Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the mrlukeniktravels blog coming from Saigon, Vietnam. I have now arrived in the tenth country of my trip! As a constant, it is still usually raining here just like Cambodia. I flew over from Siem Reap at the end of last week in a twin propeller plane. When a member of the cabin crew opened the door in front of me I could see my checked baggage in the rack. The flight was short which I preferred over many hours on a bus. Our approach to Saigon was during a rainstorm and felt particularly bumpy. The plane was being buffeted by the wind and there were a few muffled gasps from other passengers. Once safely on the ground, it was time to get into the city, check into a hostel and begin the Vietnam leg of my trip.
Saigon is Vietnam’s largest city, home to 13 million people and 10 million motorbikes. It is also known as Ho Chi Minh City, the two names being a remnant of the time the country was divided into North and South Vietnam. The city is mixture of modern development and colonial architecture built by France during almost a century of colonial rule. Most of these buildings were constructed of imported materials taking many years to build. I have seen a number of Notre Dame cathedrals during my travels, but Saigon’s certainly is a good one. During a motorbike tour of the city I got to see a good number of historic buildings. The roads in the city are smooth and paved so not so shaky handlebars for me! During the tour I also got to taste some local delicacies including Bun Bao (dumplings) and Ban Mi (French baguette and fillings).
My tour also included riding through some of the many markets and districts away from the tourist areas. It is important to remember that most of the city and its inhabitants don’t live surrounded by lots of foreigners and hotels. As rents in the city are high, many people live in crowded apartment buildings three or four storeys high. I enjoyed getting a feel of the city away from Districts 1 and 3. As I mentioned with the figure earlier, there are motorbikes everywhere in the city. Buying and owning a car in Vietnam is very expensive, mainly due to tax rates. Public transport is often slow and inconvenient so motorbikes rule the roads. I enjoyed the experience of riding around the city and will be doing more as I go north towards Hanoi. The rural scenery is supposed to be beautiful, so I’m looking forward to that.
Yesterday I went out of the city to visit Chu Chi, known for the tunnel system used between 1948 and 1975. Originally built to fight French colonial forces, the tunnels became famous during the American War (also known as the Vietnam War). At their fullest extent the tunnels were 250km long and linked six villages. The area had 500,000 tons of bombs dropped on it during a ten year period including Agent Orange. Today, a small section remains open for tourists, along with demonstrations of traps and infrastructure used by the Viet Cong. The tunnels were very dark and cramped, despite the fact they had been enlarged for tourists to enter! I found walking crouched down very hard on the knees but not too claustrophobic. The ingenuous ways the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communist guerillas) recycled American allied material against them was quite impressive.
That is almost it for this week’s quick update, I shall be back next week further north, heading towards Hanoi. I will now give my customary reminder that for more regular updates you can follow my on Twitter with the handle @mrlukeniktravel. For photos and other things, my Instagram is @mrlukeniktravels. A third option is to subscribe to this blog via the button below so you will receive an email as soon as I press publish! Finally, from Saigon until next time, stay safe and travel on!
