There are 9 million people in Saigon now with 5 million motorbikes and it's the commercial center of Vietnam. On the way from the Ho Chi Minh airport we are in a sea of motobikes. The traffic was like "organized chaos" with motos on the sidewalk, bicycles in the middle of the street, cars honking, and women wearing designer D & G helmets and long gloves to keep the sun off. "In glimmering heat, the horns screeching, badgering, warring horns, persistent always. The air throbs, salty, wet with exhaust, dank with perpiration. The people, skinny, dark people suffer, enduring." As we walk along the alley to the guesthouse, nothing says welcome to Vietnam like the smell of fish sauce. As Andrew Pham, author of Catfhish and Mandala stated about Saigon, "The sandwich makers, old ladies with oily hands, dusty skin like yesterday's bread, lather soy and fish sauce onto tiny baguettes...In an alley, a mother and daughter fry dough cakes selling them wrapped in newspapers... The buildings press narrow, 10 feet wide, and every other storefront, open for business, selling, selling, selling anything, everything. Food, paper, spare parts, clothes, candies, color tv's, fake watches, cheap Chinese fabric, screwdrivers, rice dishes, Coca-Cola, cigarettes, gasoline in soda bottles, penny lottery tickets, and everything has a buyer, everyone is for sale."
It was hard to visit the War Remnants Museum looking at photos showing the horrors of war (i.e. death, kids with disabilities due to agent orange, 2 million hectares of land destroyed by toxic chemicals, moms with children trying to escape, war crimes, etc). To my surprise 3 million Vietnamese were killed during the war (2 million were civillians)! "Crippled boys lay on crude skateboards and crabbed along with sandal-covered hands, a beggin cup clamped between their brown teeth."
Reunification Palace today vs. Presidential Palace 1975 Photos
I remembered this photo above from my youth and it was eerie walking through the deserted halls in the basement of the palace.
However, the mid-century modern architecture of the Palace is fabulous with its grandeur and is tastefully decorated with Vietnamese art. The Notre Dame Cathedral's stain glass windows built by the French 1877 and Post Office (1886) built with French classical style were the last stop on our tour. Saigon is known for its restaurants and nightlife, but grandma and grandpa just stayed home after the all day city tour because Paul was sick.
The monks chanting in the temple (below) are from a 250 year-old Buddhist Monastery, one of the oldest in Saigon. Enjoy their mantra....
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