Vietnam Dec 2023 Day 16

Day 16

25 December 2023

Ho Chi Minh to Singapore 

With a few hours left before checking out to return home, I spent the morning touring a few more sites.

Ben Thanh Market.

It's a huge shopping complex with food court and is  very popular with tourists, like Chatchuchak Market in Bangkok or the smaller Victoria Market in Melbourne. 

Saigon General Post Office. A historic landmark with a colonial legacy and it's still operating. 

Opposite the post office stands a Roman Catholic Church name Notre Dame. It's under renovation.

Saigon, too, have upmarket malls with luxurious brands like any modern cities. 

Art gallery 

A group of Vietnamese girls dress in the elegant national dress, Ao-dai, happily poised for tourists. 

I have seen a fair bit of Vietnam, from the north to South. I departed on SQ183 on 737-8 for the two hours flight. I look forward to return to another exciting journey to another part of this beautiful Vietnam. 

Mission accomplished 😌 Taking off soon.

View after airborne, over Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam Dec 2023 Day 15

Day 15

24 Dec 2023

Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh 

I started off my city walk at 8am. The crowd was slowly building up. My first stop was Saigon Opera House. There was already a performance on the steps. Spectators sat on their motorbikes to watch.

Next stop was City Hall.

Not too far away is the War Museum and the Independence Palace. 

Opposite the Independence Palace is a large park. That's where the younger generation congregate for their social gathering. It is like the Filipinos meeting up in Lucky Plaza or Central in HK.

The bridges, rivers and monuments.

The legacy of colonialism is ever present. Facades with European styled architecture are very visible in Saigon. In fact, some are very charming. 

The skyscrapers are everywhere. The roads are wide, but the traffic is mind-boggling. For foreigners to  cross the road without aid of traffic light is really scary. But we learned. A lot of faith is needed, that the car and motocycle drivers see you and steer away from you by inches.

 

I went on a River Cruise on Saigon River.

As it's Christmas Eve, the city is in a celebrating and partying mood. The younger generation have learned to enjoy their lives in contrast to the earlier generation who had to struggle to live. 

Just my thoughts......on 2 points, politics and traffic.

The city is modern, vibrant and brimming with life. The side walk cafes, styled like those in Europe were full of younger patrons, chilling out. These are the "bourgeois" lifestyle Marxist Ho Chi Minh was trying to eradicate and to put in place a more egalitarian society. Surely after reunification, the communist government has never envisaged such "bourgeois"  lifestyle is ever prevalent today. To sum up, communism is dead but communist government will still be around. American should acknowledged that the Vietnam war fought was for nothing. 

How would you describe Saigon? Is Saigon a developed modern city? Its really subjective depending on the criteria used. But to say it is very busy, it is an understatement. The human and vehicle traffic interaction is like a plate of spaghetti. At some point in time there will be a breakdown. But for sure, I can say Saigon is in a hurry to modernise and develop into a world class city.