Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), VIETNAM

August 22 - 26, 2007

It was already after 4pm when we cleared Tan Son Nhat Airport. A young taxi driver approached us and offered to take us to our hotel for USD15 (RM52). I told him I had been to HCMC many times, VND100,000 (RM23) was more than generous. He relented.

I had not been back to HCMC since the beginning of this year. Before, I came here almost every other month, mostly on business and golf. It has not changed much except for some road construction works. It adds more chaos to the already congested roads. It was a slow drive to the hotel. This is the first trip for my wife and son. I couldn’t wait to show them around.


Rex Hotel

We checked into Rex Hotel located at the junction of Nguyen Hue and Le Loi in District 1. It is within walking distance to Ben Thanh Market, HCMC’s top tourist draw. The hotel was voted as Vietnam’s top hotel in 2006 by Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. The sign on the wall proudly says “Top of the Top Ten Hotel”. The Rooftop Garden was selected as one of the best bars of South East Asia by Newsweek magazine in 1996. The bar was known as the venue for the “5 o’clock Follies” by the international correspondents covering the war. The bar is listed in Patricia Schultz’s “1001 Places to See Before You Die”.

One of the 1001 places you must see before you die.

After dropping off our bags, we headed straight to Ben Thanh Market. It was hot and humid. Traffic was chaotic, made worse by thousands of motorbikes on the road. Half of HCMC’s 7 (my friend Nhan said 9) million population are said to own motorbikes. The ratio of motorbikes to cars is estimated at 20 to 1. The sight of traffic on green light is like thousands of motorbikes moving at almost the same speed, zigzagging to avoid bigger vehicles. It takes some skills and a lot of courage to cross the streets.
Ben Thanh Market

Ben Thanh Market is the place claiming to have everything that a person may need. It is crammed with clothes, bags, shoes on one side and foodstuffs, trinkets, and other things on another side. The tourists throng the place for a good bargain and bargain is a must. As a rule of thumb, start to haggle the price by knocking off two third of the asking price and work upward.

Shopping inside Ben Thanh Market

From Ben Thanh, I wanted to walk to Sinh Café where all the cheap tours are sold. It is located at Pham Ngu Lao Street, widely known as the backpackers’ street. Just as we crossed the road at the roundabout in front of Ben Thanh, a cyclo (Vietnamese version of a trishaw) approached and offered a ride. For 2 cyclos, the guys agreed at VND15,000 each. They would take us to Sinh Café and back to our hotel. I thought it was a good bargain.

Coconut juice break by the road side

The cyclos pedaled their way slowly to our destination. Nguyen, my driver even stopped to make sure I held my backpack in a secure mode, tightly wrapped around me. His friend, carrying Ton and Anas said it was to protect against “motorcycle gangster”. These two guys must be the nicest persons in HCMC we met. His friend even helped us to cross the street when we reached Sinh Café.

The nice cyclo man who later robbed us

Sinh Café is not a café, it is a tour agent office. From the looks of it, they are doing brisk business in ferrying tourists around HCMC. We booked a full day’s tour to My Tho and Ben Tre in Mekong delta. It advertised for USD7 but charged USD8. A private tour charges 5 - 6 times the amount.

Uncle Ho & the People Committee Building

After booking our tour we went back to the 2 waiting cyclos. One of them was kind enough to again help us cross the street. It was getting dark as we cycled back to our hotel. When we reached the Ben Thanh roundabout, they started drifting to the right away from Le Loi Street. I asked Nguyen why. He said cyclos are not allowed on that particular street. An offence attracts very heavy penalty. As we drifted further and further to the street with less and less people, I started to sense that it was a trap. I told Ton to prepare for any eventuality.

When we reached what seemed to be a deserted area, Nguyen started to talk to his friend in Vietnamese and they both stopped. They ordered us out and I started to argue. They told us that it was as far as they would go and asked for payment. I was helpless and gave VND20,000 each, 5,000 more than the agreed price. They flatly refused. Nguyen’s friend remarked that the amount couldn’t even buy a pack of his cigarettes. A taxi ride would only cost me VND15,000.

They demanded VND300,000 each, more than the cost of 2 days tour to Mekong Delta. I tried to put up a futile argument. Fearing for the safety of my family, I gave VND300,000 to Nguyen’s friend. He appeared to be more threatening. He must be the ring leader. Nguyen asked for his share of another VND300,000. I told them that the amount was already 10 times of what I was supposed to pay. They let us go. It was a long walk back to our hotel.

Ton in front of the Opera House

I was really pissed-off on the whole cyclo episode. I knew from tourist brochures that taking cyclo ride at night is a big no. Sinh Café is within walking distance to our hotel. I could have taken a cab for a lot less. It would be safer. The noise from roadside construction and the anger of being cheated kept me awake until the wee hours of Thursday morning.

The cyclo incidence gave me a bad vibe. I decided to cancel the Mekong Delta tour and forfeited the payment made. From the brochures, I sensed lack of safety procedures. The motorized boats are small in size. There are no life jackets. As in other part in South East Asia, overloading is a standard practice. It is better to play safe and skip the trip. For the record, both Anas and I are non swimmers.

We decided to go shopping at Ben Thanh in the morning. After lunch, we took a cab to the War Museum. The ride cost only VND15,000. The museum is a 3-storey building but the exhibits are all found on the ground floor. There are American tanks, airplanes, Huey helicopters, and other arsenals on display in the compound. The indoor exhibit is mostly photo story of American war crimes in Vietnam. When we finished going though the photos and reading of massacres, it started to rain. We watched a video show, mostly in black and white, which was of poor quality.

War Museum

When the downpour reduced to a drizzle, we bought ponchos and walked around the yard. There was an exhibit of “tiger cage” where the hard core prisoners were shackled and caged. An old guillotine used by the French during their colonial rule was on display. A photo of the last Vietnamese patriot to have his head chopped off was on show. The museum was small but the impact was profound. You can’t help feeling sorry for the Vietnamese and develop that anti American feeling.

The following day we booked a cab to go to Cu Chi Tunnel. It is located about 70km from HCMC. It was a slow ride and took about 90 minutes. There were too many bikes on the road. Our driver kept honking to get the motorbikes out of the way. “Many bink bink in Malaysia?” he asked me, referring to his non stop honking. I told him if we honk the way he did we would get killed by irate motorists.

Tunnel entrance

Cu Chi had a new facelift. There was a walking tunnel entrance to get to the other side. A year ago, we just crossed the road from the place selling the tickets. After the customary video show, we followed a group of tourists, mostly westerners under one English speaking guide. Walking under the many trees provided cool respite from the midday heat. The guide took us to the many tunnel entrances, too small to fit the westerners. I believed they had expanded a tunnel to let the bigger size tourists to crawl along. We stopped at a refreshment hut half way through the tour. I went to the nearby shooting range to fire 10 rounds from AK47 for VND200,000. It jammed most of the time. I wonder how a Vietcong could rely on that rifle in a fight.

One of the many entrances to 250km tunnels

It rained very heavily on our way back to HCMC. There were very much less motorcycles on the road when it was raining. It would have made our journey faster if not for the many flash floods along the way.

Snake & scorpion wine anyone?

The next day, we took a cab to the Reunification Palace, the former palace of South Vietnamese President. It was here that 2 North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates and marked the downfall of Saigon.

Tank 843 that crashed through the palace gate

Ton spent more time in our hotel room because she needed to finish piles of works before Monday. Anas and I would go out to have lunch or dinner and took out for Ton. She stayed up almost every night.

Anas having a splashing time at the rooftop swimming pool

We could only manage to go on short sight seeing trip and then back to the room for Ton to do her work. When time permitted we would go for dinner at one of two halal restaurants nearby, Bombay Restaurant, a small sidewalk café serving Indian food or Four Seasons Restaurant for Malaysian-Vietnamese food. Four Seasons is the pricier of the two.

Super strong Vietnamese coffee - keeps you awake until 3AM

It also happened to be rainy season in Vietnam. Whenever it rained, normally in the evening, we just spent our time inside the hotel. Ton with her work, Anas at the Internet room and occasionally I sneaked into the in-house mini casino at Bingo Club. That was our routine during our stay in Vietnam.