Mister Saigon

Saigon, Vietnam

 

I've been here in Saigon for about 5 days now, having decided to forego Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia and head for Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat) directly, reason being that everybody who's been to PP say that it sucks and all the guidebooks warn how it's dangerous after dark, so I traded in my Phnom Penh ticket for today for one for Siem Reap on Friday, and am resigned to watching the Astros cough up another World Series game early in the morning tomorrow.

 

I think the last time I posted I was in Hue, the old capital Vietnam.  Since my travels first stopped in Hoi An.  Hoi An was nice enough, nicer than Hue, and was sort of the Vietnamese version of Melaka/Melacca.  In other words it was an old coastal/riverine city with a lot of foreign influence from traders (primarily Chinese & Japanese, but a lot of Indian & European mixed in) so it was interesting to look at and a decent break architecturally from the standard vaguely French-Vietnamese fusion that is everywhere else.  Plus good food too.  Also like Melaka the Chinese parts of town manage to be more chinese than most of the stuff in China, which happens a lot in expat areas.

 

Saigon isn't so much to look at, and is the most expensive city in Vietnam, though still cheap as hell by western standards.  It is where the motorbike reigns supreme, and more annoyingly, the cry of "Hello Sir! Moto-Biiike!" reverberates in a cascade as I saunter down the street (sweating, it's still hot and humid here).  Again, not a lot of obvious tourist attractions aside from the War musuem although some of the old french stuff (Notre Dame, Hotel de Ville, like any big French city) has been well restored.   The rest of the city is sort of concrete and not all that interesting as it was rebuilt recently after the war took a heavy toll here.  There's a huge expat/tourist population here though.  Again, mostly aussie, but I've met a few decent ones who could carry on a conversation without them accusing you of being an idiot for having George W. Bush as a president regardless of who you voted for or donated to and regardless of the fact that Johnny Howard is no great shakes himself, the most interesting one being a lawyer from melbourne who was sort of doing the same thing I am - we stick together, us common law boys.