In Saigon I visited the Reunification Palace, the former seat of the South Vietnam government, and the War Remnants Museum, an extended exposition of American savagery towards the Vietnamese during the War as told from the perspective of the Hanoi government. Both were only mildly interesting but obligatory while I was here. It's interesting to see the war described from their point of view and yet with Vietnam now a market economy and open to the world, the museum and the whole discussion of the war seem a bit dated and even irrelevant.
I also took a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels built by the Viet Cong and the Cao Dai Temple, the seat of a relatively newt Vietnamese religion that combines elements of Confucianism, Taoism, and Islam. It is a very strange religion indeed, even claiming Victor Hugo as one its saints. Bizarre.
At the temple, we wandered around a bit and then stayed to watch their ceremonial chanting at noon:
The Cu Chi Tunnels were a large network of tunnels built during the French occupation and expanded during the American war (as they call it here). The tunnels extended several kilometers and housed thousands of Viet Cong guerilla soldiers and their families. It allowed them to pop out of the ground, quickly attack, and disappear. We got to go into one of those tunnels, and they were really small and dark! Some of the girls freaked out and turned around and ran out the way they came in as soon as it started getting dark. I was amused.
During the tunnel tour, I met an American girl from Chicago, a 20-something accountant with KPMG on assignment in Saigon for a few months. Again, the reminders of change in this country are everywhere.
This picture of the tunnels is lit only because of the flash from my camera - when we were walking through it was pretty much pitch-black. They're also extremely small and narrow - I had to hunch over and crouch through the whole way and I'm really short (then again so are the Vietnamese, but taller folks might have a lot more trouble moving through around here).
One thing that I should mention again about this city is how fast it is developing. I've been to a trendy little cafe/bakery a few times to use their wi-fi and it is as comfortable and nice as any in the West and a good place to glimpse the changes occurring all around here. The Vietnamese have a strong cafe culture here - in the rural Mekong Delta these cafes simply consisted of a few stools, lounge chairs, and tables set out on a sparse patio and while there are many like that here in Saigon, there are also quite a few much trendier, upscale coffeehouses that cater to young upwardly mobile Vitenamese and Westerners. They have free wi-fi, friendly English-speaking staff who smile and greet you upon entering (just like at any store at the mall in the US - trust me, that's not comon at all here so it caught me a little off-guard the first few times), and a nice vibe and great setting like any nice coffeeshop in the West. The prices ($2 for a cup of coffee, compared to $0.50 or less elsewhere) are also much like in the West. At these coffeeshops you can get a glimpse of the pace of change in Saigon - you see young Vietnamese tapping away on their laptops and iPhones and today the gentleman next to me was filling out paperwork for his Schengen visa, apparently on his way to spending some time in the EU. The clerk this morning conversed with me a bit - first in English, then in Chinese - she decided she doesn't like studying English so she is studying Chinese at a language school to prepare for a career in business. Her Chinese was probably better than mine...Saigon is the economic engine of the country - there is construction everywhere and it is hard not to appreciate the dizzying pace of change. It is fascinating to contemplate what this city will look like in ten or twenty years.
Still, I'm ready to move on and see a quieter, more splendid side of Vietnam as I go on to explore some of the historical towns and the natural beauty of the North.
My breakfast today was a chicken (or pork? not sure) noodle soup, pretty typical here:
Price: 10,000 dong (~60 cents)
No comments:
Post a Comment