seeing the different sides of Ho Chi Minh City

 ... or Saigon, as many people still know it (so even its name has different sides).

As usual, I opted to stay in the cheapest hostel I could find, which in HCMC was just off Bui Vien, or "walking street" as it is also known.  The heart of the tourist district, this street is full of bars (with the odd beauty parlour or tattoo place squeezed between) pulsing with bright lights, with the loudest music I have ever heard, and for those not tempted in for a drink by that, some of them also have scantily-clad young Vietnamese men and women dancing on some of their tables.  Thankfully you could neither see nor hear any of this from my hostel, but I walked through it most evenings on the way to meet a friend.  It was kind of fascinating, although it never tempted me inside any of the venues. 

One afternoon, however, I was pulled in by someone I knew from my hostel, sitting at a table with a friend, and I joined them for one beer.  We got onto the subject of the sex tourism side of the street, which the friend seemed to know a lot about(!)  But it was interesting information, the summary being that the women who worked there charged quite a lot, and most of them invested the money wisely (mostly in land or property) - and were setting themselves up as relatively wealthy members of society.  Whereas the men, under the influence of too much alcohol and with their egos boosted by their first 'conquest' of the night, often went on to spend much more than they'd intended to and went home seriously out-of-pocket.

Other travellers I met there were an interesting bunch - from an Englishman trying to kick his alcohol addiction, a Welshman who'd worked on the IT side of missile design for the Chinese, to an Indian singer and actor (I saw the YouTube evidence) who told me he'd eaten human flesh on a trip to Namibia.  I often find that I get as much pleasure and learning from other travellers as I do from the places I visit.

One thing I wasn't able to learn in Vietnam was the view of locals of the communist system they live under; they were far too scared to talk about politics.  But I saw some things that surprised me in a communist country, from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange building to a Maserati parked outside a Diamond Store!

What shouldn't have surprised me but did, was the War Remembrance Museum, full of information about what we call the Vietnam War (ie the US intervention in Vietnam), with a floor full of photos of the impacts of the estimated 11 million gallons of Agent Orange defoliant that the US dropped on Vietnam over the period from 1962 to 1971.  Its primary purpose was strategic deforestation, destroying the forest cover and food resources of the enemy, but according to the Vietnamese, it resulted in 400,000 deaths from a range of cancers and other ailments, with some 4.8 million Vietnamese people exposed to it.  & studies have shown that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange at any point in their life will increase one's likelihood of either possessing or acting as a genetic carrier of birth defects.  It was truly shocking, as were some of the quotes from US leaders, such as this from President Eisenhower:

"Suppose we lost Indochina.  If that happened, tin and tungsten, to which we attach such a high price, would cease coming.  That is why when the US decides to give an aid of $400 million to this war, it does not make a gratuitous offer.  In reality, we have chosen the least costly means to prevent one of the most terrible things for the United States for its security, its strength and its possibility to obtain what it needs among the riches in Indochina and South East Asia."

But to end on a rather nicer note, I was in HCMC for the Tet (Lunar New Year) celebrations, meaning trops of percussionists and lion dancers performing in the streets for almost a week!