Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), the commercial heart of Vietnam

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with some trepidation. People and tour books had warned us that this 8-million-people city is "quite a handful": traffic that is out of control, pickpockets and people who try to rip tourists off.

We are pleased to say that only the crazy traffic really materialised in our case. We spent two days here and quite like this place. It's what Shanghai is (vs. Beijing) in China - it's the place where commerce flourishes most (while the other place is the political capital).

Compared to Hanoi, there are lots more commercial billboards, shops, street vendors, new building constructions, and - if that is possible - even more motorbikes on the road.

And in between you can still spot some remains from the old French colonial times when the city was still called Saigon, including some of the old grand hotels where people would enjoy the good life back then. They even have a catholic church called Notre Dame here. And a lovely Central Post Office, designed by Gustave Eiffel (the one who also built the tower), which looks like a train station from the outside and has a big portrait of "Uncle Ho" inside. Plus a City Hall and an opera building, both of which clearly also go back to the French days.

After the Vietnam War, when the communist North Vietnam triumphed over the South Vietnamese army (which was backed by the US), the country got unified and Hanoi became the capital for all of Vietnam. To really drive the point home that the South had lost the war, Saigon got renamed - you guessed it - Ho Chi Minch City by the new rulers in the North (even though many people today still refer to the city here as Saigon).

We visited - at length - the so called Reunification Palace, which was once the palace of the South Vietnamese president (until 1975 when the North Vietnamese took over). An interesting history lesson, obviously written from the winner's point of view.

After all this big history we found some peace and calm in a Taoist temple. Lucy and Fiona were - albeit briefly - owners of some pretty fish, before we then released them in the temple pond as an offering to the temple. (No doubt, the fish will be back in a plastic bag tomorrow, waiting for the next donor...)

Plus we undertook a cyclo tour through the center of town, which seemed the easier and safer alternative to trying to cross the manic roads as a pedestrian.

We found some lovely restaurants and a great shop (called "Dogma") which has put communist propaganda imagery onto all sorts of commercial items.

Here is a slideshow with some images from our time in HCMC / Saigon:

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Tomorrow we are leaving Vietnam. Next stop Cambodia...