Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is the business and financial hub of Vietnam, with a prominent history going back hundreds of years. The Khmers originally settled the region, with the Vietnamese taking over in the 17th century. The French conquered Saigon, as it was then known, in 1859, and made it the capital of Cochin China in 1862, which resulted in numerous elegant architecture and broad boulevards that are still present to this day. At the peak of the Vietnam War in 1969, the city had 4.5 million inhabitants who were all evacuated when Saigon and the rest of the South fell to North Vietnam in 1975.
The city has recovered in the 30 years since then, with the current population at over 7 million. It was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after the spiritual leader of Vietnamese Communism, but residents were so reluctant to adopt the new name that authorities kept the official name but the city centre is still called Saigon.
Today, Ho Chi Minh City is a popular tourist destination due to its fascinating culture, classic French architecture, and sleek skyscrapers as well as ornate temples and pagodas. The city is also filled with rooftop bars that overlook Saigon and beyond, while fantastic restaurants offer a combination of French, Chinese, and, of course, local Vietnamese cuisine. Source: vietnam-guide.com
Phu My, Vietnam
Where in the world are we?
Today, we finally found the Southeast Asia I’d been expecting to see all along, but hadn’t yet. We had a great time in HCMC, not because we visited museums or memorials but because we spent hours wandering the streets and markets, where we were alternately entertained and shocked by what we saw. We loved it (and I was strongly reminded of my visit to several cities in China).
After much discussion and debate, we decided to book the Princess excursion ‘Ho Chi Minh City On Your Own’. Much like our excursion to Paris almost two months ago, this one provided transportation to and from the city (90-120 minutes away, depending on traffic), a guide while on the bus and a map. It was a little tough to get going this morning after last night’s Most Traveled Guest cocktail party, but we had been awakened even before our 6:30am alarm by the sound of the ship’s horn. Apparently, some small fishing boats were not yielding to the far less flexible Sapphire Princess. We had breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet and were in the Princess Theater to join our tour group by 8:15am.
Our guide, Rose, told us a few things about Vietnam and HCMC specifically while en route to the city, but she was quite difficult to understand, and we soon just occupied ourselves by looking out the windows at the very different world we were in. Close to the port of Phu My (pronounced “me”), we went through an area of one shop after another, right on the street. I suspect that people lived behind the shop or upstairs. And, most entertaining were the thousands of motorbikes, some carrying entire families, others carrying large boxes or even several yards of flexible PVC plumbing pipe looped around the driver’s body. We saw a mother with a baby on her chest and a toddler in a sling behind her while navigating traffic, but it seemed like most children, by the age of 3 or so, knew to just hold on and not let go.
Workers in rice paddies
We arrived in HCMC at 10:20am and were dropped off right in front of the Bitexco Building, a 58 floor high rise with a cantilevered helicopter pad nearly at the top. For about US $7 each, we were able to ride an elevator to the 50th floor observation area, a pristine area with floor to ceiling windows that looked down on the craziness of the city’s streets. We used the opportunity to figure out in which direction we wanted to walk. Also on the observation level was a special exhibit about the traditional Vietnamese dress with slits up each side, worn over loose fitting pants. These are called ao dai. Part of the exhibit was a video showing the changes in ao dai over the last several hundred years. It was fascinating. We also made a point to use the very clean, very new western-style bathrooms complete with toilet paper and hand soap and high tech dryers. ‘Cause we knew we wouldn’t be finding a lot of those in the city!
View from 50th floor of Bitexco building
Traditional Vietnamese dress called an ao dai 
Hand painted ao dai
We started off in the direction of Ben Thranh Market, a huge maze of aisles and aisles of tiny stalls packed with souvenirs, food items and just about anything else one might want, However, we took our time getting there. All along the way we were greeted with scenes we don’t see at home, and locals who, when asked, were happy to have their photos taken. I remember the first time we saw people selling things off plastic tarps on the ground. It was in Antigua, and we were kind of shocked that people shopped that way. Now we realize that much of the world shops like that, and that our huge superstores at home with their large parking lots are the anomaly.
Transporting rice
HCMC grocery store
Street side vendor
Bicycle peddler
Dining al fresco, Vietnamese style
Dried fish for sale
Once at Ben Thranh Market, we had no specific shopping goal in mind, but started walking through the maze of stalls. Naturally, we were pulled in by every vendor trying to show us his or her (mostly her) wares. By chance, G found a high quality Fly Emirates t-shirt that he has been wanting. The price for the shirt and matching shorts (which he didn’t even want) started at $30. He ended up paying $10. We continued on, past stall after stall of clothing, silk items and lacquered boxes into an area where soaps and toiletries were sold. Unbelievably, G spotted Irish Spring soap. He has been looking for it everywhere we’ve gone, and I told him that was probably a useless exercise is Southeast Asia. Well, Ben Thranh came through.
As we continued through the market, we started asking if anyone sold laundry detergent. Except we couldn’t just ask as most people didn’t speak English. Instead we used the bar of Irish Spring and asked “Soap for clothes” and acted out scrubbing G’s T-shirt with the soap. Sure enough, that worked, and a man led us halfway across the market to a stall selling bags of liquid Surf detergent. Luckily I had a lot of $1 bills, because we were paying for the soap and detergent with them. Everything cost less than $1 US, and though we really didn’t want change, we ended up with about 20000 Vietnamese Dong worth less than $1. Honestly, if theVietnamese just revalued their money and eliminated the need for people to say “thousand” at least a thousand times each day, I bet productivity would take a giant leap (Vietnam already has one of the highest economic growth rates in the world).
Selling sweets at Ben Thran market
G actually found Irish Spring soap
So, laden with items we either hadn’t been looking for or didn’t expect to find, we made our way down a couple of different streets, eating all the way. I was trying all sorts of local food (again, everything was less than $1) but G is not nearly as adventurous when it comes to trying different foods, so he stuck with the local beers and French fries…lots of each. We were taking photos and drinking beer (G) and trying foods (me) all the way back to the Bitexco Building, where the bus was picking us up at 3.20pm. By the time we got there, we were hot and tired and ready for some AC. Things were pretty quiet on the bus on the way back to the ship.
I wanted to take him home!
Bitexco Building
Streetside cooking
Traditional transport
Produce for sale curbside
Green Grab helmets- Uber for motorbikes
Three wheeled pickup motorbike
They carry everything on their motorbikes
Only one of us had time to shower before dinner and I won rock-paper-scissors and took a 2 minute shower. We made it to the Vivaldi Dining Room, each ate a two course dinner and then were at the 7:15pm performance of production show Born to be Wild (it was an early performance for late seating diners because of the Country Western party being held later tonight). I think G slept through most of it but he claims he only slept through part of it.
Tomorrow is a sea day, and G intends to sleep through part of it but I may just sleep through most of it. We’ve been traveling for eight weeks today, and even if I’d lost track, my body is keeping copious notes. ;-)