Ho Chi Minh City

It's a change alright! Add about 15-20 degrees, part the clouds, add a few million scooters and a few more million people and that about sums it up!




Ho Chi Minh city (which most people seem to still call Saigon) has more traffic than Hanoi, yet still manages to feel LESS chaotic. The first thing we notice is how well planned out the streets are. There are plenty of green spaces and many roads are lined with trees. This city is infinitely more modern than Hanoi... yet with that you lose that quintessential Vietnamese grittiness.

There are beautiful skyscrapers and swish restaurants. HCM seems quite the cosmopolitan place. The fact that it used to be the R&R city for American GI's during the Vietnam war probably has something to do with it's more western look and feel.




After arriving at our hotel in District 1, we head out for a walking tour to get ourselves oriented. That includes a stop first to Pho 2000: Pho for the President. The walls of this place are lined with newspaper articles and photos of Bill Clinton having pho here. The review? Quite delicious, but it still doesn't usurp our street pho from Hanoi!




We walk over to the War Remnants Museum and debate about going in as this was on our "to do" list for the following day. We decide to stop in then but quickly realize that there is so much to cover that we will have to return the following day anyway.




It's brutally confronting. I spend most of the time crying openly as I follow the visual history of the atrocities committed during the Vietnam war. Knowing the facts beforehand do nothing in the face of the stark photographs and candid captions.

Both Keir and I agreed that having only an hour this first time was actually a blessing, as we both felt we needed time to regroup.

We continue walking and stop by the Reunification Palace, the "Notre Dame" Cathedral and the Post Office for a look-see. Outside the post office we grab a little snack. It's a bunch of stuff cooked on a rice wrapper. I think there was a quail egg, definitely some green onion, maybe some dried shrimps, and lots of kick from the amply applied chili sauce. It was mighty delicious.







We stop by the Opera House and the People Palace and wind up outside the Cho Benh Thanh market where we watch the school boys play the Vietnamese version of "hacky-sack".













We dine at the Zen Veggie restaurant and then wander back to the market area where the night market is now set up. Like NYC, this is a city that never sleeps!