After almost thirty hours of flight (Chicago, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh), I found myself finally on firm land in a place I've actually never been before.  I was excited and felt the humid, hot air coming off the airplane and on to the jet bridge.

Getting off the plane and through customs and out the door took me ten minutes if that - I was the first one off the plane, through customs, and out the door.  The waiting area at Ho Chi Minh Airport (or Saigon Airport) was outside as the picture of me shows. 

Right outside of Saigon Airport.

The city is crazy!  It's unbelievable how many people use mopeds/motorcycles to drive around.  A trip that should take fifteen minutes took one hour.  I snapped a picture from the ride from the airport to the hotel.  The center of Ho Chi Minh City is called Saigon.  I actually thought that Saigon was changed to Ho Chi Minh, but it wasn't. 

On the way to the hotel...mopeds!

It was crazy, just look at all the motorcycles, they are EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE drives them.  You see old women, old men, mothers driving whilst they husbands are in the back holding their infant babies.  Almost all of them wear some sort of mask because of the pollution.  I checked into the Sheraton Saigon and took a walk around to see what it was all about. 

If you have ever seen the movie with Tom Cruise "The Last Emperor" the scene in Tokyo when it was going through that phase of being built there were all these telephone cables everywhere, that's what it is like.  You can tell the city is transforming day by day.

  Wires galore (left) and me on bike-rickshaw (right)

I walked into a little cafe called "Wrap and Roll"  on Trung Street, which is something like a fast food chain here, but total Vietnamese food.  I started up a conversation with a small group to get a feel for the people and their thoughts.  The differences between peoples in this part of the world are dramatic - from the Thais, Cambodians, Singaporians, etc.  What is it that's different about the Vietnamese, I'm trying to figure it out.  One thing is for sure, they are not lazy people.  Everyone is out and about making their dreams happen.

As the city draws more wealth, the signs become more and more apparent.  Cartier, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Dolce and Gabbana all have their fingers in the pot, whereas McDonald's, Burger King, and Starbucks are not (but KFC and Gloria Jeans are here) yet here - but soon, I am told.

The average person makes USD$300.00 a month, so there's a huge difference between the rich and the working class.  A cup of coffee at Gloria Jeans would cost about a half days wage.  But walking the streets gives me goosebumps because I feel that this is what it's like to see history in the making.  Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur all started just like Ho Chi Minh.  The last of the baby dragons (Phnom Penh, Rangoon, etc., have a lot more ways to go).

High-rises are being planned and built and people can now afford cars, clogging up the streets even more.  There is no subway system which just adds to the craziness and I can't imagine what they are going to do in ten years.  They will probably do what the other big cities in the region have done, huge raised mega-expressways and railways.

The young people I spoke to told me their biggest fear:  Their city will become another Bangkok. 


       My Dreams. My Passions. My Life.
             Lifestyle Creator and Mens Designer  George Zaharoff


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