Ho Chi Minh city....

                   7.30am awake at the Ngoc Linh Hotel,  Ho Chi Minh city/Saigon (HCMC)--- rated at 91 on Booking.com, after a tranquil nights sleep. Nice comparison to my hotel last night in Da Lat where outside my hotel, I seemed to be at the epi-centre of manic vehicular horn blowers. Today, my

Abandoned US  equipment displayed at Reunification Palace

complaint to hotel management was being parked up on the fifth floor of a non-elevator building. On check-in last night, I was assured that it would be impossible to relocate me to the 2nd floor even if I did suffer from some knee stiffness. With a commitment to stay at the hotel an extra two days (total four),  I am now relocated to room 103. Small stuff you might say, but enough to annoy, on a long journey. Never cease negotiating for an improvement in life's lot, Confucius say.
                 HCMC positively pulsates with economic energy--- such a contrast to Hanoi, which while the national capital, seems to want principally to project central (communist) political influence

Siesta on my motor cycle....

over the entire country. Back in 1992, someone told me that from the roof top of my Shanghai hotel it was possible to see 50% of the world's rotating construction cranes---I have the feeling that this 50% has now moved to HCMC. Times seem to be rapidly changing here---the shops in HCMC have a much greater range of goods at retail than I have seen anywhere else in Vietnam and judging by the shopping crowds, are being gobbled up. If not the national capital, HCMC  (pop: 7.8 million)  is certainly the capital of touts--almost impossible to proceed more than a few strides on the totally congested streets than to be offered some service--- boom boom massages, marijuana and likely anything else one might require. The metropolis seems to have retained lots of the brashness and perhaps some of the vices it must have had during the chaotic American war years. The streets are choking with the sheer volume of motor cycles and scooter. One shudders to consider the total grid-lock that will prevail when all these motorcyclists follow the natural progression up the ladder to four wheel ownership----but maybe by that time, an underground rail system will have been constructed viz: Singapore, Shanghai etc.
                          Equipped with hotel city map in hand, I ventured out into the increasing mid-morning heat and humidity. Limiting myself to walking mode only, I selected the Reunification

Footing the birdie.....

Palace to visit. This was the palace of the president of the defeated Republic of South Vietnam and hit world front pages a couple of times in 1975 when it was bombed by a northern pilot who had infiltrated the southern air-force and used an American fighter bomber to deliver two direct hits to the property. The second event to capture imaginations that year was the famous photo of the Viet Cong tank smashing its way into the palace grounds, demolishing the ornamental main gate and delivering the ultimate message to the world that the war war was over with the north being the victors. The palace has been rebuilt and the old (damaged) French colonial style building front facade has been replaced with a stylistically rather modern replacement. The entire property is now open (not 11.30am to 1.30pm when Vietnamese museum workers enjoy their rather leisurely lunch break) to all, as a national monument to mark the struggle for reunification.
                    After my 'picnic' on a comfortable park bench and awaiting the 1.30pm opening time, I strolled the few blocks to the War Remnants Museum complete with a collection of US tanks, artillery, jets and helicopters. Inside, very impactfully is illustrated the horror of the 'American' war. Many of the war scenes were ironically supplied by US sources, thus validating the accuracy and creditability of the shocking images. The war, its causes and results seem to resonate very much present in the psyche of the people of Vietnam and as a tourist, one is aware of their desire to get out the story. I have not been conscious of any overt anti-American sentiment, observed or reported to me, while I have been in Vietnam Interestingly today, it seems that once again, China is the bogeyman and the US seen as being sympathetic.