Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Awe and peace
Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City... buckle up for an unforgettable, exhilarating ride
Ho Chi Minh City is an intoxicating, teeming fusion of old and new Vietnam: where buildings ready for the wrecking ball, covered in bird’s nests of electric cables, rub shoulders with shimmering skyscrapers.
Where locals flog second-hand trainers on the pavement outside Louis Vuitton stores.
Where millions of motorbikes buzz around day and night. And where French colonial architecture adds considerable richness and elegance.
HCMC is beguiling, bewitching and bewilderingly busy. But brilliant.
My wife Debbie and I were there on a three-night visit as part of a weeklong TUI Holidays multi-centre trip.
Here’s our pick of the top sights, tastes and experiences not to miss in this bonkers bucket-list ticker, which is still known as Saigon to the locals. Don’t try to see too much and pace yourself in the broiling heat.
THE STREET FOOD
Right up there with Southeast Asia neighbour Singapore, it’s some of the best in the world – and great value too.
While it seems there’s something to grab on every corner in the heart of the city, across the road from the 106-yearold, 3,000-stall Ben Thanh market there’s a permanent site with 36 vendors selling freshly cooked food from across Vietnam and the region.
Just order, pay, park on a communal bench and the food will be brought to you. Then dive in – you’ll be full for under a fiver. Local beers are 80p.
Vietnamese rice paper spring rolls with prawns, veg or chicken and giant banh xeo crispy pancakes are the way to go. Bursting with flavours and fresh, fresh, fresh. It’s touristy, but locals eat here too and it’s clean and great fun, especially when there’s a live band on at night. You’ll find yourself singing along to anything from Adele to The Clash.
But it’s not all chow-down eats on paper plates on street corners in HCMC – there are plenty of restaurants offering excellent local and international cuisine for all budgets.
WAR STORIES: PART 1
Vietnam has a young population – half of its 94 million is under 30 – that embraces technology and looks forward to continuing the country’s economic growth. But the nation’s tragic, tumultuous past looms large.
Nowhere is that more evident than the War Remnants Museum (baotang chungtichchientranh.vn, 50p). The displays, artefacts and photos here illustrate the horror of the 30-year Vietnam War in an unflinching, brutal way. It’s upsetting and monstrous, but a must-see.
Still of that era, the Reunification Palace is where the North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates on April 30, 1975 to bring the Fall of Saigon to a climax.
The former South Vietnam presidential building is a timewarp, where the underground command bunker with its 70s computers and communications equipment is a particular highlight (dinhdoclap.gov.vn, around £1).
WAR STORIES: PART 2
The Viet Cong guerrilla tunnels at Cu Chi are 35 miles north of central
HCMC and a hugely popular halfday outing. We joined a trip with Saigon River Tours which took us one hour by fast speedboat up the languid waterway, dodging endless clumps of floating water hyacinth.
An early hotel pick-up meant we were at the tunnels by 9.30am and our excellent guide Kite provided a constant flow of information about the 120-mile network built over 20 years, where up to 18,000 guerrillas lived, fought and died during the conflict.
There are opportunities to go in the entrance to an original tunnel (certainly not designed for middleaged Western men who are no stranger to the cheese board) and then crawl through one tunnel which has been enlarged to cope with the likes of me.
I’m not claustrophobic but a few minutes down there was quite enough – living there with B52s raining 10-tonne bombs on top of you does not bear thinking about.
If you’ve ever had an urge to fire a machine-gun or assault rifle with live ammo, there’s a range here with various weapons. At $2.70 a bullet you’d best not be too trigger-happy.
We booked the trip through TUI in advance and it included lunch and a two-hour afternoon tour of the city centre (£78pp).
THE TEMPLES
Top of your list will most likely be the Jade Emperor Pagoda in the old Da Kao district, a 10-minute cab ride from the centre.
This Taoist temple dates from 1909 and is a mesmerising place to visit. Intense incense smoke hangs heavy in the air and wafts around in rooms filled with eye-popping (them, not you) statues of heroes and divinities. Expect crowds, it’s quite something.
I’d also recommend the Mariamman Hindu Temple, close to Ben Thanh market. This is a vibrant taste of India completed in the late 19th century and said to have the power of miracles. Again, very busy.
THE FRENCH LEGACY
France ruled Vietnam from 1883 to 1954 and, like much European colonial rule of that era, it was by no means a happy time for the local population.
However, the French had an ambitious public works programme which left HCMC with a grand legacy.
Must-sees include Notre Dame Cathedral, an impressive neoRomanesque 1883 building with twin iron-tipped towers.
Across the road make sure you visit the Central Post Office. Designed by Gustave Eiffel (indeed he of the tower), it opened in 1891 and the green wrought ironwork and historic maps of Vietnam on the wall are eye-catching.
It’s still in use, as is the flamboyant 1897 Opera House five minutes’ walk away.
The star of the architectural show, though, is the beautiful People’s Committee Building, which started life in 1908 as the Hotel De Ville (Town Hall).
It’s not open to the public as it’s a working office, but the facade viewed from the pedestrian area across the road is a HCMC icon that’s impressively lit at night.
There’s a fine new statue of Ho Chi Minh himself here too.
HCMC is a green city and nowhere more so than at the Botanic Gardens, again a French initiative and once one of the best in the region.
It’s still a pleasant place to
wander, but less so is the zoo that’s also here. It’s terribly dated and we did not enjoy seeing bored elephants and tigers in small compounds (saigonzoo.net, around £1.70).
CROSSING THE ROAD
Nine million scooters and motorbikes and endless taxis on the go 24/7 turn a routine task into a heart-pounding, whiteknuckle challenge.
Expect motorbikes with riders carrying animals, produce, the entire family, towing trailers one-handed or delicately balancing panes of glass.
There pedestrian crossings
are but little notice seems to be taken of them; though traffic does stop at red lights.
The trick is to look for a slight gap in the traffic (eventually there will be one!) and go – and keep going. Don’t break your stride or stop as that confuses the drivers and riders.
Ignore your shaking knees, terror and instincts and keep going; keep your eyes peeled and the traffic will go round you. If you turn round and go back you could be in trouble.
Ideally, go alongside a local the first couple of times until you have got the hang of it. It’s all part of the HCMC experience.