We arrived at Ho Chi Min City in the evening but did not disembark until the next morning. A few days earlier, I discovered that I had booked the hotel for the day after we were to disembark. An out by one error when working with calendars. I find it quite easy to make this sort of mistake and have done much worse. Once booked a train trip for the wrong month. Very embarrassing at the station. This one, fortunately, was spotted in time and quite easy to fix. Hotel sorted, we still had the problem of what to do for the day until we could check in. The solution to this was a guided tour of Ho Chi Min City. Logistically this worked well. We could load our luggage into the car and get dropped off at our hotel when the tour was finished.
First stop was a market. A massive covered market selling everything from clothing and jewellery to food. It was slightly interesting. It was also hot and crowded. The sheer volume of goods was quite remarkable. We passed through a section that sold hats. Every type of hat imaginable. Thousands of hats. I have never seen so many hats in one place. Then there was a section for kitchenware, then souvenirs, then t-shirts. And so, it went on. Mixed up in all of this were little stalls selling hot food. Usually, some sort of noodles along with tea and coffee.
I imagined there might be people, probably pale and a bit shifty, that came into the market first thing and never emerged until well after nightfall. Maybe they just lived in the market all the time. I am sure there are many secret and hidden places deep inside the labyrinth.
Fortunately, we emerged, blinking, into the sunlight after less than an hour. Next up was the Independence Palace. In 1962, the palace was bombed by two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots. They were attempting to assassinate the President Diệm and trigger a general uprising. The revolution failed but the palace was razed. The Independence Palace, officially the Reunification Hall, was built in 1966 as the presidential palace, home and workplace of the president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Famously, it was also the site of the Fall of Saigon in April 1975 when a Liberation Army of South Vietnam tank crashed through its gates ending the Vietnam War. The palace is now preserved as a public museum and a convention centre for state events.
We wandered around some of the publicly accessible rooms. They were all grand, a little bare and very 1960s. In the room used by the president to receive guests, the presidential chair was raised, regally, a little above those of his visitors. On the roof of the palace a Bell UH-1 Iroquois – “Huey” still sits – all ready to evacuate the president and his family. We also went down to the basement which has two levels of bomb shelter. The rooms here also acted a command centre.
On the way out, we stopped to take a photograph of the famous tank. First, I needed to wait until some people had done with posing in front it. Now, I don’ t mind waiting my turn but I have included a picture of what I was waiting for. Why do people do this? I am referring to the strange poses where they are sort of pointing at each other. See this a lot and do not understand it.
Next stop was the carpet shop. There is always a carpet shop. You know that now. This one was making lacquered pictures. The pictures are on sheets of wood for mounting on the wall, or on little boxes, bowls, plates, cups and even chop sticks. They are genuinely nice but overpriced and we have no way to carry any of this stuff home.
We got served some interesting coffee. Usually, if you get coffee made from beans it will be some type of Arabica coffee. Instant coffee is more often made from Robusta coffee. Robusta is easier to grow and much cheaper but has a bitter taste. This can be removed chemically during the instant coffee process. Here they were serving Robusta egg coffee. The egg yolks are whipped with condensed milk and sugar and then gently heated using a water bath. Direct boiling would cause the eggs to curdle. The lipids in the yolk emulsify with the coffee, neutralizing the bitter tannins of the Robusta bean to form a thick, silky smooth and slightly aromatic foam. End result is really quite delicious.
We discovered that knowing Cambodia requires understanding something of what happened with the Khmer Rouge. It was a massive upheaval, from which shock waves are still reverberating. Similarly, I think understanding Vietnam requires some consideration of the war.
French Indochina is approximately the area covered by Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Since the 19th century it was ruled by the French. During the aftermath of WW2, the Indochina wars were waged from 1945 to 1991. Communist forces (mainly ones led by Vietnamese communists) against the Vietnamese nationalists, the French, American, Laotian royalist, Cambodian royalist, and Chinese communist forces. The second Indochina war became known as the Vietnam War – a civil war but also a proxy war for the USA, Russian and China. The third war began in 1975 when the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army invaded a Vietnamese island. It officially ended with the signing of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements. Things are reasonably peaceful now but the whole area has an enormous legacy of wars. Our next stop was a museum about the Vietnam war. This was the most intense of the Indochina wars.
The US dropped at least 7 million tons of bombs. Over three times as many as were dropped in WW2. In Laos this amounted to approximately one ton of bombs per person. Over 80 million unexploded bombs remain. So far, they have killed nearly 50,000 people and continue to kill 50 innocents a year. Despite the efforts of Amanda (remember Amanda the Hero Rat?) and her friends, the explosives will possibly never be removed completely.
The museum primarily focuses on what the USA did during the war. It is harrowing stuff. There were massacres, rapes, and other war crimes. There was carpet bombing – saturation bombing where bombs are dropped in such a high concentration on a small area that nothing escapes. Chemical defoliants, such as Agent Orange, were used to open up hiding places and prevent food from growing. The massive dose of chemicals continues to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain. 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam were destroyed along with 20-36% of the mangrove forests. The museum includes many examples of ordinance and weapons. Outside are military vehicles and aircraft.
The last part of our tour took in some city centre sights. The Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon is undergoing renovations and covered in sheets. I noticed vines growing up the scaffold poles and wondered about how long this project had been going on. We had a look at the post office – a classic example of French 19th century architecture – which still functions as a post office. We went to the opera house and finally we were done.
We stayed in Ho Chi Min City for a couple more days. Nothing dreadfully exciting happened. We found a nice Indian Restaurant. I spotted a skyscraper that looks like the Avenger’s Tower. Bought some clothes at the incredibly cheap market dead opposite our hotel. Paid too much for a western style pizza. It was hot. Too hot for simply wandering around except for quite short trips. Suddenly it was time to go. We got some nice views over the whole city as we left.
Hey Simon,
did you at least buy a hat :-))
Or just Diane (she`s wearing one).
Follow your journey, like your writing style.
KR
Kai