sheraton saigon

Does Cholon sound like Sheraton Saigon? The taxi driver who was supposed to take us to the Cholon Area of Ho Chi Minh City (or to adopt the local name for it, Saigon) ended up bringing us to the Sheraton Saigon. Sadly we are not customers there. We took the long roundabout route to Cholon in the end, with the taxi driver pausing several times during the trip to ask other drivers for directions.

Today marks the last full day we will spend in Vietnam. We spent the day exploring Saigon, visiting various temples and the Binh Tay market in the Chinatown (Cholon) area of Saigon in the morning before visiting the Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum respectively. The initial plan was to tour the Mekong Delta for half a day but the travel agencies around the Pham Ngu Lao area where we are bunking in offered only full day tours which included visits to places we were not interested in, so we decided against visiting the Mekong Delta.

Walking through Chinatown was fun, although the Chinatown here is not half as happening as the one in Bangkok. You can sense when you have reached Chinatown when you see an abundance of red and yellow coloured shops selling typical Chinese goods like Chinese herbs, cakes and lion dance equipment. The surfeit of time we had made the experience more enjoyable as we could afford the luxury of roaming aimlessly around and getting lost while making our way to Binh Tay Market.

I have a sneaky feeling that many Vietnamese understand Mandarin. It is discomforting to hear shopkeepers speak to you in Mandarin after we bitched about prices in front of them in Mandarin, thinking that they do not understand a word. That said, most shopkeepers I met so far are nice and good natured.

Prices at the markets vary widely. Chun Wee asked for the price of pepper and got a wide wide range of quoted prices. Also, Ben Thanh Market (the main market in Saigon) is getting too touristy and prices quoted are usually higher than what the locals normally pay for goods. Hence we decided not to buy our Trung Nguyen coffee at the Market, and to buy the coffee at the Trung Nguyen store round the corner near the Market instead.

The weather in Saigon is surprisingly cool. The wind blows for the larger part of the day and while the sky threatens to pour constantly, it has not done so yet. The most rain we get are slight drizzles that do not require the use of umbrellas or raincoats. The skies are cloudy and the sun gets obscured most of the time, and hence it is cool in the daytime. It is surprising to note that the weather in Hanoi is much warmer than that in Saigon during our respective stays in the two cities, since Hanoi experiences four seasons and is situated much further north from Saigon.

The effects of Saigon’s longer exposure to the capitalistic ways is apparent. Saigon shows more signs of prosperity than Hanoi with its cleaner, better-maintained roads and abundance of taller buildings. Things seem to be run more efficiently here; I actually see policemen walking around patrolling the streets and helping tourists in need, and the taxis we have taken so far in Saigon do not have rigged meters.

My experience of the people in Saigon has been pleasant too. A moto-driver whizzed past us and called out “Singapore!”; he remembered our faces when he saw us earlier. The university student who was our guide during our tour of the Reunification Palace was chatty and eager to know more about us. The store vendors selling local market food in the market in Cholon did not overcharge us for food and were visibly happy that foreigners like us are sampling their local market food. I feel that Saigon people are slightly nicer than Hanoi people, but then again I might be over-generalising.

—

Eating breakfast in Chinatown is probably the best food experience I had so far in Vietnam. The food is cheap, tasty and served with warm hearts.

We had the Vietnamese variation of prawn noodles for our main breakfast. To be more accurate, it is actually seafood noodles: rice noodles served in a sweet sweet sweet soup broth with 5 pieces of fresh prawns, one piece of squid, 3 pieces of fish and one piece of yong tau food (the kind where a chili is stuffed with fish paste). On top of this, the noodles are served with a mountain made of three kinds of fresh vegetables and slices of lime. All this for only 25,000 dong, which is about 2 SGD.

Dumplings was next. They were stuffed with yellow bean paste and dunked in a sweet syrup with coconut milk poured on top. Some of the dumplings were smaller without the paste inside. The lady selling the dessert asked us where we were from, and she was smiling while we bought our portions.

The Vietnamese also drinks soya bean milk. We had cups of it at another stall owned by a grandmotherly woman. She also sold a dessert where green jelly pieces is soaked in a sweet soup with coconut milk.

—

Tomorrow is our last day in Vietnam. We will be eating breakfast at a local market just round the corner on Pham Ngu Lao Street, before packing our bags and heading for the airport. Vietnam has been a mixed bag for me personally but it is an experience that will not be forgotten in a hurry nevertheless. I really don’t mind staying longer here but the start of school beckons. Here’s to the end of our adventure in Vietnam, and the start of a new academic year.