2015 - Vietnam - Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - September

Saigon - September 2015 - Part 1

(Click the photo below to be taken to the video)

Train Travel on Vietnam's Reunification Express in Three Stages

Early in our planning we knew that train travel in Vietnam would allow us to see more scenery while traveling from south to north. Other reasons included budget considerations and the desire to interact with Vietnamese nationals.

The train is a unique way to travel if you really want the full Vietnam experience. Seating and births are offered in several configurations. Hard seats (wooden benches) with no A/C, Soft Seats with A/C, Hard births (no pad sleeper births) no A/C and finally Soft births with thin mattresses with A/C.

We arranged our train bookings in advance from the states using "Vietnam Impressive." They are very reputable and customer oriented.

We did the train travel in three stages. Our first leg took us from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang via air conditioned coach soft seats. Understand that on the Reunification Express the term air conditioning is a relative term. It may mean working A/C and a comfortable air conditioned coach or, the A/C will be marginal and only cool the coach down a few degrees. We learned it's luck of the draw.

We are currently putting together video slideshows of the three stages of our train travel.  Our travel video and photos going from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang (south to north) shows the distinct terrain changes from flat rice paddy's to the foothills of the central highlands. The further north we went the more dramatic the views became.

Click on the photo below to see our video slideshow for the first of three train rides south to north (Please click full screen on the lower right of the video window also please change to 1080P for this video)

Stage One - Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang - Enjoy!

Cham Temple Po Klaung Garai - Below - (Credit - David Buffington)

Stage Two - Nha Trang to Hue

Our trip from Nha Trang to Hue was an overnight trip. We took sleeper births for this leg because the train ride was to be 15 hours in total and the departure time was 18:00 Local.  The sleeper car was a no frills experience with thin but comfortable mattresses clad with clean linens and working air conditioning.  The sleeper births were beyond well used but still very serviceable.  

Our particular sleeper was a four birth sleeper.  For the first few hours Martha and I had the entire sleeper to ourselves. In Da Nang we were joined by two young men that were not traveling together. One was quite and didn't speak the entire trip to Hue. The other man spoke a few times demonstrating very good English. 

We found that traveling on the train is very interesting. The sleeper cars are kind of like a rolling hostel. It certainly took me out of my comfort zone for a while but, in the end it proved to be a positive experience and gave Martha and I wonderful insight into how polite and amiable the Vietnamese people truly are.  

At dawn we woke to see the spectacular scenery we were expecting. The train traveled right on the coast and as you will see from our video slideshow the views are breathtaking.  I apologize for the clarity of the photos in this video as most were taken with cell phone cameras with the train rocking and bucking. In addition the windows were absolutely filthy dirty. As they say, "it is what it is."  Enjoy!

Please click on the photo below to be taken to our video slideshow of our train travel from Nha Trang to Hue (In the video window please click full screen on the lower right)

Stage three - Hue to Hanoi will be posted on a separate blog entry

Our third and final train ride was from Hue to Hanoi. This leg was also a fifteen hour ride but since it was daytime we decided on soft seats on an air conditioned car.  As I pointed out earlier air conditioning is a relative term on the Reunification Express. But, we survived it just the same. 

Is it Saigon or, is it Ho Chi Minh City?

Saigon is the traditional name for the city. But, Saigon's neighbors to the north prefer the city to be called Ho Chi Minh City.

Like the name of the city, its residents seem to have two or more identities. At first glance Saigon is a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated first world city. Eighty percent of the cities population is under the age of 28 which is mind boggling.

Technology and manufacturing are at the core of this population shift. Young people with the desire for a better life move here for better education and better jobs.

More and more tech company's and manufacturing companies are building and operating here due to cheap labor. This in turn takes young productive people away from farming and other rural based jobs. Sound familiar?

Old traditions of the city and country remain. The people work extraordinarily hard. Average wages in tech manufacturing are low, about  $200 usd per month.  Farmers barely eke out living by selling products at market or selling farm products themselves to avoid loss of income.  

The biggest, in your face differences are evident in the rice industry. Farmers live in mostly tin shacks thatched with palm leaves. They plant the rice by hand, tend it by hand, fertilize it by hand, harvest by hand and transport it the best way they can to the buyers or middle men.

Like the U.S., farmers are paid at subsistence levels for their product and of course the buyers profit greatly. Rice buyers and warehouses line long stretches of Hiway 1A on the southern portion of the delta. Each of these warehouses are seemingly built in "Keep up with the Joneses" fashion. The warehouses are state of the art metal buildings complete with trucks and many workers.

Behind each warehouse there is usually an ornate multi-story attached home. These homes are in stark contrast to the adjacent shacks made of scrap everything. Inequity reigns everywhere. 

Rural twenty somethings are moving into the cities in droves. Big companies like Samsung are building multi-billion dollar manufacturing plants.  Tech has permeated every part of this culture, even the newer scooters are fuel injected.

  

Old guard people that fought for their countries independence in the 50's, 60's and 70's are now like our baby boomer generation. The Vietnamese baby boomers dying off. In their place the present generation of twenty somethings is looming large and younger people call their city Ho Chi Minh City.  But, Ho Chi Minh City remains Saigon to the old guard.  

The exodus to the city from the country side is insuring that the name change to Ho Chi Minh City will solidify in the future.