Saigon

We just got back to the hotel after a serious day's tourism in Saigon. Just in time: torrential thunderstorm now.

Last night we had a great first meal just around the corner in a place where there were no other non-Vietnamese. I got really adventurous and ordered a spiced baby clam salad - they were delicious, and I'm not sick, yet.... We also ordered "fig" salad, which tasted more like artichoke, Pho (beef noodle soup), Ban Something-or-Other (noodles with roast pork), shrimp rolls, and mustard rolls (not mustard, just rolls made from big leaves of mustard greens). All delicious and not a single thing tasted remotely like Thai food. Oh, and including sodas and Sai-Gon beer it cost $12. Afterwards we wandered the market and impulse-bought a "Tintin in Vietnam" T-shirt for me ($3) and a new watch for Declan ($5).

Today we did a walking tour, taking in some main sights very briefly, including a market where the smell of really FRESH fish reminded us of Pike Place. The traffic here is incredible, even after Delhi and Bangkok, and terrifyinng at first: THOUSANDS of 120cc Honda Wave step-through motorbikes, all beeping at once. None stops for pedestrians: you have to take a deep breath, walk directly into six or eight lanes of them, and hope they avoid you. Miraculously they do. There is simply no other way to cross a street.

We stopped to get Aidan a haircut (very professional, very friendly, $4). Then a hike past the old colonial Hotel du Ville and similar highlights included a long stop at Fanny's, allegedly Saigon's best ice cream place. (After three scoops each, A+D in no way dispute this. However, being a bit lactose intolerant, I decided to martyr myself by making do with a gorgeous fruit-stuffed crepe covered in a warm creme anglaise, plus iced Vietnamese coffee. Tough life.)

Thence to the excellent Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which includes standard historical displays downstairs and history of the "Glorious Victory of the Revolutionary Cadres over the Imperialist Running Dogs and the Puppet Government" upstairs. It was truly interesting, here and at the Palace (below) to see how the other half sees, so to speak. And to find some elements of it, if not others, quite persuasive: the word 'communism' did so completely prevent the west from getting it about the underlying motivation - Vietnamese national pride.

We spent the afternoon at that historic 1960s landmark, Reunification Palace - which was the Presidential Palace until the North Vietnnamese tanks came right through the fence in April 1975. It's strange to think of a 19600s building as "historic" but it has all been perfectly kept, cleaned and preserved, right down to the ugly wet bar in the games room, the naugahyde-padded doors and the pale pink telephones. Even Presidet Thieu's Huey helecopter (or one just like it) is on the roof, and the tank that broke through the railings (or one just like it) is in the grounds. The whole experience is eerie: are you on a movie set, or are you in a time-warp? You feel that you might bump into Thieu and Robert MacNamara in one of the polished corridors.

Well it has stopped raining and is almost time to go hunt for dinnner.