Saigon, Viet Nam

MOTORBIKES AND CHEAP CD's
Our flight to Saigon arrived mid-afternoon without any problems. We caught a taxi to the Pham Ngu Lao area which is the main backpacker part of town very similar to Khoa Sanh Road in Bangkok. We had no problem finding a place to stay and they all seemed to be about the same price and are extremely good compared to many of the other places we've stayed in - hot showers, free breakfast, tv, and a fridge (to keep my Milo cold). I couldn't get over the number of motorbikes on the road - they out number cars by about 10 to 1. Incidentally yesterday while we were traveling in a van I timed how long it took before 100 motorcycles past us going the other way - it took just over 40 seconds (5 motorbikes every 2 seconds).
Many people had told me that Vietnam is the cheapest country in South East Asia to travel around and that it's also a good place to stock up on CD's, DVD's, clothes and books - all of which seem to be of negligible quality. At dinner on our first night we had lots of touts selling Lonely Planet books for 10-20% of face value but they are just photocopies of the originals with a nice cover put on to hide the poor quality. Even so I bought a number of them since the quality isn't as important to me as the information inside. CD's are only 0.75c and DVDs are just over a dollar. We have plenty of movies now but nothing to watch them on.

Buying a few books at dinner

On our first full day in Vietnam we took a tour up to the Tay Ninh province to see the noon mass at the Caodai Great Temple. Caodaism is the result of an attempt to create the perfect religion through the fusion of religious philosophies from around the world - Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Vietnamese spiritualism. The result is a rather strange compromise evident in the temple itself which has a steeple, pagoda and an imitation mosque on the roof. The mass was quite eerie but there were a lot of tourists like us there to bring everyone back to reality.

Images from in and around the Caodai Great Temple

In the afternoon we ventured to Cu Chi where the Viet Cong built over 250km of underground tunnels during the 1950s and 60s. It's from these tunnels that they launched their guerrilla warfare which the locals are both proud and defensive of. Much of the tunnel network is extremely small because it was built for the small Vietnamese bodies but there is a tourist tunnel which myself and Glen crawled through - it was only 50 meters long but it was very small and very hot down there.

Today we stayed in Saigon and walked past the Ben Thanh market to the Reunification Palace. The palace was once the centerpiece of the South Vietnamese government but it was here on 30th April 1975 that VC soldiers took South Vietnam. Shortly after the name of the city was changed to Ho Chi Minh City but from what I have heard since arriving here, all of the locals still call this city Saigon, and so will I. After the palace we walked to the War History Museum, dedicated specifically to the American War (also as the locals call it). I found it deeply moving but after a while I noticed that the stories they portrayed about the atrocities committed during the war were very one sided. We all left feeling deeply moved and also a little angry.
Tomorrow we leave Saigon for the Mekong Delta and by Saturday we should be in Cambodia. I wonder if the locals still call it Kampuchia.

Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City