Not so beautiful sights and sounds of Saigon

Since I have shown the beautiful sights of Saigon, this blog is now dedicated to the not so beautiful sights and sounds of Saigon.

1. Ben Thanh Market

I know this is actually a pretty much noted 'tourist spot' in every guide book and that is exactly the problem. Firstly, as a so-called bazaar market in South East Asia, it has failed miserably in terms of pricing. I asked for the price of a little t-shirt for my 4 year old son and the price they quoted right away is 120,000 dong. That is like USD6!!! I don't even know how to bargain because even if I decided to cut 50% off, it is still USD3. Anyway that is what I pay for (which I later found was sold at exactly the same price at the airport!!!)

Just when I thought that the environment in Chatuchak Market in Bangkok is bad, this place is even worst. Although I was there at close to 6pm, the environment inside is stuffy, hot and very uncomfortable. My son keeps throwing tantrum he wanted to leave. To top it of, a sales girl at one of the stall suddenly just grab my son and started to walk very quickly and when both me and my hubby was yelling at her, she gave a pretense that she thinks my son is cute and just wanna play with him. WTFFFFF! How can she do that?

So we decided to leave the market and scout for things to eat. My gosh, the roundabout in front of Ben Thanh is the scariest roundabout I've ever seen. I will describe the traffic situation later but while I was trying very hard to cross the road, suddenly a little girl hold my hand. Just when I thought she was so kind to try and help a tourist to cross the road, she starts asking for money. When I told her no, she kept holding my hand and pestering me, basically harassment is the word. After we have cross the road, she continue to stand less than 3 feet away from me.

The same thing happened the next day. Not that I liked Ben Thanh Market so much I came back for it the next day but the nearest shuttle stop from the place we went earlier was at Ben Thanh. This time another kid, a boy, started asking for money while I was trying to cross the road and while I ignore him, he continue to harass me until we cross to the other side of the road. Suddenly I felt a jerk at the back and I realised the boy is trying to grab my wallet from my back pocket. Get real boy! My alert level rise up to 110% the moment he started crossing the road with me. I started to yell at him and tell him to stop it or I'll call the police. For the next 4 days I was in Saigon, I felt very unsafe. To be fair, this only happens in Ben Thanh and not anywhere else. Maybe they are all out to get the tourist there *sigh*.

2. Traffic in Saigon

OK, everyone who has been to Saigon will tell you the same thing. The traffic in Saigon is the craziest in the world. First, they have 4 million bikes in one city. 4 MILLIONS ... if you don't get how much bikes there is, look at the picture below.

This is just a random picture I took from my hotel room.

See the 2 only miserable cars there amongst the hundreds of bikes? Only in Saigon.

On top of the scary throngs of bikes, they come from all directions. By all directions, I meant north, south, east, west, north-east, north-west, south-east or south-west ... in short you can never apply the rule "look left and look right'. Then, there is very little traffic lights in Saigon and I know why. Because irregardless of whether the light is red or green, the bikers do not bother at all. They just go riding on.

And then there is also the fact that if the street is one-way, the bikers decided to go up on the pedestrian side walk and go the other way ... amazing isn't it? So you will find all the beautiful pedestrian brick-ways all broken and if you're wearing high heels like me, you will constantly find yourself stuck in the cracks on the bricks on top of having bikes zooming past you!

Look at this brave biker trying to go the other way round

So how do the bikers survived in this traffic system? They just horn. Day and night, all you hear in Saigon is horns, horns and more horns. So after spending a few days there, we figured that they horn to tell the other bikers or pedestrians that they are not giving way and you should give way. Otherwise, they are very skillful bikers, they can go twisting and turning in the least possible space you can imagine.

So how do we cross the street? A friend asked me when I came back whether I try the method of closing my eyes and just cross. OK, this is not funny because I just might as well do. OK, what I did was say a prayer [Dear God, please let me cross the road safely] and then step my feet to the road and just cross. When a bike comes too close to me, I just stop for a second to let it pass and then just continue crossing. And then miraculously, I am on the other side of the road.

Only happens in Saigon, Bike-Jam

3. As you walk around the city, admiring the Parisian feel of the place, you will also come across the ugly electric cable all around.

Yeah, I know this picture is cliche but when you're there standing right underneath it, you will think to yourself ... yeah, I'm in a third world country.



Location : Ho Chih Minh, Vietnam
Next, The Cu Chi Tunnel