The Traffic
The first thing that anyone will notice about Saigon is the traffic. The traffic is dominated by scooters and some hybrid between a scooter and a motorcycle. As we were walking around I took that picture of the traffic passing by. And yes, that is a person driving, or scootering I guess you could call it, on the sidewalk on the right side of the picture.
I felt very stressed in the taxi on the way from the airport because from my point of view it seemed as though we nearly killed about 40 or 50 scooter riders. But driving is just a totally different experience in Saigon. To the newb sitting in a taxi it would seem as though there are no rules and in fact there very likely may be no rules or at least very few rules to follow. The only rules that I could discern from watching the traffic were:
- if there is a stop light you should follow its directions (stop lights were rare).
- Don’t get hit.
- Don’t go to fast.
- Pedestrians will take care of themselves, do not stop for them.
At first I thought crossing the street in Saigon would be much worse than in Bangkok. At least in Bangkok stop lights were common. But in Saigon people tent to follow the 3rd rule. It seems that they never go above about 25mph so they have the time to avoid you. With the amount of traffic that is common in Saigon it makes sense that the traffic would go so slow, but later we found that even on the more empty highways, if you can call them that, the drivers never go above around 50mph. But that is another issue. Anyways, crossing the street is a very counter-intuitive process in Saigon. My first instinct was to try to run across as fast as possible, we were attempting to cross a road that was about 100 feet across. It’s a good thing we didn’t do that because we probably would have gotten killed.
Before I attempted my daring sprint across the perilous road we saw some natives crossing the street. They SLOWLY walked across the street one step at a time. At times they even stopped and waited. What happens is as you cross the street traffic flows around you. This works because everyone follows rule number 3. The key is to just trust that the people around you are skilled drivers and are able to avoid you. This trust gets much easier as you walk around Saigon and see exactly how the traffic works. When you see amazing things like an intersection with no stop signs or stop lights or any type of traffic control regulate itself perfectly you start to understand that these people are extremely good drivers or they are somehow psychic. It is possible that they are psychic I guess but I am leaning towards the good driver conclusion.
If you have watched those videos of red blood cells flowing from two arteries into one then you will understand how the traffic works in Saigon. the motorbikes somehow just magically merge and go along with their business. It is actually quite an amazing thing.
But on the way out of the city we did see rule number 2 get broken. A taxi in front of us hit a girl on a motorbike. but luckily they were following rule number 3 so they were not going fast enough to cause any serious damage.
The Shopping
Perhaps the worst place to go shopping that I have been so far is Thailand and the best has been Cambodia. But Vietnam comes in at a close second to Cambodia. Although like in Thailand you really have to bargain to get an amazing price, I haven’t experienced the shady sellers trying to sell you a pair of crappy swim shorts for 850 Baht ($29 USD). People are of course going to try and make extra money off of the tourists but it isn’t crazy. With the 850 baht shorts I just walked away and the price went down almost instantly to 150 Baht. In Saigon a skilled or persistent bargainer can easily cut the price in half. Where Vietnam excels over Siem Reap (Siem Reap is in Cambodia) is the amount of sellers. We only went to one market and during the day there were literally thousands of sellers. At night the market closed down and there were about 100 outside of the market. Just to give you an idea of some of the prices here is what I have experienced
- you can get the HIGH quality Vietnamese flag shirt (Red with the Yellow star) for 75,000 Dong ($4.75 USD). You can get the low quality thin one for about 30,000 dong ($1.50 USD).
- You can get Adidas or Nike climate control shirts (I think that’s what they are called) for 50,000 dong ($2.50)
- you can get nice polo shirts for 90000 dong ($4.50)
So just remember if you are buying any of these things try to make sure you get the Vietnamese price not the tourist price haha. But I will say that the T-shirt that I paid $3.75 USD for in Cambodia was much higher quality than the cheapy Vietnamese flag shirt I paid 50,000 dong for. It was one of our traveling companions that got it for 30,000 dong. If you are getting the high quality one make sure that it is the thicker material and actually says “Vietnam” on the back.
They also have a number of cheap tailors in Saigon. Crystal, my girlfriend, got a dress made for her for $18 dollars. She didn’t like it though. Some friends had suits made but we shall see how that situation turns out. When they went back for their fittings the suits were not complete enough to do a proper fitting. We are currently in Hoi An, we have been having a much better experience with Yaly Couture. We had our first fittings today at 1:30 and we just made the order for the suits yesterday. I was positively surprised by the quality of the suits and the speed at which they were made. We then had to go back at 6:30PM. At this fitting Crystal’s suit was done. My suit needed some further adjustments. I went back at 7:30 and it still needs further adjustments. But whatever I’ll get it tomorrow.
Tuk Tuk
The super annoying tuk tuk has devolved over the length of the trip. First, in Thailand, it was a vehicle created specifically to be a tuk tuk. Then in Siem Reap, the tuk tuks were basically motorcycles with trailers added on the back. Now in Vietnam the tuk tuk has disappeared, replaced by guys with motorbikes who want you to just jump on behind them for an extremely dangerous ride through the city. I have not even thought about riding one. I don’t think I am alone in saying this, I think that the vast majority of tourists from Europe or the US would never even think about jumping on the back of a scooter with an unknown individual. a taxi? sure. But some random dude saying “motorbike? enough room for two” as he points to his seat that looks like it could barely hold two people yet he wants to make the tiny motorcycle strain under the wait of 3 people? No way.
Food
In my previous entry on Saigon, Day one Ho Chi Minh City – Indian Food, I talked about the wonderful Indian food at Mumtaz Indian Restaurant. It really was amazing, we ended up going back to introduce the place to my girlfriend’s University of Washington MBA program friends. But we also tried Bahn Mi, well my girlfriend did, which she said was very good. But, for the grand price of 8000 dong how can you complain? I also tried some pastries, I guess these were leftovers from France’s occupation, it was just a croissant with the sweet cheese stuff. It was really good and only cost me 10000 dong (50 cents USD).
Unfortunately we did not get to eat at Phở 2000: Phở for the President. But whatever, next time I guess. There was a BBQ place that we ate at but it was not really memorable enough to mention further.
History and What Not
I forgot to mention this earlier so I am adding it in this little update. Another odd/humorous thing about Saigon is the amount of United States war materiel that is just sitting around in and around their war museums. Here are some pictures.
Yes, that’s right. I’m not talking about some M-16’s the US left behind in a weapons locker. These are helicopters, jets, and tanks. Sitting at the museum in perfect condition. I think they do it as a kind of thumb in the US’s eye haha. I felt slightly embarrassed about the whole thing. Unfortunately the museum was closed for lunch when we passed by so we didn’t actually go in. The War Remnants Museum in Saigon closes between 12:00 and 1:30PM.
Conclusion
I really liked Saigon. Unlike Bangkok I think I would like to visit again for a short time. Next time I go I will make sure to eat at Phở 2000: Phở for the President. Then I will go in and ask if I can sit in the same chair that Bill Clinton sat in. It will be great.