally like it as I knew that southern Vietnam is considered to be (generally) friendlier and more commercial than the north. It’s tough to explain, Hanoi is the capital but without knowing this and never having been to Hanoi you would assume that HCMC is the capital, it is here where the high rise offices and the American hotels take root. I said in my Hanoi Blog that I thought it was a unique place, I can confirm it certainly is.
We found a hotel on the main hike and after catching up on the couple of hours sleep left over from the train we set about exploring. The first thing that struck us about HCMC is the traffic; six lanes of motorbikes and senseless roundabouts are not for the feint-hearted. There’s no way you can wait for a break in the traffic so all you have to do is make sure there aren’t too many cars on the road and step off the pavement. The swarm of motorbikes is then trusted to avoid you – the first few times we did this we were very nervous but after a while you get used to it – a quick glance to check for cars and busses and you find yourself not even noticing the bikes as they weave around you.
We were in town for their Independence Day and, certainly here in the sceptical south, the country is littered with flags hanging over streets and fresh Vietnamese Propaganda Posters which, if you keep your eyes peeled are everywhere in southern Vietnam. This picture is typical Saigon; the traffic, the statue and the huge propaganda poster…
Trying as best as I can to not go into too much detail…
Vietnam is a country littered with wars. We all know about the spat with the Americans in the ‘60s but prior to that there’s civil war and conflicts with the French. We took a day to visit the Reunification Palace that was the South Vietnam Presidential Palace before Ho Chi Minh’s boys stormed it by tank in 1975 and reunified the country. The tank is still there and the building is left exactly as it was on that day. You can wander through, see the presidential offices, living quarters and (best of all) the war-room bunker complete with strategic maps, telephones, radio equipment etc. You know you’re in a place where a LOT went on.
It was then to the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as The Museum of American War Crimes). As we had nothing to do with the Vietnam War we didn’t learn it at school, so the day was very interesting as more and more of the war grew on us, albeit from the Vietnamese perspective. It is clear that some of what they say is exaggerated – for example you get the impression that every child since the war with a birth defect can be blamed on the American use of defoliants. The Americans even get the blame for supplying the French with weapons during their conflict (not something I’m qualified to comment on). What is clear is the faces of the Americans walking through the museum, some of them very uncomfortable.
I got on with Saigon very well, more so than Hanoi and I think if we ever came back to see more of Vietnam we’d base ourselves out of here instead of Hanoi, not that I don’t like Hanoi – maybe I’m just a little too ‘Westernized’ (sic).
All the HCMC photos can now be seen on my Photo Page.
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I love the craziness of HCMC. It really grew on me.
Nice write up. One comment is that during the later part of the Indochina War with the French, Americans were supplying weapons and acting as advisors. I certainly agree that the VN museums overindulge in their “facts” but that one happens to have some merit.
@Matt – me too, it won’t be the last time we’re in HCMC.
@TW – thanks for that, I hope I clarified that as far as history goes I am, at best, a novice. It just struck me as strange that they were reluctant to pin any blame on the French!