Monday, February 23, 2015

Chuc Mung Nam Moi or Happy New Year (Again)

We celebrated the Vietnamese New Year (referred to as Tet) in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as it is often still called).  We had heard that Saigon would be even more crowded and crazy than Hanoi but because of Tet it's actually been much less busy because most people go home to their families for the holidays.  We haven't taken that many photos here because we've been told pickpockets and stealing are very prevalent especially around Tet, but it's all felt pretty safe.  Still we didn't go out with anything valuable when walking around.  We've been told gambling is rampant during Tet and some people want more money to gamble away so they steal.  It's a big, dirty feeling city, but there have been a few interesting sights and the food has been better in South Vietnam.

Still it doesn't have the variety of street food like Thailand did.  You can mainly get Banh Mi, which is a sandwich made on Vietnamese French bread which is still crusty on the outside, but lighter on the inside than regular French bread.  They are good, but you can only eat so many before looking for something else.  Pho (the famous noodle soup) has varied greatly in quality from place to place and the best hasn't been too different from our favorite Vietnamese place in Boston.  You can still get good cheap eats here, it's just that Thailand spoiled us.  The French influence creates some interesting fusion if you're willing to pay more in a restaurant.  


This is the Saigon Notre Dame Basilica which is the first big Catholic church we've seen in a while.  It was built by the French colonists.


The Tet celebration in the park.  There was lots of pop music and every singer had at least 8 backup dancers.  It was pretty entertaining, but Turkish pop music still takes the cake I think.  After the performances there were fireworks at midnight.  There wasn't even a countdown, it just hit 12 and fireworks started going up from the river, partially blocked by some buildings from where we were standing.  We had a good time watching with some people from our hostel.


This is the Reunification Palace (formerly Independence Hall).  It was the headquarters of the South Vietnamese government until they were overtaken in 1975.  You can tour the inside and much is left as it was back then making the whole place feel stuck in the 1970's.  You can even go down to the basement bunker where they still have all the old radio equipment.  It's an interesting place.  Here and to a greater extent at the War Remnants museum they talk about how the North liberated the South and the Americans are cast as murderous and aggressive.  Nowadays though, I haven't felt any ill will from locals if we tell them we're American.  The angriest person we've encountered in Vietnam was actually an American expat who took issue with how we were eating our pho.  Apparently smelling basil is dirty and spreads disease, I don't know.  I think it was misplaced anger from somewhere else.  I don't understand angry people.


This would be a busy market right outside our hostel, but it's Tet so it looks like a ghost town.


A statue at the Jade Emperor Pagoda which is crammed into the city so much that I actually walked past it first without realizing.  It was built by the Chinese in 1909.

Overall, Vietnam is an interesting place and we're glad we visited, but after four weeks we're also happy to be moving on.  We'll be able to walk on a sidewalk again without having to step on the street to weave around parked motorbikes, street vendors, and other assorted junk.  Next stop is Singapore for a few days where they follow all the rules and even made up some new ones to follow so that will be a change of pace.  Then we're off to Australia.

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