Motorcycles whizz by in all directions. Street vendors ply their wares at every turn. To the untrained eye, and especially the recently arrived tourist, it seems as if chaos abounds.
This is Ho Chi Minh City, the commercial heart of a resurgent Vietnam. It’s a city that is in thrall to constant change. And yet, beneath it all, there lies a deep love and respect for tradition and the past. You just need to know where to look.
As the journalist and author Graham Greene once said, “You come to Vietnam, you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived.”
Greene knew better than most. His classic “The Quiet American” remains a bestseller here, available from seemingly every souvenir shop you pass. Greene made four trips to the country as a foreign correspondent between 1952 and 1955 and saw up close its transition from a French colony to an independent state, making him well placed to understand the American War, as it’s often called there, that soon followed.
This sense of feeling the past in the present is felt immediately on arrival. It may be Ho Chi Minh City. But to many locals, it’s still Saigon, its name prior to the victory of the city’s eponymous hero in the 1970s.
“It is, it is!” says our guide Po when asked whether it’s still OK to use the famous former name.
“Lots of things (are) still being called Saigon,” he says. “We have a Saigon River, we have Saigon beer as well.”
Nomenclature concerns allayed, Po is readying us to embrace the crazy. As the CEO of a local tour operator, he knows his way around the city. And there’s no better way to get around than by motorbike.
Taking to two wheels
According to a 2022 C40 Cities Report, Ho Chi Minh City is home to some 7.3 million motorcycles. When you consider the population stands at 8.9 million, that tells you what to expect whenever you hop on and rev your engine here.
There is a method in the madness, however. Riding pillion behind Po, you can see just how everything manages to work. Riders pick a path and somehow manage to make it through. Come here throughout the year and you’ll see incredible things being transported on two wheels: boxes full of car parts, bags of goldfish miraculously stacked upon one another and even entire families, small kids sandwiched between adults for safety. For the uninitiated, it can make for a terrifying yet exhilarating spectacle.
“Sometimes the traffic jam got bad, they just use the pavement to run faster, that’s it,” smiles Po as we stop and almost get run over while trying out a Ho Chi Minh institution: a curbside barber.
At a dollar a shave and two dollars a haircut, these barbers have been here for generations. Loyal customers and curious tourists alike can pull up a seat and get freshened up, all while the city continues to go about its business.
Taking the time to sit down here allows for reflection. The cacophony of Ho Chi Minh is both life-affirming and draining. A sensory overload from every direction, meaning there’s a need to find something more soothing. Fortunately, there’s plenty of that on hand too.
‘This is the main character of the show’
The Saigon Opera House is a classic example of how modern Vietnam has found a way to marry its past with the present. Built by the French in 1900, this striking building could have been lifted from the streets of Paris. Having served as the National Assembly for South Vietnam between 1956 and 1967, it wasn’t used as a theater again until 1976, after which it was known by its official name of the Municipal Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City.
Today it hosts performances of The Bamboo Circus, a Cirque du Soleil-like show that tells the story of modern Vietnam featuring the eponymous material, which is used all over the country, for everything from scaffolding to fishing poles.
“It is very hard, but it’s very flexible,” says Tuan, the show director who has taken time to explain how his team created their singular and brilliant show. “And this is not just a prop. This is one of the characters, the main character, of the show.”
Watching these remarkable performers climbing the bamboo as scenes from Saigon play out, from construction workers hard at it to motorbikes zipping in all directions, is mind-blowing.
Yet trying to do it yourself is another matter entirely. Clambering and moving on these poles is impossible for the untrained, an insight into how tough they are, but also how hard the country works every day. In fact, The Bamboo Circus has been such a success that it’s on a world tour, bringing the magic of Vietnam to anyone lucky enough to get a ticket.
Ancient beliefs, values, and traditions
If The Bamboo Circus speaks to the grace, elegance and beauty of Vietnam, then so does water puppetry. This art form is performed by skilled artisans, maneuvering puppets while waist-deep in water, and was a cornerstone of royal entertainment going back hundreds of years.
Standing in waders in sweltering temperatures to perform takes strength and experience, things puppeteer Tran has in abundance. Watching him at work is to appreciate just how important preserving history and sharing culture is to the people of Ho Chi Minh City.
In so many ways it is a dynamic, forward-looking place. But it is also somewhere that is proud of its past and its heritage, its residents clearly keen to keep the old ways alive even as change comes.
This energy can be seen at Suoi Tien Theme Park, a place that celebrates and teaches Vietnamese history and culture, a singular and unique take on the kind of place that so often feels formulaic.
“Suoi Tien is a fairy tale theme park,” explains our guide Po. “It’s got all the culture and tradition of a thousand years of Vietnamese custom in there.”
Everything here draws from ancient beliefs, values, and traditions. Attractions tell the stories of Âu Cơ, a mountain snow goddess, seen as the mother of Vietnam, her husband Lạc Long Quân and the great battles between the traditional Mountain God and River God.
It’s as much a history lesson as a fun day out, although the children’s beach loomed over by the edifice of an ancient god and the inevitable roller coaster do at least mean you can have some classic theme park thrills when you visit.
Putting a pep in your step
Back in the heart of Saigon, there’s still time to try another tradition, this one a little more out there than curbside shaves, circus tricks and water puppetry: weasel coffee. Vietnam is the second-largest coffee exporter in the world after Brazil, its robusta beans in high demand. Yet to get a proper taste of its most famous coffee, you really need to find one of the best coffee houses in Ho Chi Minh City.
“They feed the weasel the fresh coffee beans,” says Po, chuckling, “And then it… poops out… it’s certified, you know, good quality!”
The beans are retrieved, washed and sanitized, then made into coffee and not, incidentally, sold at a great premium. The result is a rich, full-bodied cup that is also loaded with caffeine, even if the way the beans are treated is unlike almost anything else on Earth.
It’s the best way to put a pep in your step before a day spent exploring the traditional alleyways and markets that are a highlight of this great city.
“They collect the real things here,” says Po as we thumb through memorabilia from the Vietnam War, something which can feel like ancient history these days, the infamous evacuation of the American Embassy here taking place almost 50 years ago. This market is a strange concoction of karaoke bars, bric-a-brac and items from that war on sale: photos, medals and dog tags from men who were lost and never found.
Away from this bizarre place, traditional culture erupts once again, as young children fly kites in the summer heat, just as they have done for generations. It’s a reminder of how the past erupts here when you least expect it.
This is a place that puts great emphasis on simplicity and beauty in the everyday, one where grace and tenacity flourish at every turn.
