A Couple of Busy Days in Ho Chi Minh City

Saigon, Sunday, January 19, 2025--We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City by bus yesterday, with a fairly lengthy barge trip visiting an agricultural island along the way.  Ho Chi Minh City is also called Saigon regularly, though Uncle Ho is widely seen.

The boat trip broke up the three-hour trip north from Can Tho (pronounced Gan-taw), getting us out of the bus as it was likely to be stuck in the country's horrendous traffic.  We joined the low-slung barge in Vinh Long, stopped at an agricultural island and then debarked at My Tho to continue the bus ride into the city.

The tourist barges stop at islands along the Mekong to introduce the passengers to Vietnamese rural life.  The island we visited is famous for pythons, which are used to make various alternative medicine balms, and rice crackers, among other products.  We were warned that the islands are home to several types of venomous snakes but the only one we saw was a caged python asleep--much smaller than a Floridian Burmese.  There are cobras.

We did, however, have snake brandy, made from de-venomed and eviscerated snakes.  We'd had snake brandy before in France.  This batch, without the snake in the serving bottle, but visible in jars of product, was reminiscent of cheap whiskey.

Better was the coconut candy and the rice crackers, made by cooking rice grains in hot oil and then combining with other fruits and nuts like peanuts, to make the crackers.  They all tasted fine.  

We walked around the island seeing home-stay facilities for tourists, most of which are closed due to Covid.  The atmosphere was pleasant, if very warm and very, very humid.

Back on the boat it was lunch time:  Elephant fish in rice wrappers, spring rolls, pho, rice, huge shrimp though they had minimal meat, and coconut ice cream. The elephant fish was delectable, very soft and very much like a filet of branzino in consistency, though a bit more piquant in taste.

To Saigon, and the traffic.  Though we made good time, getting across the city can take hours.  No stop signs other than a few lights, constantly merging cars, trucks and millions of ubiquitous scooters buzzing about like flies, make for a driving experience John has no desire to try.

Saigon, just the second largest city in the country (Hanoi expanded its geographical boundaries because, after unification, Saigon seemed to be taking over the demographic top spot), is vibrant, cosmopolitan, bustling and surprisingly clean.  Very little trash compared to the capital.  The folk are much better dressed, though many of the younger ones were dressed in their best ao-dais for Tet photography.

Last night we attended an early evening acrobatic performance at the Opera House, with much jumping, posing, body contortions, ball and pole tossing, Asian-movie style, but beautifully done in a charming balletic fashion with men and women presenting, in acrobatics the lifestyles in the city and country.  Very pleasant way to spend an evening.  The A-O Show.  Dinner: a couple of banh-mihs--baguette sandwiches.

Today we ventured out to the national monuments.  Mobbed with tourists either from cruises or individuals and locals celebrating Tet.  The Presidential Palace is a standard 1960s Brutalist block with a little style variation save some indication of bamboo columns in concrete, and a huge bunker and bedroom for the president.  The palace was bombed in the war, by a spy posing as a South Vietnamese airman.

The second visit, to the War Remnant Museum, was heavy.  Lots of pictures on the history of the war, including John Foster Dulles and other 1950s style anti-Communists who feared another Korea or China, a domino, so to speak.  The information presented was mostly fair, the pictures awful but not disputable, and the US does not come across at all well.  As youth in that generation, Ben and John tended to accept the verdict.  Sorrowful of its happening and the damage it did to the countries.  Many suffered.  We both rang the bell for peace.

Finally for the day, we visited a local pagoda, where the prayerful were present and many candles lighted.  Pictures were not permitted inside the formerly Taoist, now Buddhist, temple.  In accordance with Taoist doctrine, one of the deities was in heaven and the other was in hell.  There were fine carvings above the altars, however.

Tomorrow our last full day in Vietnam and a visit to the VC tunnels.