Any Bengali kid of my generation is very familiar with the name Vietnam. In 1960s and 70s, when the Viet Cong was fighting the French, and then the Americans, there used to be lot of sympathies for the Vietnamese guerrillas in Bengal. In fact, many of the walls in our neighbourhood were plastered with the slogan “Amar Naam Tomar Naam Vietnam” (my name, your name is Vietnam). Wrestler Muhammad Ali used to be a hero, when he said “I ain’t got no quarrel with Viet Cong” and went to jail in the United States for refusing to fight in Vietnam for the United States Army.
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| Cafe Apartment in Ho Chi Minh City |
For me the curiosity remained, and it was surprising that sixty years later when I was embarking on a weeklong trip visiting Vietnam, my adrenaline was still high.
There were about eight of us who took the Indigo flight from Kolkata to Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam under the Americans and got renamed after the liberation in 1975. Ho Chi Minh was the great Vietnamese leader who spearheaded the revolution and he is still considered God by a large section of the populace.
Ho Chi Minh City airport was buzzing even at 3 am at night. After we finished immigration (we already had an e-visa from India), I walked across to a shop outside the airport to buy a lighter and offered a dollar. The change that came back was 13000 Vietnamese Dongs. Yes, the denomination of Vietnamese currency is in thousands, a dollar roughly translating to 25000 Dongs.
Our accommodation was at Hotel Eden Star, located in a very busy area of Saigon. A pretty neat and clean place, it had many street food places including an Indian one around it. Next morning, we were slated for a short city tour after the breakfast.
The spread at the breakfast buffets in Vietnamese hotels is quite huge. For non-vegetarians there are a variety of cold cuts, fish items as well as a live counter for Pho, the Vietnamese signature broth. Vegetarians can feast on an array of fruits as well salads. There are varieties of cheese too available, apart from fried rice and local curries.
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| Reunification Palace |
Our city tour had a couple of interesting places. The first was the Reunification Palace, the place where the President of South Vietnam operated before the country merged to become a unified Vietnam. You have many items and artefacts of the pre-unification period.
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| Saigon Old Post Office |
The second place that impressed me was the Saigon Old Post Office, a gothic building from the Indo-China period. While part of the building still has a post office functioning, the other parts have some shops selling memorabilia. A portrait of Ho Chi Minh and some old maps adorn the walls.
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| Food at a Vietnamese restaurant at Ho Chi Minh City |
We were famished at the end of the city tour and Indranil, a friend and our tour organizer from Travel with Neel took us to a Vietnamese restaurant “Viet Village” for lunch. The Grilled chicken with Orange sauce was just too good. The Fried Spring Rolls, some Chicken and Noodle Salad and Fried Fish left us immensely satisfied. We started for our main attraction for day Cu Chi Tunnels right after the meal.
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| Cu Chi Island presentation and Model |
Cu Chi Tunnels, located about an hour away from Saigon is a stark reminder about of the resistance of the Viet Cong against the much stronger US and French troops in the Southern Part of Vietnam. The three layered tunnels about 120 km long were built over decades for the Viet Cong army and activists to hide underground and execute guerilla attacks on the US army. The visit to the tunnels showed interesting pathways, booby traps, deployed to thwart the much stronger enemy. The resilience of the Vietnamese finally won. The site salutes the spirit of the Vietnamese war for freedom. From the various models at the site, it is heartbreaking to get a glimpse of the extreme condition under which the Viet Cong soldiers fought from the tunnels.
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| We all at Cu Chi Island |
Emboldened by my wife who went right into a dark and narrow tunnel, I followed suit. Soon I was crawling on all fours inside with my knees almost giving up. Somehow I managed to complete and come out with both a sense of achievement and relief.
I could not but appreciate how the government has maintained the site and turned it into a tourist attraction, educating thousands of people every day about the war that ravaged the country for decades.
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| Pho shop in Saigon & Meatball Pho |
We were too tired by the time we came back. Our dinner was at a neighbourhood Pho shop, with tables and stools to sit on the footpath. Pho is a complete food by itself with noodles, veggies, meat and sauces to add on.
Next morning, we left early for Mekong Delta, the place where river after its journey through many countries Mekong finally meet the sea. There are many small islands located with the backwaters and distributaries of the river. The journey from Ho Chi Minh city to Mekong Delta took about three hours through industrial areas as well as rural heartlands. We reached a jetty from where we took a motor boat through the river reaching a small island. Here, we could tour a small village, sometimes in a rickshaw and sometimes in a small boat. We were treated to local fruits and got a chance to listen to some folk music. Overall, one could get a short peek into the rural life of Vietnam.
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| Food at an Island in Mekong Delta |
The lunch that we had at a riverside local restaurant was the cherry on the cake. At a restaurant named “Men Tay Riverside” we were treated to a Vietnamese lunch. The main attraction was the huge fried fish “Ca Tai Tuong Chien Xu” that translates as Elephant Ear Fish. The fish resembled a gigantic Tilapiya and had a sweetish similar taste. Paper rolls (with veggies, noodles and fish) were made out of some parts of the fish and enjoyed with sweet chilli dips, whereas the rest of the fish were devoured with Fried Rice and Noodles. Grilled Shrimps and local Chicken Curry were further accompaniments to the grand lunch.
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| Mekong River |
As we came back from the Delta in the evening, we wanted to experience the city as we were leaving for Da Nang the next day. Our first stop was the famous “Café Apartments”, an eight-storied building that has fifty odd cafes. We then walked down the busy streets sampling some street food. We could see that the city sleeps late, has a vibrant nightlife and hookers soliciting for sex is common on the streets. We reached our hotel very tired, and looked forward to our next stop, the seaside resort town of Da Nang.
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| Street Food Stalls (above) and a Street Side Bar |