Saigon - A Free-For-All Traffic Nightmare!

Millions (no exaggeration!) of motor scooters, congestion, no visible rules for driving....welcome to Saigon (as noted by the locals) or formally as Ho Chi Minh City. 

sidewalks are not just for pedestrians!

Saigon is the largest and most populated city in Vietnam with 15 million people and over eight million motor scooters.  We learned quickly (within two minutes on way from airport into city) that motor scooters are not required to follow the rules of automobiles- they can drive on sidewalks, down one way streets in the opposite direction, in fact, they can even drive on any road in the opposite direction.  They cut across multiple lanes of traffic with no signals, made left hand turns from the right lane, drove at night with no lights.......need I go on? 

Mekong River

A much-needed break from traffic, we booked a tour and headed out to the Mekong Delta.  We traveled about two and a half hours through the countryside past rice fields to My Tho, a bustling port on the Mekong River.  Onto a long-tailed boat to one of the many islands that grows tropical fruit, where we enjoyed fresh pineapple, mango, dragon fruit, sapodilla, and ladyfinger bananas, all picked earlier in the day, while enjoying live local music.  Then a short walk to a local bee farm where we

honey bees doing their thing......

tasted pure honey, royal jelly, and bee pollen served in some fresh tea with lime.  Yum!  Then back onto the river to Coconut Island to a local, family-operated Coconut Candy factory.  Here they make not only coconut candy, but everything else you can imagine (and not imagine) from coconuts: oil, soap, facial creams, etc...., up to coconut whiskey- with or without the Cobra snake pickled inside the bottle of whiskey!

On the river again to another island where we transferred onto a “xe loi” (a cart attached to a motorcycle) for a local fish lunch in the middle of a jungle.  We then boarded rowboats to travel through the smaller canals running through the island back to our larger boat for trip back to My Tho, and then back to Saigon.

rowing along one of the small Mekong canals

along the canals	our boat!	crushing coconut
fresh fish!	don't we look local?	lovely coconut on return to Saigon

along the Saigon River

Next day was our speedboat ride up the Saigon River to Ben Duoc/Ben Dinh, which is home to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  The tunnels, utilized by the Vietcong as a hiding place during the war, consists of a deep tunnel system with several levels, alleys, and branches, like a maze, that was more than 250 km long.  We saw the horrible booby traps they developed for use against the Americans, and experienced the claustrophobic tunnels.  Most have collapsed over the years, but a few remain for tourists to see. We also saw the impact of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese population.  It was a horrible war. Period.

on the Saigon River	on the speedboat heading up the Saigon River to Cu Chi	Nathan in a tunnel entrance
...he's in there!	one of the booby traps	entering the tunnel system

That afternoon, we returned to Saigon and headed to the city center to see the Central Post Office, designed by Gustav Eiffel (same architect as the Eiffel Tower), which had stores, banks, ticket offices...you name it, all within this post office!  Walked over to the Ben Thanh Market (the usual market......produce, flowers, tourist souvenirs), Notre Dame, Nguyen Hue Street, the Bitexco Financial Tower, and the Saigon Opera House, where we saw a performance of the AO Show (a blend of bamboo cirque, acrobatics and contemporary dance) depicting the contrast between Vietnamese country life and urban life).

Saigon was truly an experience in traffic congestion on steroids!

no words......!

Central Post Office	Notre Dame	Saigon Opera House
Bitexco Financial Tower - Day	....and at night	everything on a bike!

Sites around Ho Chi Minh