Arrival in Ho Chi Minh City

My flight from JFK left at 1:30am EST on Friday and, after 24 hours (including a 4-hour layover in Hong Kong), I arrived in Saigon at around 11:00am (Saigon time) on Saturday.  It was great to be back in the bustle of scooters and pace of this frenetic city.

After a short nap, I met up with Kim's MBA friends for happy hour and then a dip in the pool at the luxurious Park Hyatt (that's where NYU's EMBA program stayed on their Saigon leg, very fancy).  After a quick soak in the Park Hyatt hot tub and a shower, we had a nice dinner.  We splurged for two nights at the Caravelle, which was worth every penny.  We had a great view of the Opera House and the breakfast buffet is unbelievable in its quality and diversity (pho, cheese selection, bread and pastries, fruit and lots of other traditional hot and cold Western breakfast items).

On Sunday, with 3 of Kim's MBA friends, we hired a tour guide and went to the Cu Chi tunnels.  This unbelievable network of 75 miles of tunnels has been preserved by the Vietnamese government.  The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat and also served as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapons storage and living quarters for many guerrilla fighters.


I was reluctant to visit the tunnels because I heard that the narrow underground paths had been widened to accommodate tourists -- but I am glad we went.  We saw the entrances to the tunnels and the even crawled through one of the narrow spaces.  We saw how the Viet Cong marked the disguised entrances and outsmarted U.S. soldiers (and their German Shepherds) with fake tunnel entrances and masked scents.  We viewed the types of traps the Viet Cong used to injure American soldiers.  The traps, adapted from hunting, were disguised holes in the ground and, once a solider fell in, there was any number of ways that metal spikes were constructed to injure the soldier.  Apparently, the traps were not intended to kill the soldiers but, instead, to cause serious injury that would then distract other soldiers who would tend to their care.

The tunnels are set in the jungle, though paths are cleared out to serve the tourist attraction.  One of the most unsettling parts of the visit is the constant sound of gun shots in the background.  Indeed, towards the end of the tour, for about a buck a bullet, you can pay to shoot Vietnam era guns at far away targets.  I donned the headphones and shot an AK-47 and an M-16.  I passed on firing the machine gun.  I can't imagine getting used to the weight, sound and feel of those weapons.

After the tunnels, our tour guide stopped in Saigon to show us the market for pet dogs.  The puppies were caged and very expensive by Vietnam standards (around $100 U.S.)  There was also a monkey for sale and some cats, hawks and other birds.

We had a late lunch at the popular Quan An Ngon, which provides the opportunity to a wide variety of street food in a stylish (and relatively sterile) environment.  Highlights were the squid in an oily garlic sauce and the pork wrapped in rice paper.  Some (not  me) ate crocodile spring rolls.

After walking around and a nap (while Kim got a fish pedicure - you put your feet in a tank and the fish eat away at the dead skin on your feet for 30 minutes), we had another big meal at my favorite place in Saigon, Huong Lai.  The restaurant has amazing food in the second floor of an old French-era shop house.  All of the dishes were excellent, but the eggplant with pork stands out.  I have thought about it many times since that meal.  Huong Lai doesn't only have beautifully presented and delicious food, it houses and staffs street children and trains them in the restaurant industry; many of them go on to obtain jobs at high end hotels and restaurants.

We ended a great day with a dignified night cap at the rooftop bar at the Rex hotel, where the foreign correspondents hung out during the war.  The next day we headed by bus to the Mekong Delta.  More on that in another post.