Where Hanoi resembled a large town, with its alleyways offering fresh beer and any type of street food imaginable, Saigon is much like other Asian cities I’d visited. It was the last stop on a three month jaunt, including a whole month in Vietnam.
While I probably loved Vietnam more than any other country we visited, Saigon escaped me. I was weary from constant movement and was just ready for the comforts of home.
The first hotel we stayed in was a dump by any standards, a tiny room that barely fit a double bed with an infestation of ants near Ben Thanh Market. Apart from the bun cha restaurant down the street, I wasn’t overly impressed with our first few days in the capital also known as Ho Chi Minh City.
But we saw the sights, like the Gustave Eiffel-designed Saigon Central Post Office, pictured above, and the similarly European Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as The Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum.
I’d been forewarned about the dangers of crossing the streets and even experienced the stress in Hanoi, but Saigon had thousands more motorbikes and cars clogging its streets, playing chicken with every passing pedestrian. From the moment we disembarked the bus from Mui Ne, we were constantly searching for the easiest way to get from Point A to Point B.
We slowly got the hang of things by the time we checked into Hotel Majestic, wandering out to haggle for souvenirs and ordering meals with ease. We twice at at La Cafeteria De L’usine, whose crusty sandwiches that mixed French and Vietnamese flavors became a favorite.
We also went in search for the famous stall by The Lunch Lady, but didn’t love what we got. I wish we’d come on the bun bo hue day instead of this concoction, with tapioca noodles and a rather sweet flavor.
I still feel like I didn’t have enough time in Saigon, but did my best to scratch the surface. Before we knew it, we were waking up at 4 am, grabbing breakfast to go from the hotel and checking into our Vietnam Airlines flights back home. I’m sure I’ll be back, but for now, the reminder of honking every time I cross a street will suffice.
I’ve been twice now, once in 2007 the other in 2013. The changes to the city between visits were vast.
In 2007 the city still felt like a staunch communist state that was trying to shake off the legacy of the war. Many of its colonial buildings were in decay. There were only a couple of small shopping malls set-up for tourists and one department store, all government owned. There was very little flaunting of money and even less places to spend it. Visiting in 2013 was a real eye opener with the proliferation of international luxury boutiques, new foreign cars, the complete gentrification of District 1 especially Bến Nghé!
Oh and the traffic back in 2007 was worse than it is today, least now most major junctions have traffic lights :)
Thanks for reading, Ben! I’m sure lots has changed.