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Still in Saigon (+Photos)

Posted on September 6, 2007

Saigon holds somewhat mystical proportions for me due to its role in the Vietnam war and thereafter in U.S. popular culture. Much more than Hanoi, Saigon for some reason seemed to represent all of the chaos and foreignness that the war evoked in the American psyche. Maybe it had something to do with repeated watchings of Good Morning Vietnam and listenings to the lesser-known Charlie Daniels hit, “Still in Saigon.” Whatever the cause, I expected Saigon to be a dramatic experience for me. I was kind of surprised when it turned out to be a fairly comfortable and familiar (somehow!) place.

For one thing, much of the mystical quality that attends “Saigon” is now gone with the name itself. The city was re-dubbed the prosaic, “Ho Chi Minh City” in April of 1975. However, many of the residents still call it Saigon and you can see HCMC going the way of Leningrad should certain political changes ever take place. Whatever you call it, the city is a bustling and modern place. The famous Vietnamese industry and dedication to commerce is apparent everywhere - from huge skyscraping office towers to countless small pho stands that dot the sidewalks. Of course the place is chock full of scooters, although the traffic is more polite to the pedestrian than that of Hanoi. On some of the busiest streets there are even crosswalk escorts - young men dressed in paramilitary uniforms who stop traffic with an imperious hand gesture and accompany tourists to the safety of the other curb.

Gregor and I felt very at home in Saigon. We decided this is probably because of the sophistication of the local populace and the large expat community there trying very hard to make the city feel like London, Sydney, or even San Francisco. It’s just a very cosmopolitan place. During our 7 nights there we found ourselves variously in a Cuban restaurant with excellent mojitos and tapas, a bar with a Magnum PI theme, a restaurant named after the London underground, a place with delicious Indian food, a Guns and Roses bar (rokking - see pics), an Irish pub that was so like the pubs I remember from Ireland (although unlike their US facsimiles) that I literally forgot I was in Vietnam. Most of these places seemed to be owned and frequented by expats with a liberal sprinkling of locals in attendance too. Even the entertainment was mixed expat/local as in the case of the Irish pub where we were treated to celtic music in the original language of a gentleman from Brittany backed by an entirely Vietnamese band.

We did make sure to get our experience of local culture by continuing to dine at street food stalls and experience local markets. We also had the excellent experience of going to a Vietnamese barbecue restaurant. The place was located on the top floor of a 3 story building (the other floors housing an ice cream parlor and a swanky bar for the total entertainment experience) and had an entirely retractable roof. The set-up consisted of a powerful butane burner covered by a skillet set in the middle of the table. You ordered different items to cook on the skillet and some rice and vegetables to accompany them. We cooked up some wild boar, squid, and the strange-sounding ‘beef with cheese’ which turned out to be indescribably delicious - even better than cheddarburst. It was a really enjoyable experience, especially when we retired to the swanky Temple Bar on the second floor for post-perandials. Unfortunately we were too stuffed to finish the night with ice-cream on the first floor…

We didn’t spend our whole time in Saigon just eating and drinking, we did take in some culture as well. Gregor’s post on the reunification palace describes our visit there. A more sobering trip was our visit to the War Remnants Museum, which houses heartbreaking and stomach-turning photographs and paraphernalia of the Vietnam War. The photo-essay on victims of Agent Orange was especially poignant - especially when you learn that the U.S. government has yet to issue an official acknowledgment, let alone apology (to both the Vietnamese and American victims), for its use of this poison during the war. Yet the museum was also frustrating in its one-sided presentation of the atrocities of war as a right vs. wrong scenario - with the N. Vietnamese being right and all others being wrong. To clarify, until a few years ago the museum was known as, “The Museum of American War Crimes”. I felt the presentation would have been more powerful as a study on the wrongness of war in general. However, we were in the victimized country which happens to be a one-party state. I’m taking it as a good sign that the name of the museum has become much less incendiary over the years. Also I was touched to see a peace pole like the one that stands in front of the Peace Palace at the Hague. This is a simple square white pole that says “peace on earth” in different languages on each of its sides. I guess that’s what we are all striving for.

Our visit to Saigon ended up being very different than I thought it would be. Instead of the strangeness and exoticism of Hanoi, we found something akin to what we were used to in San Francisco. Just plain old city life. Of course with a lot more scooters and better Pho. Hehe.

Or, check out the flickr slideshow (full screen baby!)

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