Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh!!

Yes I know its a cheap joke! WOW has this city changed since the last time I was here!! Parts of it- some of which I visited today- are so upmarket it felt as if I were in New York, or Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills -what a transition. It made me very sad to see central Saigon filled with Modern Hotels and Shopping Malls- these delightful scenes were just two of the efforts to recognise Christmas- David Jones- eat your heart out!!

Santa and Reindeer on Lei Loi St



Sean and his sheep friends do Xmas!

But I am getting a little ahead of myself here.

I started the day with a 6Am walk where I found -by äccident" this amazing park where tons of Ho Chi Minians were exercising in various ways- from walking backwards [I think a Vietnamese fave with the older generation] to playing a mean game of badminton, to Tai Chi, to vigourous areobics-with music, but not Les Mills- to this very entertaining and slightly balletic form of Hackie Sack. It was wonderful and because we were all exercise freaks I got a lot of Hello's and Sin Chou's....I'm definitely going again tomorrow- if I can find it again.

After a rather gluttonous brekkie, I headed out to Lei Loi Street via the Ben Thanh Markets- which are HUGE [Paddy's Market eat YOUR heart out] and have the most amazing array of things on offer to buy. At first glance it looks like there is no pattern to it, but after a couple of visits, I could see the rationale behind the layout. There is everything from fish to Tailors who will make a suit for you in 24 hours! I got some cheap- and thin- Tee shirts, as it is rather hot here, and I don't mind sweating through $3 ones- a fan and a bag which doesn't set alight if you put a cigarette lighter to its surface [though why this is a selling point I am not sure]. Here are a couple of market shots:

Fresh fish for sale-Ben Thanh Markets



buying some dinner I guess

After this I headed toward what was once known as central Saigon, which used to have this sort of village-y feel to it, but is now plastered with swanky hotels and the like. I couldn't help myself, so I went to the REX Hotel Balcony Bar and had a carrot juice, which cost more than the lunch I had by the Saigon River and hour or so later. It was kinda worth it though- one cause it is a rather swanky thing to do and two because the ladies toilet is pretty much worth about 70% of the experience. Carrot juice below along with views- no toilet scenes though.

One hell of a carrot juice!




Saigon Hotels from The Rex Balcony Bar



The Rex and The Caravelle were the hotels where US and Aussie journalists hung out with Vietnamese informants and other radical ratbags, and wrote stories about THE war- which by the way is called The American War over here- interesting eh? I like to fantasize that I am sitting where people like David Halberstom sat -look him up if not sure- who was asked to leave Vietnam 3 times because he was reporting news from the front that contradicted President Johnson's Government propoganda- and who returned to do more reporting anyway. Just a little modern history to chew on there.... 

More Saigon Scenes to follow in a different entry.