Visiting Vietnam

It’s early morning and I am standing on the roof top patio of our small family run hotel. Even at this early hour, the streets and tiny lanes hum with the sound of small shining motor scooters - metallic bees off to work in their hundreds. Weaving and dodging together, it seems impossible that any of them will make it. It’s cooperative chaos. But each rider takes his turn in the swarming traffic.

Observing the tranquil landscape in the morning’s humidity, it's hard to imagine the brutal struggle and sadness that once dominated the lives of so many and of the country whose green slither of land, arching its back on the borders of Laos and Cambodia and lapped by the South China Sea - now seems so inconspicuous and distant. If it were not for visiting the war museum and the tunnels that so cleverly protected the Viet Cong from hostile attack, I would think there had never been a conflict.

Soon I will enter the alleyway that fronts this hotel and find my way to the busy street some few zigs and zags away. I take my position on the corner of this busy roadway - but the traffic’s not stopping. In careful steps learnt by watching locals, I begin my “Saigon shuffle”, gliding forwards with eyes to the left and right.

Letting a taxi pass, I take my place between an oncoming group of cyclists and scooters. Two, three, four steps. The traffic lets me through, flowing around me like water to find another path of least resistance. Halfway across on the median strip, two young girls scream past me carrying the morning's shopping. I look right and zigzag between a cycle and an elderly woman on a bicycle carrying an impossibly heavy load. She moves towards me slowly and I cross in front of her to the other side.

Fruits, vegetables and, my favorite, real French baguettes, are just a few of the wonderful foods provided by sidewalk vendors in this city still known to most as “Saigon”,. Here in Ho Chi Minh, the flavors and smells inundate the senses, and street food is more than just convenient — it's an indulgence. So many vendors permeate the walkways that pedestrians must make their way along roadways dominated by motor scooters that follow no coordinated direction.

Cafés and coffee stands dot the area - relaxed neighborhood hangouts with a few plastic seats out front to watch the city go by. The signature drink of Vietnam is a small cup of very strong coffee known as “ca phe sua”. It is frequently poured over ice “ca phe sua da” as well. The coffee is made, not by French press or by Italian Expresso, but by brewing freshly ground Vietnamese coffee beans with hot water through a metal container above your drinking cup, allowing it to slowly drip through a strainer placed over the grounds. It’s usually taken with sweetened and condensed milk (lots of it!). Most locals will tell you that they can’t start their day without it.