Short Stay in Saigon

Slaloming on the Saigon River

 

 

We arrived in Saigon after a 4 ½ voyage up the Saigon River.  It’s known as the Saigon slalom because of the narrow channel and all the twists and turns.  At one point, we made a 360 degree turn into the port narrowly missing a couple of barges and numerous fishing boats.  I was grateful to be travelling on a small ship which could journey up the river because while in Saigon we met some tourists who were travelling on a larger ship which had docked at the ocean port.  They had endured a 2-hour bus ride into the city.  I’ve had it with bus rides already.  

 

If Hanoi is an elegant city in the style of French colonial cities, Saigon is an elegant city in a more modern, cosmopolitan style.  We paid a taxi at the port to take us on a short tour of the city center.  We contracted for an hour’s tour…the exact duration of the actual tour was a matter of dispute at the end, but the doorman at the Rex Hotel helped to sort that out to everyone’s satisfaction.  At least it was to my satisfaction; I’m not so sure about the taxi driver.  His English was not good, so we’re not even that sure about what we saw, but the distance travelled in the hour plus of tour (which included a stop for gas) was a distance that probably could’ve been walked in about the same amount of time.  Saigon’s traffic not only rivals that of Hanoi, it beats it; however, it is slightly more organized with the occasional pedestrian crossing light that garners some attention from the motorbikes.  The advice we got from our Hanoi guide worked best—if you start across the street, pay attention and just keep walking.  To stop is a mistake which I found out the hard way.

We ended up at the Rex Hotel which was the Headquarters of the American Information Service during the Vietnam War.  The American press would gather there every evening at 5:00 p.m. for a briefing known as the Five O’clock Follies.  It’s an elegant hotel with a rooftop bar overlooking the traffic below.  I ventured forth to buy a new camera because I had dropped mine in Hué, but I ended up finding a shop which passed up a sale.  They said they could fix it, and they did!  All-in-all, we spent only a few hours in Saigon, but that felt like enough.