039 HCMC

It is called Saigon by nearly everyone, but Vietnam's largest city's officially name is Ho Chi Min City (HCMC) after the former leader of Marxist-Leninist North Vietnam since the North conquered the South in 1979. This seven-million-plus metropolis is the first stop of the tour through Vietnam that will take me from the south all the way to northern Hanoi.

I was unsure what to expect of Vietnam before I came here, because I heard many different stories, and I was curious how it would be to  travel in an officially communist country. I was told it was less nice than Laos, and more beautiful. Travelers I'd met told me that the people were fantastic, and very unfriendly. That locals were open to foreigners, and that everyone tries to rip you off. It all depends who you ask, I guess. Time to discover this country myself.

One of the first things I notice after crossing the border on my what to HCMC, are the buildings. Is stead of one-storey buildings that you would see everywhere in Cambodia and Laos outside of the bigger cities, many houses here are multi-leveled. They are also very narrow and often not very deep. They look like they are compensating for a lack of ground with an abundance of storeys. In densely built up areas I can understand this lack of space, but in the countryside it just looks a bit silly to see five storeyed towers, all painted in party pink, mellow yellow and baby blue colors, between the green of the rice paddies.

In HCMC, most of the hotels in the center are built like this as well, only with more levels. I walk around the part of the city just behind the main backpackers area, in search of a little more quiet an a little less pushy moto drivers. Following my map's instructions, I walk into a small alleyway between a public school and a noodle soup seller. After a bit of searching, I find the described hotel. The girl who works there tells me that, no, all the rooms are full. When I thank her and turn to leave, she adds that there is one small room available, but it is very high.

As I don't need a big room, and I am curious to find out what a high room looks like, I decide to take a look. The hotel is one of those narrow, high affairs as well, with a lobby downstairs, and storeys with two rooms each stacked on top of that. The building has seven floors, and from the seventh floor the staircase continues to the roof, where the girl takes me. On the roof stands a small building supporting the huge tank that supplies the rooms below it with water. And in that tiny building, there is a door. And behind that door is my room. It is small indeed, with a bed, a fan and a smallish bathroom, but the view, people, the view is fantastic. And I have the whole roof terrace, with seats, tables and potted plants, all for myself. The only disadvantage is that now I have to climb down all those stairs again, and lug my luggage up here.

In many Vietnamese hotels, so I'd heard, room rates drop the higher in the building you get a room (except when there is an elevator). Going by that logic, I should probably have gotten money with my room, but for six dollars I secured my own rooftop penthouse overlooking Saigon's center.

HCMC is an incredibly modern city compared to all the other cities I've been to up to now, excluding Bangkok. Lot's of skyscrapers and posh restaurants, but luckily also a number of green parks and good museums. I stayed for a couple of days, walking around and visiting some of the museums focusing on the victorious Communist struggle to liberate South Vietnam of the American imperialists. Yes, they present history in a rather one-sided way like that, but still the museums are interesting. One shows a collection of foreign posters and banners calling an end to the war in Vietnam, and a collection of American medals of honour, accompanied by a bronze plaque on which the former owner, a Vietnam veteran, says he is sorry.

I also visit the Reunification Palace, which was called Independence Palace before reunification. This Palace was built by South Vietnam's president in 1962, after the previous palace was bombed in an attempt to kill the president (by rebelling Southern Vietnamese planes). After reunification in the 1975 everything was left as the North Vietnamese found it. So nowadays it is a fantastically funky place, the 60's architecture giving you the feeling of walking around in a very big beach villa or a space house straight from the Jetsons cartoons. It has a helicopter pad on the roof, right next to a rooftop lounge with a grand piano and white padded leather couches. The banquet hall has light yellow carpet on the floor and chandeliers that are worth a fortune now in any retro shop, the meeting rooms are filled with round seats in outrageous colors. The basement takes you back to harsh reality, because hidden under the ground are the war rooms used by the Southern command during the Vietnam war until the Northern tanks crashed down the gates outside.

I meet one evening with a couch surfer who takes me on the back of her scooter through the crazy jungle that is called traffic here. There are far more motorbikes than cars here, and they come from all sides. The way to get to the other side of a crossroad is to just keep driving and hope the others will stop to let you through. People drive against the stream of traffic if it suits them, on the wrong side of the road, or even on the sidewalk. It feels like a miracle, but we survive, and she brings me to a nice bar outside of the tourist section of town. We talk about living in Vietnam, traveling and the fact that I can't go on Facebook because the government blocks it.

HCMC is a pleasant surprise, I like it. Sitting on my rooftop the last evening, I muse about staying longer, but adventure calls and I want to see more of this country.