They call it Ho Chi Minh city now.   But even though the American round of the many wars fought here is receding into the history books, it is still Saigon to me.

Perhaps coming here after three plus weeks in India is a factor, but I find the city quite beautiful. My camera does not take night photos well, but in the evenings the city is a riot of neon lights. Some streets even have neon decorations arching overhead for blocks.

There are sidewalks. And they are clean.

I am staying in the old city, but it has a many new buildings mixed in with some historic ones.

 

The air is quite clean (for Asia). It is hot around mid-day, but so far a nice breeze has been blowing.

The sun is shining and there are trees, green grass and flowers everywhere.

I want to start looking for remnants of the old French colonial days. Have not seen much yet.

Did have Cassoulet, Cote du Rhone and French cheeses for dinner last night. There are quite a few French restaurants here. Was talking with the chef (from Toulouse, been here 14 years). This sounds silly but is the kind of thing that happens on the road, about variations of Cassoulet. He showed me the sausage he imports and uses. He leaves the fat under the skin on his duck confit as rich as possible as opposed to rendering it for crispiness. I value some lamb, as it was served in the old market in Paris before it was torn down. He poured me a very large snifter of Calvados during this conversation, which made the morning start late. But I digress.

My hotel seems to be in little Tokyo. Even the signs are in Japanese. It is hard to find a Vietnamese restaurant between the French, Japanese and Argentine steak houses.

These people seem to be a very happy lot. I am very comfortable walking around everywhere, and feel safe and free from hassles.

But this is Asia. A 45 minute walk through nice suburbs and you reach some harder stuff.

At the moment the whole city is gearing up for Chinese New Year, which is a good and a bad thing.  Much of the city will be shut down as owners and staff travel to celebrate with family in the countryside.  But there will be parties, fireworks, street festivals, etc.  and I will try for some pictures.

Bonus pictures: A bicycle driven fish concentration camp.

Strange tourist crafts.

Unknown fruits.

Not much else to relate. Except that I had a 6 dollar haircut and now my head looks like a big white mushroom.