Vietnam Day 1: Five to One

I'm doing something a little different as I write these posts. First - I'm using titles of songs from the period of or about the Vietnam War. This entry is taken from the popular song by the Doors.
Second - I'm in a bit of hurry to finish packing to head off to Shanghai later so I'm going to upload the photos later.

We arrived in two separate groups last Friday (July 6), with mine arriving around mid-day in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon until the reunification in 1975, although everyone still calls it Saigon. After an endless wait for luggage to come off the plane, we headed over to our hotel in the city and got checked in.

We decided to do a walking tour of the city to get a feel for the place. Just crossing the street is an adventure in and of itself. There are dividing lanes and stop signs and crosswalks, but they're really only there as a formality, nobody actually pays any attention to them. When we walk, we have to be very careful when crossing because a motorcade of bicycles, motorcycles or cars can come by at any time. The weirdest thing about crossing is that sometimes you just have to stop in the middle of the road and let the bikes or cars weave around you and hope they know what they're doing.

We walked past Reunification Palace, which we would visit a few days later. We then continued on and saw the Notre Dame cathedral, the General Post Office, and the People's Committee Building (informally known as City Hall), all of which are considered major local landmarks and examples of French colonial architecture. We explored the Ben Tranh market, which is the Ho Chi Minh City equivalent of the mall we went to in Shenzhen a few weeks earlier.

We ate lunch at a restaurant called Pho 2000, whose claim to fame is that Bill Clinton came by here for lunch in November of 2000 during his state visit and he loved it. There are photos of his visit hanging on the walls - eating at his table and posing with the restaurant staff. They get a lot of good word of mouth in the city and from people who go there, which is how we heard about it. The food was good.

We explored the city a little more and eventually found ourselves at the Xa Loi pagoda, and later on on the waterfront of the Saigon River. We went back to the hotel for a quick late night swim in the pool and then met up to eat dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant which we were highly recommended.

All in all, a very eventful and productive first day. Will upload photos as soon as I get a chance.