June 13: Saigon

I crossed the street today.

If this doesn't seem like a big deal to you, you've probably never been to Saigon, where crossing the street can be harrowing for a visitor.

Saigon is overrun with motorbikes. Add in a multitude of taxis, busses, private cars, cyclos and hand-pushed vendor carts; a dash of let's-ignore-the-traffic-lights; and a city full of traffic circles, and you've got a situation that, at first glance, is scary as hell.

The key to crossing the street in Saigon is simple: watch the locals, then do what they do: Find an opening, no matter how small, and start walking. Don't wait for the street to be clear or you'll never get home. Once you start walking, don't stop. Walk at a steady speed, making eye contact with the oncoming drivers. As long as you move predictably, they'll flow around you. It feels kind of like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Had a great day today, despite getting rained on three times. I visited a museum I hadn't been to a decade ago, and another museum that had been enlarged since 1995.

I don't believe the Ho Chi Minh City Museum was open the last time I was here, though I do remember the helicopter and airplane parked in the front parking lot, so I know I've at least been by the building. Inside, there are eight different exhibit rooms, including a couple on the geology and biology of the area, and many more devoted to Ho Chi Minh City's famous namesake.

(In case you're wondering, Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon are used more or less interchangeably, though technically Saigon refers to a small area within the sprawl of HCMC. Many locals tend to call the area Saigon, I've noticed, while the government predictably refers to it as HCMC.)

More interesting was the War Remnants Museum, which has been renamed since I was first here, when it was called the American War Crimes Museum. Frankly, I think the original name has more cachet, but perhaps it was a bit too much for some of the tourists. In addition to a variety of captured military hardware on display in the courtyard, the much enlarged museum displays photos of what are said to be American war atrocities. Some of the photos almost certainly are of nasty stuff we did during the war, but others give you the feeling that they have been rather creatively interpreted by the museum staff. There's also a new exhibit honoring the photojournalists killed covering the war, which I found particularly interesting.

At the museum, I heard one of the most interesting things I've heard on this trip: vans full of tourists which play music as a way to alert pedestrians and other cars when they're backing up. What's interesting about this? The music, on three different vans, was a medley of Christmas carols.

I finished off the day with a visit to one of Saigon's many markets, where I bought some candied ginger. Tasty, but amazingly spicy. I'm not really sure I'll be able to eat the 100 grams I bought. Maybe my wife will like it. (She hates ginger. I know she won't like it.)