Day 8 – Exploring Saigon
For the first time, I actually got a chance to just stroll
around Ho Chi Minh a bit. The city is probably best known from a tourism aspect
for what is outside the city (Mekong) but there are some hidden gems inside
this massive metropolis. Ho Chi Minh City is truly just gigantic in its size,
but I’ll give them credit for not having awful traffic like a Bangkok.
I started out with a nice list of spots to hit, ranging from
Museums to Pagodas to shops and of course food. The itinerary was packed, but
manageable despite a late start caused by another late night the night before.
The first stop was the War Remnants Museum, which was an
eye-opening experience. At a high level, I know the general outline of what the
Vietnam War was about, why the US was pretty dumb to enter/escalate it. That
millions lost their lives. All that makes sense. But being American, and
growing up in a country that would, sadly understandably, not expose all of
their horrors to school children, I didn’t know the full extent. I still
probably don’t, but after visiting the War Remnants Museum, I’m a lot closer.
The museum is three floors, all fairly small. It starts as a
fairly routine museum, with the top floor talking about the lead-up to and then
the action throughout the war. The second floor, however, had its main exhibit
called “War Crimes”, so I knew things would be different, and my God were they.
I’ve been to Auschwitz. I’ve been to the killing fields in Cambodia. This was
right up there, the staggering photos of horror. The museum did not hold back –
to be fair a lot of it was repurposing award winning photojournalism at the
time.
The photos were horrific, first of the aptly entitled ‘war
crimes’, showing the carnage and destruction of war. Obviously, they’re portrayal
is biased on the other side, and dozens of thousands of US troops died as well –
a lot of them themselves not wanting or believing in the war – but fair enough.
More of them died. The next set of exhibits focused on the Agent Orange
chemical attacks that were meant to defoliate the region, but instead also
poisoned hundreds of thousands. Again, this was all fairly gruesome, but also very
educational and haunting.
Overall, the War Remnants Museum is a must visit. The legacy
of the country is how they’ve recovered from that senselessly violent conflict.
What was Saigon at the time was rocked. Today, about 35-40 years later, the
city is thriving, clean, gaining, living.
My next stop was lunch at Guac Ngon restaurant, a large,
open-air house with a giant catalog style menu. It is known for being a very
popular high-throughput place, which it most certainly was. They turn tables quick.
The place was a machine, but I have to say the food was quite good as well. I
got a sampling of three things, a nice chicken, bamboo & cassava soup, a
rice paper pork roll dish (basically a pork version of the beef dish I had an
Hoa Tuoc) and finally a pork skin spring roll. All three were good, the setting
was great, and while Ngon may be a tourist mainstay, it is decidedly not a
tourist trap.
After lunch, my tourism was going to get a bit more spiritual,
going to three of the city’s most known pagodas. There are dozens scattered
throughout HCMC, and these all showed up on various lists and/or had the best
ratings on Google.
The first was the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which was probably
the least impressive of the three, but the most crowded, the one that seemed
the most like an active establishment. There were dozens of people mingling
around, going in every direction, bowing before every image of some God or diety.
The temple also had a couple pools which featured turtles nad giant catfish
which was a nice touch.
The second temple was probably the most grand, the Vinh Nim
Pagoda, which had a large courtyard with a giant statue in front, multiple
fancy gates and open halls. Large buddha statues emblazoned in gold. It was a truly
serene scene, smack dab in the middle of a busy street in Ho Chi Minh. While I
guess this is, in theory, no different than churches being randomly strewn
about a Rome or Paris, but given how bustling and lively and hectic the streets
of Ho Chi Minh area it just seemed more impressive.
The final pagoda was the Xiao Li pagoda, which was at the
corner of a street, with a really cute courtyard and open building. It was
probably in between the prior two in terms of fanciness, but was probably also
the most green of the three, with manicured little trees all over the place.
Overall, the pagodas were all beautiful, and I love the extent that Daoists or
Buddhists or other religions will go to make these places little perfect slices
of spirituality.
After the three pagodas, I went for a quick beer at Pasteur
Street Brewery. The beer again was good and the crowd was lively. On the whole,
I am very impressed with the craft beer culture in Ho Chi Minh. It probably isn’t
to Taipei’s level of the beer itself, as here the craft breweries are all
pushing their hangout angle more than the beer. But still, it’s a great place
to waste away for a couple hours.
After the beer, I walked down one of Ho Chi Minh’s larger
main thoroughfares, the one that ends in the opera house and has a walking drag
in the middle. I have to say, Ho Chi Minh City is way more upscale, modern and –
to put it bluntly – clean than I was expecting, and what I remember from my
brief time here in 2013. It is great to see, but also makes me more sad of how
cities in India just pale in comparison, despite some relative comparative
advantages (more wealthy people, admittedly more poor also by sheer volume).
My final stop was a gourmet food store named Annam, which was
quite fancy, but a bit disappointing as for them ‘gourmet’ food meant mostly
stuff imported from other countries – basically their craft beer selection
included Rogue Brewing. That was a quick stop, but still a nice one to see such
a store in Ho Chi Minh.
After going back for some R&R, and a sad bit of re-packing,
I ventured out for dinner at HOME Finest Vietnamese, an upscale restaurant in northern
Ho Chi Minh (still just a 20 min uber in peak weekend traffic). The restaurant
is gorgeous, another semi-open residence style building. They had a set menu,
but it seemed a bit boring, so I went with a few random choices instead which
both worked well. The first was a coconut seafood soup, stuffed with large prawns,
squid and fish in a delectabale broth, all put inside a mini coconut.
My main was a duck breast cooked in five spices. It was
amazing. Overall, I’ve had far too little duck so far in my time in Vietnam as
it is one of the staples of Vietnamese cooking as a main. I need this to
change.
After dinner, I headed back to The Gin House – the style
there is really great, especially with weekend music. Overall, alcohol is cheap
in Vietnam, but probably relative to regular food, a bit expensive. Cocktails
at The Gin House, all unbelievably concocted, were 200,000 VND (about 8 dollars).
The Observatory was walking distance away and was another great time. They had
a nice DJ both outside on their semi-rooftop, and inside which a small EDM
club. The place is basically 75% westerners, but after talking to quite a few
of them, I learned most have re-settled in Vietnam, and weren’t necessarily
tourists like me.
On the way back, I stopped at a road-side pho place, which
was probably the most rustic meal I had during my time in Ho Chi Minh. The pho
was good, the broth a lot better than the normal pho you get in the US. It was
a great way to end a busy day in Ho Chi Minh.
As I’ve finished my time in Ho Chi Minh aside from basically
a meal tomorrow morning, I think I can confidently say that it will end up in
the 20s somewhere on ym list of cities. Ho Chi Minh City is still growing, and
in all the right ways (though apparently overcrowding is a concern). The food
is fantastic, the energy in the city is great. The tourism is solid. Everything
about the city just sings.
