It’s nearly the end of the week and I am sitting, nursing a beer in the rooftop bar of the Renaissance hotel in Saigon. I haven’t been here for a number of years and it’s been refitted and is now very elegant. It wasn’t so smart the last time I was here, but it had lovely bones, as they say. There’s nothing quite like very cold beer on a hot day unless its a very cold beer on a hot day at home and seriously, that trumps it every time.
I’ll be home in the morning, but for now, because of the beer, I will put up with the jack hammers, the honking horns and the screeching of brakes – all still deafening, even when you are on the 21st floor. Not that the noise makes any difference because on this trip, I have had around five hours sleep in the last 48, so I am feeling very relaxed, so relaxed in fact, that I may just slip off the stool, sound asleep.
The past two days I have been working up country, near the town of Khe Sanh in the Annamese cordillera; the mountain range that runs down the spine of Laos and Vietnam. Khe Sanh is well known amongst both Americans and Australians, but for different reasons. The Yanks know of Khe Sanh because it was a US Marine base that was besieged by the NVA for 77 days during the Vietnam war or as the locals term it, the ‘American war’ Most Australians know of it because of the fantastic song of the same name by the band Cold Chisel. It’s a bit of an anthem for Australians of a certain age, of which I am now one.
My reason for being up country was to ascertain the situation regarding Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) at a site just outside the town. Being a besieged former US base, the US bombed the hell out of the surrounding area and of course, around 40% of the ordinance didn’t explode at the time. There has been a great deal of (American guilt) money and effort spent in order to make the area safe for the people to live and farm, but the land has been cleared down to the depth of a plough, but not deep enough to dig foundations. I have been working with a professional UXO clearance company, whose job it is to tell me if the place is safe enough to work in or not and from what we have seen, it most certainly isn’t – not in its current state that is.
Anyway, back to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city, if you prefer. It was renamed after the war for the leader of the time, who was also known as ‘Uncle Ho’ There’s a statue of him in one of the many squares in the city. There’s still a number of landmarks from the French colonial period, such as Maxim’s, named after the legendary Paris nightclub and the Caravelle Hotel, which was a favourite of foreign journalists during the war, largely because of its bullet proof glass and back up generator, which guaranteed cold beer. It does have a pretty good roof top bar as well.
The traffic in Saigon is outrageous and its almost impossible to cross the road on the riverfront at almost any time of day. Forty years ago it would have been largely bicycles of course, but now it’s anything with wheels and a motor. Last time I was here I tailgated an old lady who was crossing and the traffic miraculously parted like the red sea in order to avoid her. This time I couldn’t find an old lady, or my insurance policy to check for coverage in the event of being hit by multiple motorcycles, so I had to be satisfied with looking at the river from the other side of the road. I finally came to terms with walking the city by staying on one side of the road and standing at intersections for some human shields to come along.
Whilst searching for a patisserie and the perfect chocolate croissant, I came across the Saigon opera house. It’s a good looking building built by the French and it opened in 1900. There were a number of years where is was used as a government assembly room and a temporary shelter for French civilians who were evacuated from North Vietnam, but it has been refurbished and looks brand new..
I did eventually find that cafe, with the best French pastries and whilst I was a little late in the day for them to be warm from the oven, the proprietor kindly gave them 30 seconds in the microwave. This is my first and possibly my last picture of food on this blog – unless I find something really good to show and tell about!
And yes, I ate both of them myself….
caravelle bar on 9/F gives a nice view over opera house as well.