Saigon in english

It seems the division of labor has arisen naturally between me and Cristina. I handle English.

Ho Chi Min City(Saigon from now on) was a bogey man. We were told Saigon is Hanoi to the cube. Worse traffic, worse hygiene, less personal space.

The flight there was a semi-adventure in itself. Vietjetair pilots like to bend it like Beckham, their turns nice and tight. The pilot’s bravery was not matched outside the cockpit. The passengers were in different states of panic, our left neighbor energetically trying to stop Cristina to use her phone after takeoff, even in flight mode.

One hour later we landed safely in Saigon. We found the bus quickly and got started slowly towards downtown. The airport suburb looks much nicer than in Hanoi. No chicken or other live animals. The traffic, while lacking fluidity ‘ was no worse than Hanoi. We arrived one hour later at Ben Thanh Market and its famed mad roundabout
We crossed it like the pros we are and got to our hotel in one piece. I was beginning to like this city

The next days we discovered a city with a nice almost New York vibe. Richer, cleaner and spacier than Hanoi. We eat well and cheap (and got free beers) walked on large avenues surrounded by sky scrapers, listened to pricey jazz, saw the Cao Dai temple(Victor Hugo is a saint for them), the Cu Chi tunnels and more.

Its our last day before going to Mekong Delta. I liked this city and its never asleep yet somehow chilled vibe.