I had read online that the airports of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are just ramshackle buildings with few flights taking off the tarmac on any given day. Imagine my surprise, when we stepped off our (very colorful) Thai Airways flight, through the aerobridge, and entered an airport which could’ve been anywhere in N.America or Europe!

It was at the Saigon International airport that I saw the first of many sweepers in orange overalls. This is one sight that dominates my notion of Ho Chi Minh City – a city in a state of rapid flux. A city smoothening, if not shedding, its wrinkled landscape.. fattening itself on Viet Kieu money to fill out its sunken hollows.

Stepping out of the airport, there were no ‘hundreds of taxi drivers’ milling around you offering a ride (metaphorically, more than literally). Maybe it had something to do with the time of the day.. we landed at about 7.30 p.m. local time. There was a line of taxis waiting at the curb. A fellow teacher, who had been assigned to pick us up, called one of the taxis and we headed into the madness that is Saigon.

Except that the madness seemed familiar. So familiar, that it felt mundane.

Mundane madness, a term which would be applicable to anywhere in India too.

With the sun having set a while ago, headlights of a thousand bikes lit up the street ahead, to the right and left, and behind. Oh, and they lit up the pavements too, coz it’s not taboo to drive on pavements here, as long as there is no street-stall there. Ramming into a street stall or its customers (sitting on (bathroom) stools) is not okay.

Come to think of it, there are very few things that are not okay here. It’s okay to have your finger halfway up your nose in public. It’s okay to wash meat on the sidewalk, and fish, and bugs, and birds. It’s okay to leave the doors and windows of your home open so the breeze comes in (if there is any), and people outside can watch you go about your business. It’s okay to put hang a hammock virtually anywhere. It’s ok to have a fruit stall, or vegetable stall, and sit in a chair behind it and snooze. It’s ok to shout ‘halllllooooo’ to any foreigner, however old you may be. It’s ok to drink beer in the mornings, or at any other time of the day or night (it’s cheaper than water, after all).

I have to say though, that despite all of the above, the Vietnamese are really nice people. And they work really hard. Almost everyone has a little stall in a narrow alley. Whether it’s food, baby clothes, or even a pedicure, you can get it right on the streets. And cheap.. at least 5 times cheaper than if you step into an sir-conditioned establishment.

Ah, that’s where the catch is. If you can bear to sit out in 90% humidity and get tanned ten shades darker in a few minutes, sure.. go ahead, save a few bucks. But if you belong to the more fragile community of expats in Vietnam, I’d probably find you sitting in Bobby Brewers having an English breakfast of bread and eggs and fruits, or a lunch of Thai green curry with jasmine iced tea, and at Le Pub or Pacharan at night, drinking $5 beers and cocktails. Ah, that’s the life. That’s our life.

That’s all we’ve been doing since we landed here. Eat, explore, eat, explore, and more of the same….

Some photos of our culinary adventures..

Barbecued Oysters

Banh bao

Free jasmine iced tea is everywhere in HCMC

Homemade gobi sabzi.. zabardast

Kottu parotta

Noodle Soup @ Blingy place

In: Vietnam | | #