Before leaving for our trip, I had read warnings on various travel blogs that Saigon isn't for everyone. Some love it, some hate it, some are somewhere in the indifferent range. Since Neil has traveling through Vietnam before, he knew ahead of time that Saigon wasn't his favorite city of all time. Being more of a country boy, huge, modern cities just don't interest him that much. I decided to enter with an open mind, but with these thoughts still lingering somewhere in the background. I want to genuinely like everywhere I travel, but that isn't always the case.
Saigon is a young, vibrant city with a strong East-Meets-West feeling. Staying in the backpackers's district only increases that impression. Walking through our little alley showed a more sincere side of Vietnamese life though. Stepping over and around vendors' stalls laid out on the ground felt authentic, but reaching the main roads brought different sights. Neon, motorbike taxi drivers and sunglasses hawkers replaced fresh vegetables and raw meat being sold from neighbor to neighbor.
We spent five days checking out the sights and taking some time to relax. As much as we loved having well-planned activities in Cambodia, we were ready to do a little bit of nothing and just take in the city. Most of our outings involved food, but we did manage some destinations as well. Right now, I'll cover the locations and activities we enjoyed, and next time around, we'll discuss what we didn't love.
First up is the Notre Dame Cathedral. According to Neil, when he visited Vietnam in 2007, the cathedral wasn't open to tourists. His tour guide had to convince a priest that Neil was Catholic and needed to get in (Neil didn't bother telling either the guide or the priest that he isn't). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cathedral now has official visiting hours and a posted Mass schedule. I guess that "freedom of worship" thing is catching on.
The back of the church is meant for anyone, but the actual worship areas are exclusively for Catholics. Neil stayed in the back to take pictures while I toured the alter and side chapels dedicated to various saints. Although the building is in a classic, French-influenced style, the inside is pure Asian. I can't say I've ever seen a Catholic church in America or Europe that featured neon in the chapels.
 |
| We didn't get a neon picture at Notre Dame, but this grotto should give you a good idea. |
Next up, the Reunification Palace. To call it a "hit" might be a bit of a stretch, but we did enjoy visiting. It added some history to our trip. Those who witnessed the Vietnam War may have a better understanding of its place in history, but I'll try to explain it anyway. Construction began in 1868 after the French had colonized southern Vietnam. It was built on the grounds of the palace housing the former monarchy. Since then it has served as a house of power for everyone from the French to the Japanese to various Vietnamese governments. Most significantly, on April 30, 1975, a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through the front gate symbolizing the end of the Vietnam War. The building has had a rough time through the decades (what with gate crashers, bombings and assassination attempts), but now it serves as a museum preserving the legacy of Saigon.
Finally, our absolute favorite part of visiting Saigon had to be partaking in the Back of the Bike night food tour of the city. Because we are just super romantic people by nature, we decided our anniversary was the perfect time to jump on a couple of scooters and eat unfamiliar foods with strangers. Our tour guide, and company owner, Fredrick and his local drivers/ co-guides picked us up at our hotel around dusk. Thankfully, as the name implies, we didn't have to do any of the driving (have you ever seen Vietnamese traffic?!). The locals drove us from food stand to food stand while Fredrick explained the history of the items we were trying and the owners making them.
Since Fredrick is around our age and originally from St. Louis, we talked a lot about St. Louis-specific habits and food plus Cardinals baseball. I think we may have deeply offended him when we said we hate Imo's Pizza (don't get me started, it's just terrible!). We may have won him back over when ate everything he put in front of us and when we each ordered our own banh mi sandwich instead of sharing. Those heart-attach inducing, pork-filled, rice flour rolls are amazing! These contained nine different types of pork, including meat floss, which isn't as terrifying as it sounds. It's dried, shredded meat that is used to give another texture to the sandwich. Doesn't that sound delicious? Our other favorites we sampled were the pork skewers and green papaya salad. Skewer man has been working this section of sidewalk for a dozen years, and the salad woman has been making her specialty for decades. Her little stand is so popular now, she was able to open a tiny shop across the street as well, also only selling one item.
So now that we've covered the highlights, we'll talk about the lowlights and overall impressions in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment