Letters from Vietnam 8

25th June 2006 – Home – 21:34 / HCMC

Today is J’s birthday. Her mother called in the morning at 6 am so that J will not forget her own birthday. Actually, telephone’s sound did not wake me up. I slept until 8 am since I went to bed late last night due to the world cup matches. I promised to buy a nice gift to her when we would be financially stable. I still have to pay a lot of deposit for this apartment and almost one third of my next month’s salary will be cut due to the J’s health insurance for one year.

To celebrate her birthday we decided to go to the city center and eat some good food. Because we spent all the Vietnamese currencies yesterday, we only had enough money to take a bus. Actually, I was happy since it was already time to learn the city bus network. Here taxis are more expensive than those in Thailand and motorbikes cannot take a couple. We took the number 34 bus which starts from the university and goes till Ben Than Market. The rate for the bus was quite cheap (2000 Dong = 5 Baht), but this low price showed its result soon. The seats were dirty and smelly; the drivers were usually careless and furious. The bus passed through the small streets of the city so it gave a chance to see the real face of HCMC. Small and distorted roads, street vendors, internet cafés, barbers, small shops, motorbike repair shops, playing children, small restaurants etc were sharing the streets and creating their own environment to survive. There are internet cafes in almost every 100 metres. Most of the children and young people made themselves busy with online games or chatting in these cafes. The interesting thing is that Vietnamese government does not inspect these cafes. Many of them are open for 24 hours and there is no age restriction. When we get closed to the river, we have seen a Christian cemetery beside the road. The cross signs were distributed everywhere and there were no order of any kind. If we put points to replace each grave, they might look like randomly distributed. Some crosses were not erect, some were broken. I thought even the dead people joined in the chaos of the city.

After a 30 minutes ride, we arrived to Ben Than Market. For me this place is center of the city, even center of the country. We started to walk through Le Loi road till Opera House. On the road, there were many shops selling things for tourists. We looked at them but did not buy anything. Once I have seen an exchange place, I entered. The rates were written on a board behind the clerk. I gave him $60. He gave me equivalent amount in Vietnamese Dong but there was a problem. The rate he bought dollars from me was not same as the rate on the board. When I told this, he started to speak Vietnamese with J. Once he understood that she is not Vietnamese, he spoke with me in English but I did not understand what he meant. The difference did not make much problem because the amount of dollar we are selling was very little and the difference even could not buy a bottle of water. However, my deal was different. I wanted to know why he wanted to use a rate which was not on the list. Neither he could explain, nor did I understand. We left the place with what we were given.

When we arrived to Lam Son square, we started to take photos. There were two Japanese girls who asked me to take their photos. After their turn, one of them took our photos. We turned to Dong Khoi Road for Notre Dame Cathedral. This road is known as Rue Catinat to French community. During colonial times, there were perfumeries, chic boutiques and cafés on this road. The name of the road was changed to Tu Do (freedom) by President Diem. After Saigon fell to North Vietnam in 1975, the road’s name has been changed to Dong Khoi (uprising).
Notre Dame Cathedral is located at the end of this road. It has been built in late 19th century and there is a Virgin Mary statue in front of the cathedral (at the middle of circle). Another interesting thing is that although this is my second time around this area, I did not see this statue when I was here the first time! These kinds of things happen to me a lot. When J came to Vietnam, she went to Zen Plaza on the first day. When I asked her how she found Zen Plaza herself, she took me to balcony of the hotel room and showed me. It was just 300 metre away from my hotel with a large sign writing ‘ZEN PLAZA’. I was staying in that room for more than a week but I had never seen that plaza there before she showed me.

Cathedral is not open at the weekends. Cathedral has twin spires and they make it look like ‘ears of a hidden jackrabbit’ (this metaphor is not mine; it was written by novelist Anthony Grey). We took a few pictures in front of the statue and the cathedral and after learning that we can not enter, we went to the Diamond Plaza which is just behind the cathedral.

We were hungry and this plaza had some Western food. We went to third floor and had some pizza and salad. It was the most expensive pizza I had ever eaten in my life. We paid almost 300 Baht for a medium size pizza. I did not mind since it was a birthday. While eating, I thought about why cost of living in Vietnam is higher than cost of living in Thailand, even though Thailand looks richer and more developed. First there is no competititon here. There are a few department stores and a few supermarkets in ‘western’ standards. This makes the prices higher for the people who want to have ‘western’ standards. If I can eat what Vietnamese people eat, I am sure it will be very cheap. Local people live with very little amount and they seem satisfied with what they have.