ON THE FACE OF IT, SAIGON DOESN'T SEEM THE KIND OF PLACE YOU SHOULD WALK AROUND. The traffic is chaotic and accidents are common. Red lights mean stop for most but give way for some folk who are turning right.
I have seen a couple of accidents already.
We could have a brand new homepage here -- a walking tour of the world!
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD REPORT ON SAIGON
Built in 1914, the Ben Thanh market occupies an entire block and is a lively jamboree of smiling, beckoning vendors offering everything in Vietnam that seems to have been grown, woven, sewn, cooked and enthusiastically manufactured to infringe international copyright. Outside I watch an old woman having her chin shaved of unwanted hair with an ancient electric razor. Inside, the dazzling daylight is filtered through the central dome and it's a refreshing respite from the heat. I stop and breathe it all in as the business of life echoes around this bustling playground of energetic buying, selling and haggling.
I remind myself to pay a visit to my favourite pho shop, Pho Hoa, in District 3.
I head down Le Loi Street and what I notice is a growing number of upmarket shops selling beautifully crafted clothes and linen and turn into Nguyen Hue Street and down to Ton Duc Thang Street. I look out for one of the many touts selling boat rides along the Saigon River. I bargain him down to 200,000 dong (they always ask for too much) for a two-hour tour in an elongated wooden motor boat. Every time I am in Saigon I take this trip, which should be mandatory for any visitor.
There is so much history here, so much that evokes the past, particularly that which we associate with the war. But I see that things are changing. New and taller hotels are opening . There are not so many tacky tourist shops selling fake dog-tags and reproduction opium pipes. The ranks of the beggars are thinning. There are more cars and fewer cyclos. The street's rough edges are disappearing and I can feel the smooth skin of prosperity. But still, it retains much of the character that makes it what it is. There is no place like this.
Or that elegant French cafes are sprouting up by the park in Le Duan Street, where not so long ago the only things for sale were cheap greeting cards and five-dollar hookers?
He'd be happy with the recent restoration of this post office. It's grand and cavernous and echoes with the sound of people paying their bills, posting letters and making excited telephone calls to their families elsewhere in the country or overseas.
I decide on a swim in the 14th-floor pool of the Diamond Plaza building; a pre-dinner beer at Saigon Saigon, the delightful, if expensive, rooftop bar at the Caravelle Hotel that has an almost panoramic view of the city; ; then a quick stroll next door to the Blue Gecko bar, which has the most raucous music and best pool table of the multitude of bars in town.
Later, and depending how much I've drunk, I'll take a taxi down to Pham Ngu Lao Street in the heart of the backpacker district where the restaurants and bars stay open later than anywhere else in town. Tomorrow? I might go to the old presidential palace where the North Vietnamese tanks so dramatically burst through the gates in 1975. Then again, I might just wander the streets.
Getting around: In Saigon, walk around District 1 or take taxis, but ask for the meter to be turned on. Avoid cyclos and motorcycle taxis.
Where to stay: There are plenty of hotels to choose from for every budget. My favourites are the Grand and the Majestic, both in Dong Khoi St, and the Caravelle in Lam Son Square.
Where to eat : In D.1: Ben Thanh market, corner of Le Loi St and Phan Boi Chau St; Le Camargue, 16 Cao Ba Quat St. In D.3: ); Pho Hoa, 260C Pasteur St.
Where to go:
Ben Thanh market: corner of Le Loi and Phan Boi Chau streets.
Dung Tailors: 221 Le Thanh Ton Street.
Central Post Office: corner Dong Khoi and Nguyen streets (opposite Notre Dame Cathedral)
Blue Gecko bar: next door.