Vietnam just beat Thailand in football for the first time in twenty years. Nobody is going to bed tonight. The country is one of the fastest-growing countries in the region and globally from a slow history. In the post-war years, the communist country struggled with restricted growth and development. I’m back after twenty-six years in Ho Chi Minh City. Most people still call it Saigon.

The pre-war buildings are now beacons of the glory years, e.g., the post office, railway station, and opera house. Colonialist  French architecture shines out. The traffic is horrendous, especially the bikes. They look like kamikaze pilots, but there is a road code, e.g., “Don’t slow down, it will be ok.” This city has so many new developments going on, tower blocks and shopping malls. Our snazzy apartment is less than a kilometre from the inner city with a walk across a modern bridge and along the waterfront of the major river. Boat trips aplenty.

Sightseeing is a must, and I always say get on a hop-on/off tour bus ASAP. This time I’m wrong; the documentary system is not working, and it’s too hot by eleven a.m.

A must-do is the war tunnel tour, but it takes two hours to reach the site and is a long day plus a bit of a crawl. The history lesson is amazing. I’ve always been interested in the Vietnam War. “USA beaten by a bunch of farmers,” my dad used to say. Having spent a week here, I am doing a separate story on the brutal civil war. Between the disappointing French occupation, Japanese wartime occupation and the American war,  Vietnam has really struggled. An estimated four million Vietnamese people were killed over 47 years (the Vietnam War lasted twenty-one years ending in 1967 ) and many starved during a bad hundred years. So you have to admire the recent bounce back of this nation. America’s suppression of expanding communism in hindsight was poor judgment at a time of paranoia about communism expansion.

One issue Vietnam has to sort out is the visa system, as many people are complaining of hefty sums being paid to agencies. The airport kept us waiting over ninety minutes at inbound immigration with thousands of people in chaotic queues. The good news is that Grab taxis are very cheap and are the best way to get about. There is a lot to do in this value-for-money city. The Walking Street is for those who like loud music, late drinking, and girls dancing.

We stumbled by chance to listen to the most amazing rock band with an English guitarist/singer. Outstanding performance if you are a rock fan. There are ten fantastic museums and parks. The best for me was the war museum with an array of military hardware and an excellent lesson on the Vietnam War. Shopping for branded clothes and bags is fantastic value, but you may not always buy an original product; it could be fake or a replica.

The Whinging Pome Random Rule No. 201: “Always enter a hotel as though you own it.” We drop into four top-end colonial-era hotels, absolutely stunning. We have drinks on the rooftop of the Hotel Grand Saigon, and live music every night. Opposite is the Sh Garden Dong Khoi, we have the best meal of the week, an amazing fine dining experience in the large Colonial restaurant. Lots of street food whilst sitting in alleyways, tasty food in modest cafés. Vietnamese food all tastes great and at reasonable prices. I’ve developed a bit of a craving for mature barbecued pork ribs. Just hope this doesn’t mean “old pig.”
I’ve been asked to compare Colombo to Saigon. Population-wise, Sri Lanka has twenty million. Vietnam has a population of about one hundred million. Ho Chi Minh City is the most vibrant city, which has so much more to see and do than in Colombo. In my previous articles on Colombo, I suggest tourists need no more than 24 hours in the city, and that includes seven hours of sleep. The majority of holidaymakers to Sri Lanka do not visit  Colombo, while many spend more than ten days touring the island. Vietnam boasts 12 million tourists a year, Sri Lanka 2-5 million.

If you are a super fast-paced tourist, Ho Chi Minh City needs three full days of sightseeing; five is ideal and essential if you want to see the Mekong Delta. However, if you are married to a shopaholic, then stay a week. My next visit to Vietnam will be to Hanoi, the capital is quieter but check the weather, it has cold spells. Shopping is restricted there but lots of culture. Jezzabel, the wife, says it’s not on her list.