My first time in Saigon with only 2 days to get an impression of a city that I mostly know from some history lessons at school and from which there are some “pictures” in mind from various Vietnam movies – both mainly influenced by the time of the US being present in the country.

Like in a lot of other cases when visiting a country or city for the first time, as soon as you are on the ground, you realize that you have to revise a lot of perceptions from the media/movies/history lessons. Politics suddenly don’t play a role anymore when you meet the people.  The only visible reminders of the US presence in the country are the war museum and the former US embassy. The latter is well known because of a photo from Dutch photographer Hubert van Es   of a helicopter landing on top of a roof on Apr-29, 1975 when the last Americans fled the country. However the building on the foto wasn’t the embassy but an apartment building of CIA employees.

In fact, the influence of the French colonial time is much more present in Saigon. There are a lot of official buildings downtown (have a look at the pictures further down) and in some residential areas there are even some streets with obvious French architecture. Even in the language there are several words that stem from French like cà phê, bia, ga to – just to name a few.  Unfortunately, more und more of the colonial buildings are disappearing and make place for shiny business buildings, sky scrapers or high-end apartment houses.

Another obvious thing in the very busy streets of Saigon the the love of the people for coffee, fresh fruit and food. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world and you find many coffee shops and various roasts all over the place. I strongly recommend cà phê sữa đá (Vietnamese iced coffee), perfect for hot weather but beware: highly addictive with a large potential to stay on your hips…..

But now have a look yourself…..