As soon as we touched down on the tarmac at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport and cruised towards the terminal, I could not help feeling as if I had been here a thousand times in some way thanks to Hollywood pictures about the war.
Stepping out of the airplane into the blast furnace-like heat I could not help but wonder what it must have been like for young 18-19 year old boys. They must have realized how they were so very far from home. I could almost hear the young soldiers boots stomping on the tarmac, marching to the tune of a barking staff sergeant. Too many movies clearly but they had left their mark.
There is nothing particularly remarkable about the airport terminal. As you might expect, hot and steamy and loud with a lot of pushing and shoving by Vietnamese anxiously piling up their cardboard suitcases and getting their pint-sized grandmother safely home. The hotel driver with his sign was there waiting for me in the line-up with dozens of others holding various signs some professional, others more along the cardboard variety. I was swiftly ushered into the backseat of a nice comfortable car and presented with a chilled bottle of water. A chilled Martini would have been nicer but I won’t complain for now.
Saigon has a definitely different feel to it than Hanoi. While the latter is the country’s political capital, Saigon seems to be very much the business capital of Vietnam. There is evidence of that just by looking at the many skyscrapers dotting the skyline and the exclusive brand names that are plastered everywhere. Banks as well are sprouting up like weeds. Hurry-up folks, this is a city on the move.
I was greeted at the hotel as “hello Mr. Richard, you come this way, they take bags…please sit Mr. Richard.” That was the beginning of the check-in process. The hotel is not that different from the Metropole in Hanoi and built in 1901. Both are luxurious to be sure and both hearken back to another time. The Majestic is steeped in French history with large murals of French Indochina as well as numerous photos of the hotel circa 1920’s. Little pieces of colonial history are here as well including a well preserved version of the hotel’s own Saigon rickshaw (no sitting please.) The ceiling are very high with equally large rather ornate molding which is about French as you can get. Stepping out onto my porch I was facing the latest architectural marvel that in many ways represents the new Vietnam. Off in the distance stood the Bitexco Financial Tower, the tallest building in HCM City with it’s on helicopter pad in clear view. Beyond that the Saigon River. My bathroom, with its marble floor, is designed to look like the 1920’s but with 21st century plumbing. I thank God for that! The doors to my room, for example are solid ten-foot wooden doors. It’s not the kind of selection that Home Depot carries, that’s for sure. Everything is detailed down to that last colonial, grandeur that was France. My father would have lapped this up and wanted more.
I took a few hours free time to do a little touring in the blast furnace and hit some spots including the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Saigon General Post Office which arguably is one of the city’s most inspiring landmarks. The impressive French style structure was designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel, the very same architect and creator of the Eiffel tower in Paris. It resembles a classical European railway station with the central pavilion anchored by a large clock and as do many of the French colonial buildings in Vietnam, the post office is adorned with green window shades. Inside there is a tremendous picture of Ho Chi Minh overseeing the day-to-day operations of the post office along with two very large paintings depicting the map of colonial Vietnam and Cambodia on the one side and colonial Saigon on the other.
Just down the street is the opera house a truly elegant structure, designed in 1897 and was inspired by the architecture of the Petit Palais in Paris. Caddy corner from the Opera House is the famed Hotel Continental and the oldest hotel in Vietnam build in 1880. Among the many famous names who have stayed at the hotel is British author Graham Greene and long-term guest in room 214 busy penning his now well known novel The Quiet American.Saigon is a big city and getting bigger so it seems. Up on the fifth floor of the Majestic is arguably one has the best spots to enjoy the view of the busy river and the city that never seems to sleep. What better way than to sit back and enjoy a cold Saigon beer – that is until the monsoon rains arrive and sheets of rain beat down and force you inside. Yet down below the motorbike traffic amazingly continues on and the honking and beeping of horns never ceases to stop.
Once the rains have stopped you see a variety of boats slowing making their way up the Saigon River -some are cruise boats, others large tugs and still others are strange, unrecognizable vessels just joining the parade and making their way up river. Across the Saigon River is vacant land and I understand the government has plans to build a new Saigon bigger and better; the old Saigon well that’s for the tourists. I can imagine that it may one day look something like La Defence in Paris, that shinning monstrosity one sees gleaming through the arches of the Arc de Triomphe and on past Neuilly. The spirit of Paris is kept alive but the business of doing business blossoms is in La Defence. Time will tell.
After a nice seafood dinner at the open hair restaurant I strolled along Dong Khoi street once known, many years ago, as la Rue Catinat towards the Continental for a short nightcap. Sitting outside in the warm evening, the view of the Opera House magnificently lit up, I ponder over my travels these last couple of weeks. Truly an adventure. On my way home, I pass numerous little clubs now open with pink neon lights blinking invitingly and women in tight spandex outfits the size of postage stamps invite me to join them for a drink or maybe just a massage or more? You like? Hello, you take look?