Expat's first impressions of Sai Gon

Impressions by a new visitor:

Taxis
1) I had good service from Vinasun and Mai Linh, sometimes the drivers really went out of their way to be helpful and always used an honest meter. Only once in Mai Linh, i got a very old driver, maybe 80 years old and he ran a strange meter, one that continued to tally the charges over several days or weeks. I had to do math to figure out the actual charge, in this case a paltry 20,000vnd and when i pulled out my money to pay, he grabbed the entire wad and started cursing in Vietnamese and we fought in the car to get my wad back. I threw the right amount to him and ran.

2) Another time, the Vinasun driver (a good guy) liked to play a game of seeing how close he could get to other cars without hitting them and was laughing all the way while I was having multiple heart attacks. (Note to self: bring blindfolds next trip)

3) I pity the cars very much. Driving the cars in high gear at low speeds really tears them up, evidenced by the shaking and rattling of the car/van body which all of you know.  Cars cant handle 5th gear at 30kph and i dont know why they are so shift-crazy. They think they are saving fuel but in fact increasing consumption and wear.

Honking
In Sai Gon anyway, its a nation of honkers. I rode in a taxi and the driver honked continuously, just honking at thin air. Who is he honking at? Nobody. Why is all this honking, day and night? You honk at the person in front of you but he cannot move anywhere in this sardine can called Sai Gon so what good is served? Anecdote, I had to go to the Malaysian embassy for something and there was a notice on a board, that visitors to Sai Gon are advised to obey the law: Making noise, like honking, is a crime and the Embassy cannot help you in you get cited for noisemaking. (Note to self, bring ear plugs next time).

Prices
Despite www.numbeo.com reporting that prices are similar to Malaysia, I found prices to be 30-40% higher in Sai Gon, whether its for a chocolate bar or a hardware item or a house rental or a pair of shoes. Doesnt matter, all higher. Surprising. And because Im therefore used to lower prices, Sai Gon seemed an expensive place and I struggled to maintain a daily budget. I spent a lot more than I budgeted. While prices continue to advance around asia, Id say from my travels that Vietnam must be rising the fastest as has been written elsewhere, especially about Ha Noi.

Motorbikes
It does no good to say Sai Gon is all jammed up or that people dont obey the laws because thats a foregone conclusion no matter where people have read about Sai Gon. Since I often had to wait at the curb to dangerously cross the road I had time to just look at people. I never saw one person having a good time on their bikes, their faces were in angst, stress, fatigue. How long can a person hold out in that condition? Forever? Its not just a matter of a traffic jam. Jams as a way of life dont make you a better or happier rider, they eventually grind you down to a pulp. I didnt want to try to get a licence or rent a bike on the trip as was my first intention.

Shopping
Im probably not alone in saying that the best way to sell to a westerner is to LET them shop, dont hover over them and bark at them and pressure them. Barkers just turn me off and I just keep walking, even if the shop looks interesting or I actually needed something inside.

Walking about
Except for the fact that few, if any, obey traffic laws, i felt otherwise safe walking anywhere. An annoying element though are the many people who commandeer public spaces to extend their shops and housing use. One shop near my hotel sells kitchen wares and has three times as much inventory outside the shop as inside, the wares pouring out right across the wide sidewalk and into the street, causing walkers to detour out into the middle of the road with traffic swirling by. Nobody cares. Where did the government intend people to walk and why do people accept this?

Another annoying aspect of "use of common property" is, well..... in my area the roads were re-paved, and here you have brand new clean streets and sidewalk and the first thing people do is pitch all form of litter and garbage out of their shops right into the nice new street. A reasonable person might think that a fresh new road is worth caring for and keeping clean. But no.

Food
I was surprised at the lack of variety of restaurant food. In the end, one will have to like a small baguette or beef soup or have nothing to eat. There is no breadth of menu, mostly small variations of the same food over and over and over, unless you are doing independent food shopping and cooking yourself. About restaurant hygiene, a beef-bowl place opposite my hotel served from very early morning. Everyday, when the customers finished and left, the cook dumped the unfinished soups back into the main pot and that was horrifying. (The father/owner, returning from his fascinating one-handed motorbike food deliveries, paused to eat but he didnt eat from the main pot, he ate from another pot his wife prepared.) By any measure on the planet thats just plain WRONG.

Airport Customs
When I arrived they waived declarations of money. They just didnt ask or check or anything. I stopped and asked for a form and declared every cent I had and this annoyed them very much (why are you bothering us with declarations if we did not specifically ask you?) But when I was leaving a month later, they practically stripped search me for money, they wanted me to declare every cent I had. I complied and produced the prior forms and that was the end of that. Interestingly, they didnt seem to care about anything i might be carrying except money. In this blog the information about money and customs is not consistent and I will say to travelers to be sure to declare at the front end of the trip even if you are only carrying $50. Save potential grief.

Museums, people, and general scene
I found all of it intriguing. Loved the museums and saw lots of (probable) war folk pouring over the collections. The street scenes and vegetation still reminded me of all the old newsreels during the war. (How little its all changed, its all still there. How exciting!) There is much to say here but a small, tiny thing really resonated the entire trip, to paraphrase HCM's propaganda hanging in the War Museum, "to have happy freedom, people have to suffer and give up everything." Ooooo-k. I went to every possible museum and such, i was hoping to see more of the current Vietnam thinking. Despite that people wish to move on and forget the war, everything seemed war-related anyway, including war memorabilia being sold on sidewalks which was a shock actually, not to mention the abundant fake stuff everywhere. People were nice to me throughout and I especially liked seeing Viet people in their home environment instead of what became of them in the US which Im obviously more used to. I wished I had spoken Vietnamese so that I could engage the aged people, i want to hear their stories. Heat and humidity were awful, far higher than Malaysia despite the same latitude. That was hard to get used to and after some hours of daily walking I was forced into taxis just to get some aircon. One thing I liked was the daily street cleanup. Everyone throws their garbage in the street but its totally cleaned up later. Safety, I never felt unsafe, like walking late at night, no problems at all and I liked the frequency of police patrols. Architecture, both colonial and new is interesting. Some of the new buildings, it was gratifying to see both good design and also that the owners went the extra steps in details to enhance beauty, if not added function itself. There are some good minds out there.

Work and business
Dont know anything about working, i came to look for business suppliers and to form a company. Considering a long list of parts needed, I only found a few on the list and they were inferior to what I already have. Postal rates are 3X what I expected, despite that Vietnam is in the Postal Union. (What gives?) I tried to meet six lawyers, one who replied to me and met asked for $20,000 plus capital to register a company and I thought that outrageous and wouldnt pay. The only other lawyer who ever replied stood me up for our confirmed appointment and never even said sorry or anything, just disappeared. I thought lawyers wanted work? I did get 3D scanning done by a company that did great work. Im sure we have started a good relationship and I do thank them.

Housing
Agents who I spoke to, when learning Im american, refused to show any property below $2500/mo. I balked and said I knew there was less expensive housing and they laughed and said it was impossible. Numbeo.com's figures are accurate, one can rent a house even for $250/mo, and they are advertised right online but the square footage is 1/3 of what I am used to--same prices, tiny spaces, meaning that the prices are actually 3X higher per foot. And this was not in District 1 but far outside. Ouch!

So those are some initial impressions of someones first visit to Sai Gon. Certainly as one gets to know a place all matters can be solved and settled and situated, and a new, more balanced view emerges. It just takes patience and learning. There is an upshot here, that the government demonstrates more care about the people than the people care about themselves or each other. Government gives you a new street, you trash it at once. I think that says a lot. Viets reading here may appreciate what foreigners have to learn about and get used to. I know I sound negative but that wasnt the intention.