Around town in HCMC

Our remaining days were spent in District 1, the central-most area, also home to the swankiest hotels and restaurants, endlessly wandering the streets, parking ourselves on busy corners continuing to people-watch the infinite array of motorbike/people/cargo permutations.  We had difficulty understanding the need for opera-length gloves and sweatshirts many women wore in the staggering heat, and were amazed by the variety of face masks that the vast majority of the riders wear.   Everywhere someone is selling something.  Either they are busy with their micro sidewalk eateries, or selling “fast” food—untold varieties of unrecognizable bite-sized morsels on small wooden skewers, buns filled with a solid looking chunk of “pate”, along with a mixture of vegetables—, cigarettes, sunglasses, hats, and finally, everywhere, sitting in child-sized chairs, people sipping quantities of iced coffee—clearly, the beverage of choice for most locals.  All of this with a soundtrack of motorbikes, the cacophony of the incomprehensible language, and a background of copious amounts of overhead cables.  An electrical storm nightmare on steroids.

We visited a lovely museum dedicated to the patriarch and previous President, Ho Chi Minh, in a lovely pavilion along the Saigon River, loaded with all manner of photographs detailing the national hero’s life and dedication to educating the masses of his country, his fervent belief in the power of communist ideals, and his travels and accomplishments.  Despite his having died prior to the end of what the Vietnamese refer to as the “American” war—he died in September of 1969—, he is still revered by the populace at large today, in this country of people predominantly too young to have lived his presence.

We also toured the obligatory Museum of War Remembrances, which details the course of the American presence, initially backing the French, and then their eventual escalation into full-scale war.  The most compelling of the exhibits shows a compilation of photojournalists’ photos—French, Vietnamese, American, Japanese and others--, and shows the full spectrum of the war—from its darkest side of destruction,  devastation and killing, to the more mundane moments of the average peasant.—.  There are also stomach-turning exhibits on the horrors of chemical defoliation and the subsequent—and continued—impact on prevalent genetic diseases and deformations.  It really is difficult to believe that war is ever truly justifiable.

Fairly close to this latter museum is a lovely Buddhist pagoda, which we caught at the end of the day, with the resident monk chanting through a loudspeaker.  Reminiscent of the imams calling the faithful to prayer in Turkey—that shattering of all peace and quiet that we, at least, associate with the world of a Buddhist temple.

We managed to pick up our first assortment of local fruit to sample for a quiet, in-room meal.  Dragonfruit: a beautiful pink fruit with a refreshing inside of white meat with tiny edible seed.  Rambutans: delicious juicy lychees, and star apples(in Vietnamese vu sua, which means breast milk, as the fruit is white inside and looks milky).   Before we leave HCMC, we’ll still visit the area called Cholon---essentially, HCMC’s original Chinatown.

		Around town: HCMC VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL