Saigon fell [or was liberated] on 30 April 1975 and the most enduring images of that day are the chaotic helicopter evacuations at the rooftop of the US Embassy and a North Vietnamese Army tank crashing through the gates of the Independence Palace that was then the official residence of the South Vietnamese president.
The embassy was demolished in 1998 but the Independence Palace still stands and renamed as the Reunification Hall which is now a historical landmark and open to the public, and will be the first ever place of interest that I've visited in Ho Chi Minh.
A short 4-minute walk away from the Reunification Hall is the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, another must-see landmark that was started to be built in 1863 and features a granite statute of Our Lady of Peace that was installed in 1959 which became a sensation in 2005 when it was reported to have shed tears.
Unfortunately, I'm only in Ho Chi Minh courtesy of an 18-hour lay-over from the Philippine and Vietnam Airlines and that being the case, the Reunification Hall and the Cathedral are the only places I will be able to walk to considering the time constraint, although the walk from my hotel to these landmarks [5 kilometers to and from] is in itself a tour of old Saigon's colonial elegance and its transformation into a street food and street art haven.
Midway between the Cathedral and Elios Hotel where I'll be staying for the night is the Ben Thanh Market whose story evolved from ambulant vendors converging along the banks of the Saigon River in the 17th century, the humble beginnings of a formal market that was established by the French colonial government in 1859 which in 1870 was razed by fire and rebuilt to become Saigon's largest market.
The current market building was built in 1912 and is now a popular tourist area, the equivalent of Bangkok's Chatuchak Weekend Market but with more aggressive vendors specially in the food section which is a turn-off at least for me.
Adjacent to this tourist trap is the Ben Thanh Street Food Market that in my understanding is street food fare and stalls gathered under the roof of a food court which is not exactly my idea of what a street food is, although I relented to a banh mi [baguette sandwich], two pieces of spring rolls and a can of 333 Beer --- said to be a favorite of American GIs during the Vietnam War which the government rebranded from "33 Beer" into "333 Premium Export Beer" after the war.
That was lunch and I decided dinner to be at the "famous" Bui Vien Backpackers' Street which is just a behind my hotel, and that turned out to be a bad decision as I found it to be a Khao San Road of sorts --- rowdy, gaudy, sleazy --- where I ended up being propositioned for a massage service every 10 meters and encountered an old man riding an old bike with an old bell clanging offering ladies for company.
Like Khao San Road in Bangkok, fame has obviously overtaken Bui Vien Street in such a way that it has sold its soul to commercial tourism, the rustic ambience of what I can only imagine now as a homely and tame community of backpackers transformed into a circus and an outdoor pub where a herd of drunk half-naked muscular Caucasian males [must be Europeans since they keep bellowing a football chant] puke in a street corner.
I finally found a quite place managed by an elderly Vietnamese couple where I nibbled on a plate of stir-fried squid [with salted eggs, lemon leaves and chilli] and nursed a big bottle of Bia Saigon as the girls from a massage parlor across the street waved at me to come to them.
That was how Saigon fell into my itinerary, unexpected and unplanned courtesy of the quirks of airline arrangements.
Ho Chi Minh is however just a footnote to the reason why I was in Vietnam, in Hanoi actually where I spent the first three nights with colleagues in promoting responsible business standards at the GROW Asia Forum and the World Economic Forum on the ASEAN.
Vietnam is certainly a tale of two cities: Hanoi in the north which is subdued but thriving with real street food stalls [those with small tables and plastic chairs] where wonderful Vietnamese cuisine can be enjoyed at cheap prices, and Saigon in the south which is carefree and too gaudy and touristy unfortunately.
The embassy was demolished in 1998 but the Independence Palace still stands and renamed as the Reunification Hall which is now a historical landmark and open to the public, and will be the first ever place of interest that I've visited in Ho Chi Minh.
A short 4-minute walk away from the Reunification Hall is the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, another must-see landmark that was started to be built in 1863 and features a granite statute of Our Lady of Peace that was installed in 1959 which became a sensation in 2005 when it was reported to have shed tears.
Unfortunately, I'm only in Ho Chi Minh courtesy of an 18-hour lay-over from the Philippine and Vietnam Airlines and that being the case, the Reunification Hall and the Cathedral are the only places I will be able to walk to considering the time constraint, although the walk from my hotel to these landmarks [5 kilometers to and from] is in itself a tour of old Saigon's colonial elegance and its transformation into a street food and street art haven.
Midway between the Cathedral and Elios Hotel where I'll be staying for the night is the Ben Thanh Market whose story evolved from ambulant vendors converging along the banks of the Saigon River in the 17th century, the humble beginnings of a formal market that was established by the French colonial government in 1859 which in 1870 was razed by fire and rebuilt to become Saigon's largest market.
The current market building was built in 1912 and is now a popular tourist area, the equivalent of Bangkok's Chatuchak Weekend Market but with more aggressive vendors specially in the food section which is a turn-off at least for me.
Adjacent to this tourist trap is the Ben Thanh Street Food Market that in my understanding is street food fare and stalls gathered under the roof of a food court which is not exactly my idea of what a street food is, although I relented to a banh mi [baguette sandwich], two pieces of spring rolls and a can of 333 Beer --- said to be a favorite of American GIs during the Vietnam War which the government rebranded from "33 Beer" into "333 Premium Export Beer" after the war.
That was lunch and I decided dinner to be at the "famous" Bui Vien Backpackers' Street which is just a behind my hotel, and that turned out to be a bad decision as I found it to be a Khao San Road of sorts --- rowdy, gaudy, sleazy --- where I ended up being propositioned for a massage service every 10 meters and encountered an old man riding an old bike with an old bell clanging offering ladies for company.
Like Khao San Road in Bangkok, fame has obviously overtaken Bui Vien Street in such a way that it has sold its soul to commercial tourism, the rustic ambience of what I can only imagine now as a homely and tame community of backpackers transformed into a circus and an outdoor pub where a herd of drunk half-naked muscular Caucasian males [must be Europeans since they keep bellowing a football chant] puke in a street corner.
I finally found a quite place managed by an elderly Vietnamese couple where I nibbled on a plate of stir-fried squid [with salted eggs, lemon leaves and chilli] and nursed a big bottle of Bia Saigon as the girls from a massage parlor across the street waved at me to come to them.
That was how Saigon fell into my itinerary, unexpected and unplanned courtesy of the quirks of airline arrangements.
Ho Chi Minh is however just a footnote to the reason why I was in Vietnam, in Hanoi actually where I spent the first three nights with colleagues in promoting responsible business standards at the GROW Asia Forum and the World Economic Forum on the ASEAN.
Vietnam is certainly a tale of two cities: Hanoi in the north which is subdued but thriving with real street food stalls [those with small tables and plastic chairs] where wonderful Vietnamese cuisine can be enjoyed at cheap prices, and Saigon in the south which is carefree and too gaudy and touristy unfortunately.
Saigon is a "happy city" the young lady at the reception of Hanoi's Ping Hotel told me, and it certainly is.
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