Saigon sets the Bench Mark for bad days -

As most I have good and bad days wherever I am but my bad days in Saigon set a new bench mark for badness. If you have a minute I'll take you a long on my last and worst yet day.

It all starts yesterday morning when I trip, navigating my way down those black, narrow, spiral stairs from my room. Recovering from my misstep with no peril to myself or the stairs I stumbled over to change into my street shoes.

I’m rolling now with time to spare to get down to Pho 32 before they sell of their morning Pho and close. Pull open the iron security door to the alley and bang into a motorbike parked up close. Slide out the door and around him only to step out into the path of another motorbike on the move down the alley, he veers around me, with a passing dirty look.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but dirty looks; well they’re just dirty” I try to imply with my reply look.

However, I’m starting to feel more, more uneasy with every step; it just seemed that I was out of step with the world around me. Maybe you've had that kind of feeling, you know when no matter how you try what ever you do just doesn't seem right.

I pass on down my alley and see the food selling is in full swing, which means tables set up on both side of the alley allowing about a 2 – 3 ft space for people and motor bikes to pass through.

Along with the tables on the sides you have the food prep going on, dirty dishes being washed in strategically placed metal and plastic tubs. The open middle is not just to allow people like me to pass through but for the customer’s coming to eat and the food servers. Then there are the ever present motor bikes forcing their way through the middle section, not just locale alley dwellers but the two way traffic variety tying to beat traffic of the main street.

Three times a motorbikes honked at me to get out of the way and all three time it scared the bajesus out of me and two of the three times I knocked into a dinners trying to eat. All responding with that look that says - “who the hell do you think you are”. Sometimes I’m a bit self-conscious anyway, as a 65 year old, grey haired stocky, white guy in the land of little dark haired, mostly young folk but I try hard to keep it in control but today it’s not working.

Now I’m around the corner, about 20 foot from my breakfast spot, Pho 32 and step out into the street to pass around some side of the road goings-on as the loud blast of a passing bus shakes me out of my sandals. It’s a slow day in Pho 31 so I slide into a corner table and hunker down to my noodles and coffee. For a change when I finish eating I actually offer up the correct amount of money for the bill, so as I step back on the street I’m thinking a little more positive.

After breakfest pho I’m on my way over to the riverside area to check on the boat service from HCM to Can Tho City. I cut across the park and around behind the Ben Than bus station, then down the back streets to Nguyen Hue and over to the riverside. In order to check on the boats I need to cross Ton Duc Thang. A four lane road with no crossing area and jam, chucked full with trucks hauling goods from the harbor, cross town buses, taxis and the ever present motorbikes. Close to a forty minute walk and I can’t get across the damn street, grumbling I start my walk back.

Get back to the room, take a nap and hang out till friends come by for dinner. That evening I decide to take a walk and de-stress myself. My walk has me feeling better so as I pass my favorite bar I decide to stop for a beer and peanuts.

Then on my way home, at about the half way point my stomach starts feeling bad and its getting progressively more uncomfortable as I walk along. I just make it up to my room, step in the john and everything comes up and out, not just once but at least 10 times. It was so bad I brought the stool from the room in to sit on because I was getting worn out from running back and forth.

Finely my system had pitched and flushed out all the bad stuff and I dropped into bed exhausted to dream of better days to come.

Since, I have recovered and took a couple days for my body and mind to regroup but all is fine now. Even made it across the busy street to the riverside and checked on the boat to Can Tho.

Saigon's Dam Sen Park - The water side

You’re tired of wondering around Saigon and you feel like some water fun, what’s a guy or gal to do, get out to Dam Sen Water Park. So toss you swim suit, towel and whatever you need in your bag and you’re on your way.

You can get there on your own by one of the buses originating from the bus terminal; you know the place where you see all the city buses on the other side of the traffic circle in front of Ben Thanh market.

To get over there you have a lot of traffic to walk through so torque up your courage and head out. I’ve written about this before, in passing through motorbike traffic walk slowly so they can navigate around you but with buses, trucks and cars just try to stay out of their way.

Once at the terminal walk around to the back side, looking for the bus with a placard in the window stating Ben Thanh – Dam Sen.

Riding any public bus in Vietnam is always an adventure but the bus your taking terminates at Dam Sen Park so no worries, just get off when the bus stops. Cheap also, 3,000 dong, standard fare on Saigon buses and you purchase your ticket on the bus from the drivers assistant. Oh ya and she makes change.

Dam Sen is really two parks, one is your standard Disneyesk and the other is of the water type. I believe you have to pay separately for each but this time I went just to the water park, the ticket cost of 80,000 dong. However, if you’re over 60 it’s no charge but you get strange looks when you request it, Oh ya and have to prove it. I wouldn’t have tried it on my own but it was my Vietnamese friend idea.
I’m not sure of the parks hours but most public places here open early and stay open late. Probably a visit during the week is best; guessing the weekends tend to be really crowded.
The park has all the standard water park stuff, wave pool, fax river to float on, small slides up to the mega ones. Kiddy area, lots of shaded areas with chairs and plenty of food vendors but you might not have much luck finding hot dogs and Hamburg’s. There is a changing area with showers and lockers for rent in the same area. The changing areas are close to the entrance but if need to be pointed in the right direction ask and if that doesn’t seem to work use a little sign language, like wave your swim suit around and soon someone will point you in the right direction.

Vietnamese are pretty conservative, so guys wear dark blue/black swim trunks or just shorts and t shirts – women also in t shirts with shorts or light weight pants, maybe an old school type swim suit, no bikinis. Anyway, it ain’t no Venice Beach.


The water was pretty chilly the day I visited but the air temp was the normal Saigon day of 90 plus. So it should be a good place to literally chill out and if you have kids they will love it.

Saigon and Tet 2009

Arrived back in Saigon a few days before the official start of Tet but the craziness had already begun. Streets filled with motorbikes, so what’s new; ya, but it seemed even more of them than normal and all in a rush, and again – OK, the same rush but this scene now had most bikes laden down with plants, flowers, cases of beer and all kinds of treats and gifts for the holiday. This getting ready for Tet is big stuff – parks are filled with flowers, trees and all kinds of special stuff for hearth and home. Street vendors increase in density and diversify, lit plastic devil horns where an especially hot item along with colored light gadgets you hold.

It can be hard for foreigners to appereciate all this effort required to get the holiday going and some may not understand why the Tet New Year is celebrated on a different day every year. Because as we all know the first of January as the start of the New year sp wjar'ts thos all about. Well, strange as it may seem there was civilized life before us, even a different calendar was established by the Chinese. This Chinese calander was pretty complicated and heady stuff, moon phases and all that were used as the bases for keeping track of the passing of time. Hence the lunar Year was created and the celebration of this in Vietnam is called Tet.

I don’t know about the rest of Vietnam but HCM City puts on a super duper show. The most dramtic event is the blocking off Nguyen Hue to motorized traffic and turning it into a giant walk through display of exotic tropical trees and flowers. Among all this living beauty are sculptured traditional characters and objects depicting the characters related to Tet, all this is lit in a fantastic show of show of lights and with traditional music cascading out.

The main street Le Loi, which terminates into Nguyen Hue is draped with lights and interwoven with artistic renditions of flowers creating a breath taking canopy over the entire boulevard. Bright red wrappings wound with more colored lights cover the trees lining the sides of the boulevard, giving a dramatic approach to the main show on Nguyen Hue.

It seems the celebration of Tet lasts about a week and during this many businesses close and so travel is big for Vietnamese during the period. Either heading back to the country side, Mekong, Hanoi, heading out for a holiday or just around town on your motorbike, Vietnam is in motion. While this is an interesting time, filled with tradition, so very interesting to us foreigners but traveling is just about impossible and many places of business are closed, even eating can be a challenge.

The opportunity for a new start is taken pretty serious, houses are cleaned from top to bottom, new clothes are bought and friends and family are visited and treated politely, gifts are given to insure transgression are over looked and things get off to a good start for the New Year.

Which leads us to Lucky money, my thinking is it’s kind of a karma thing coupled with the trickle down theory of economics carried out with in a little red envelope. So here is - a little red envelope with a crisp small denomination dong note inside, it’s passed from elders down or maybe hung with no money inside from a decorative Tet tree in the house where visitors are allowed to pluck one off for good luck. It’s really not about the value of what is inside but the concept of sharing your wealth for a New Year.

For me, after surviving the celebration of two new years, I know 2009, the year of the buffalo, is going to be a good one.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

On my way to Saigon - January 09

Lumpini Park - Bangkok noi

I’m passing through Bangkok on my way to Saigon from California. I saved enough money by using Bangkok as my gateway to covered the cost of a round trip ticket from Bangkok to Saigon.

The legacy carriers such as Air France, Thai Air, and United used to control the corridor between BKK and SGN until discounters like Air Asia came along. The new discounted fares are great but it seems Southeast Asia is trying to make their money on your baggage instead of your seat. It’s possible to pay more for the luggage you’re dragging around with you than your ticket. To save a few bucks they offer an option to prepay for your overage at a discount if you do it when you book the flight in person or on line. Though for guys like me that is a tough one, I don’t carry a scale and anyway I’m still stuffing things in my bag on the way to the airport

Another little get sha, - open seating is standard but for 20 bucks you can get pre boarding and snag that primo seat or have a good shot at it.

Air France was discounting BKK to SGN but the tab was still about a 40% premium over Air Asia. I took a ticket just because I didn’t want to deal with Air Asia but on check in found they also have a strict baggage allowance, per person a checked bag, 22 kg and 1 carry on, 8 kg. My checked came at 28 kg, with a big smile I started getting loud and acting a little crazy (they hate that) and digging stuff out of my checked bag and stuffing it into my carry on. They were so glad to have me gone they didn’t bother checking what I was carrying on, other than making me put my motorcycle helmet back in the checked bag. So in retrospect I’m not so sure if flying through BKK to save a buck is such a good deal but there are other reasons to pass through Bangkok.

One of those reasons are night spots like Soi Cowboy. Down the soi you'll find bar’s like Spicy Girls, Sheba, and Dun Dee, which all most likely evolved from days of old when this was a primo R&R spot for Vietnam War weary solders. The solders are now history only to be replaced by Indian’s, Japanese, Brits, and Australians on holiday and of course Doug.

As I sit on my bar stool taking advantage of happy hour, OK, happy two hour – 6:30 to 8:30, 40 – 80 baht a beer depending on the bar. It’s around 8:00 and the soi (alley) is a buzz with motor bikes ferrying the girls in for the night. As I watch this I can’t help but make the comparison between their start up ritual and bus tours I’ve been on, the bus finely arrives and we are rushed aboard, it races away only to stop shortly thereafter for gas. Much the same with the girls as they girls race down the soi side saddle astride motor bikes to their bar positions, hurriedly get dressed and apply their makeup, only to plop down, break out the chop sticks and top off the tank with a heaping plate of noddles. Pay attention as we will have a Q & A later, meet me at Soi Nana, you’re buying.

A few beers, a long day of sunny walking a little dizzy from watching all the hot chicks pass only to be shaken by a series of loud shirks. As a full grown elephant comes into view, like a couple feet from my outpost with his trainer riding atop as an assistant try’s to peddle food for folks to feed to the behemoth. I’ve seen baby elephants paraded around Bangkok before but this was a first for the jumbo variety. The authorities and animal rights groups are trying to discourage this kind of thing, they say it’s not fair to the animal and it could possible be hazardous to all. Yes, I’ll buy all that and I’m to cheap to get into feeding elephants. Anyway, between all the girls and I'm trying to imagine with all the traffic in Bangkok, along with it being illegal how the heck did they get this giant animal into the middle of the Bangkok?

Still have a few days more to go so I’m going to pace myself and head back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City
Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City and you’re thinking old news, ok, but not so fast. Saigon has changed so drastically over the past few decades it deserves a new name and Ho Chi Minh City is as good as any. After all uncle Hoe, as he is affectionately known, is the man behind the unification of North and South into one Vietnam.


The change in the city was slow and stumbling at first but in the last few years it has accelerated at a mind numbing pace. HCM now has a complete medley of designer shops – ranging from Gucci to Louis Vuitton, along with Tag Heuer, Bally and a Chloe boutique in the new Rex Hotel annex.
The Rex was the Hotel where higher up military were billeted during the war years and its roof top bar offering a great vantage point for the viewing of night skirmishes going on between Uncle Hoe’s guys and us.
Personally I hate change so it’s more than a little frustrating to head out to one of my favorite spots and find a vacant lot or instead of a Pho shop or a high end place specializing in Brazillion beef or some other exotic fare. Though to be fair all the changes aren’t just up scaling everything, there is the fairly new Pho 24 chain with its squeaky clean, hermetically sealed super efficient restaurants, while still offering Pho at a reasonable price -– kind of like the McDonald's of Pho.



They still haven’t completely forced out all the old Saigon, you can still find the odd street vendor and if you step off the tourist tract or away from the foreigner haunts you’ll find the basic street sellers of old. Complete with those little plastic kiddy chairs where good and cheap noodles are still available at a buck or less.

-coconut juice sellers Lam Son Square -

While pursing markets like Ben Thanh is fun but if you’re on a mission it can be frustrating, even for Vietnamese. So the new Uncle Hoe city has a multitude of 7/11 style, super cooled, buffed and polished mini marts opening all over the place. There prices seem to be in line with the market but without the haggling. Large department stores like Zen Plaza and retail areas like Saigon Center and the Tax Mart offer US style goods from hair care products to California wine and locale products all at fair prices. Today I noticed several newly opened Circle K mini marts to offer more help to meeting our shopping needs.


I’ve even seen some infrastructure improvements, like new sidewalks and traffic signals. I read about big plans the city has to provide potable water, low cost housing for the workers, even a subway but I’m thinking the government moves a bit slower than the private sector.

Even with all the changes, inside its still Saigon and you can still call it that if you want and no one will care. To celebrate the future we will call Saigon Ho Chi Minh City or whatever other name that is decided on.