Visiting Ho Chi Minh City

What rudeness at Ho Chi Minh City's (HCMC) new airport! Foreigners arriving may have already paid US$50, filled out forms online and received a letter of visa approval but upon arrival in HCMC they must queue-up with another form filled out with the same information, an additional US$25 and a photo.

No official tells anyone anything. Fortunately, a Greek lady explains that one shoves the approval letter, form, photo and passport through the window to the beleaguered taciturn officials who wait until a pile accumulates. These are walked a few feet behind to officials who process the applications on computers and a quarter hour later the passports are returned with visa inside. At that point you pay the extra money and proceed to immigration.

This leaves otherwise sane visitors totally confused. A British businessman becomes so irate he raises his voice, a seriously upset official glares him into submission. The surly immigration officer at passport control refuses to speak, while the customs official aggressively pushes people's luggage. This is not a pleasant introduction to Vietnam and all the more disgusting after the graciousness and efficiency of everyone in Cambodia.

I'd read a brief history in Fodor's Vietnam guidebook describing the country's birth out of 15 tribal groups, the Lac Viet ancestors settling in northern Vietnam, then Chinese domination from 200 BC for over 1000 years. Viet dynasties followed in the north, and the Kingdom of Champa in the south, which dwindled after Vietnamese victory in 1471. Champa's total departure to Cambodia came in 1720. French colonialism came in 1859 until their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 when northern Vietnam was controlled by the communist government of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh and the south by Ngo Dinh Diem.

The subsequent war with America supporting the south ended in South Vietnam's defeat in 1975, causing more than one million Vietnamese refugees to resettle, mainly in Europe, Australia and America.

Revived considerably

Ten years after complete communist control of the economy, with no individual ownership of land or businesses, the Vietnamese government relaxed this, and by 1995 relations with the US were normalised. Today Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the war but still frequently called Saigon, by the locals, has a population of approximately six million and tourism has revived considerably in the past decade.

With two nights and one day in Saigon we've made reservations for dinners and tours over the Internet through the concierge at the Park Hyatt Saigon, the newest five-star hotel in town, on Lam Son Square in the city's centre. We arrive for dinner at Square One where I enjoy the delicious pho, a Vietnamese staple eaten even for breakfast and not to be missed. Pho is a noodle soup, in this case with chicken, to which fresh mint, basil, bean sprouts, red chilies, lemon or barbeque sauce are added to taste.

Our Exotissimo guide arrives at 9:30 a.m. A delightful former teacher of English who changed professions after 12 years, studying history and geography to become a guide, Hua is well-informed and wonderfully enthusiastic. We begin with major sights from French colonial days. Notre Dame Cathedral, built between 1877 - 1880, every brick brought from Marseilles, topped with two metal spires and interior stained-glass windows stands on Paris Square with an imposing statue of the Virgin Mary in front. But the real show is a groom and beautiful bride in Western white gown posing for wedding pictures outside the Catholic Cathedral. To the right, the façade of the General Post Office bears names of famous French men of letters and science, while inside is a map of ancient Cochin China and a curved ceiling by Gustave Eiffel, famous for his Eiffel Tower in Paris.

We pass Continental Hotel built in 1880, featured in Graham Greene's The Quiet American and a favourite watering hole for journalists and military during the American War. The opulent Opera House is decorated with red and gold banners and a life-size poster of Ho Chi Minh. In Lam Son Square we view City Hall, modelled on the Hotel de Ville in Paris and built in 1908, a statue of revered 'Uncle Ho' sits in the beautifully manicured gardens. We pop into the lobby of the Rex Hotel famous for its bar and 'five o'clock follies', as the daily US military press briefings came to be known. The war ended 35 years ago but many tourists today are former US soldiers visiting scenes from their formative years, bringing their families, so these sites are pointed out.

Burn incense and pray

A real treat is visiting Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown. First, we burn incense and pray at one of the Thien Hau Buddhist temples dedicated to the Goddess of the Sea, protector of sailors, especially relevant because many refugees who fled by sea, 'boat people,' were Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry. In individual bicycle-rickshaws, our group of four is steered through a mass of bicycle, motorcycle and automobile traffic, with nothing but our nerves dislocated. Bend-down plaza has nothing on the variety of goods and foodstuff for sale in the compact streets of Cholon. We emerge at Ben Thanh Market to enter a vast two-story complex of every imaginable product for sale indoors. Despite the activity, everyone goes about their business without paying any attention to our cameras. Here you can get everything from shark fins to a neck massage.

Welcome relief

A delicious lunch at Lemongrass, a small Vietnamese restaurant, offers welcome relief from the humidity even though early February is the cool season. Our afternoon continues at Chua Phuoc Hai, Emperor of Jade Pagoda, dedicated to the Taoists' highest god, with other deities represented in brilliant crimson and gold, a world apart from our final stop, Reunification Hall, once the French governor's residence, rebuilt 1962-66 as a modern presidential palace. South Vietnam's government fell here in April, 1975. The basement operations rooms provide an eerie glimpse into how isolated military headquarters was from guerilla operations in the field. The building and interior artefacts are preserved as a slice of fascinating history.

Wilted by heat and humidity, we head to our hotel at 3:30 p.m knowing that with so much still to see, Saigon merits a longer visit. Besides, we need to rest-up for a celebration. We've booked a window table at Opera, Park Hyatt's Italian restaurant, for our friend's birthday. The cuisine is excellent and the staff cheerfully sing, surrounding our table to present Brian with his cake. What a difference the day has been, compared with our airport reception the evening before!

Tour: Exotissimo World Travel www.exotissimo.com or Email: infosgn@exotissimo.comHotel, Square One and Opera restaurants: www.saigon.park.hyatt.com.Lemon Grass: 4 Nguyen Thiep Street, District 1, HCMC Tel: 848 3 8220496.