psycho saigon

chaotic streets of hcmc

cross at your own risk

saigon telecom

some folks are more bullish than others

emil says:
ho chi minh city is pure hustling bustling intensity. but i'd describe nyc that way so i need a more negative version to describe hcmc. frenetic frenzied chaos, 11 million inhabitants owning 5 million mopeds, honk honk beep beep, repeat. about 6 mopeds can fit across a single lane of traffic, multiply that by 3 lanes, multiply that by the bedlam of no traffic-lights then add the co-variables of heat, humidity, and omnipresent smog and you get pure pandemonium. vietnam is a third world country but it's so alive with commerce that one feels a genuine excitement being here. but the commerce to me seems very hand to mouth, day-to-day living. it's growing up so fast with so little infrastructure to support it that i fear it could remain a mess. the sidewalks have disappeared (people use them as parking lots, make-shift kitchens, fold-out chair bars offering $.50 beers, garbage dumps, etc) there seems to be no public transport, you can park wherever you want, start a business where you want, seemingly no rules or regulations to dictate commerce. perhaps this can be an entrepreneurs ideal setting but i find it just a bit too chaotic to breathe. on a side note: those of you in sf who love vietnamese food stay there, slanted door has got any place in saigon beat by a landslide of vermicelli noodles.

street food scene

cockfight as viewed from our breakfast table

huey chopper

firing an ak47 with his man purse

laurel says: 
there are two sides to every story.  in vietnam, we were exposed to the vietnamese take on the "american war."  and it was pretty grim.  it is hard to imagine that 3 million vietnamese and 58 thousand americans lost their lives in a war whose goal is as irrelevant now as it was then.   beyond the death toll, are the lives that are forever changed by the horrors of war.  our tour guide told us it has become commonplace for united states vietnam veterans to come back to vietnam and talk with their vietnamese opponents as part of their healing process from post traumatic stress disorder.  and exploring the cu chi tunnels (that the viet cong used as part of the ho chi minh supply trial) i could only marvel at the maddening frustration our soldiers, including my great uncles larry and rod, must have felt.  on the other hand, the 'agent orange' exhibit at the war remnants museum leaves no doubt that the effects of war are still being felt today.  the photographs of genetic mutations and the deformed embryos in jars are bone chilling reminders of the war.  there are clearly scars left on both sides.  and now 30 years later, vietnam continues to exist as a politically communist country (although capitalism is the social heartbeat of the nation).  communism did not spread throughout asia and the world as we once feared.  and seemingly all that remains are the lives and stories of those whose world was forever altered by the war.    

the tiny cu chi tunnels

our tour guide (and usa vietnam vet) mr. bing