Miss(ing) Saigon (conclusion)

Until recently, Vietnam’s come-on to the world was a slogan that boasted of its “hidden charm.”

 It was spot-on, for although the Vietnam I’ve seen over the last decade displayed its unique Oriental beauty, it left much more to the imagination.

In Vietnam, I’ve always felt that I wasn’t just sightseeing  I was exploring.

And a place is all the more interesting if you can explore it, chew it, experience it  not just view it from the glass windows of a car or as you walk the length of the gleaming tiled floors of a mall.

My husband Ed and I were in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City since 1976, but still Saigon to me) recently and were charmed by the still provincial character of its streets and the modern-day conveniences that complement it.

Tiled streets under giant leafy trees, well-preserved and restored centuries-old buildings all aglow in the night, hawkers in conical hats, holes-in-the-wall that serve the best noodles (pho) and unleash the best foot and body massage...

We flew Philippine Airlines to Saigon, and except for a slight delay at boarding, we found things back to normal.

The former train station, designed by Gustav Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame.

We stayed at the New World Saigon Hotel, an oasis in the center of the city that was about five minutes away from the famous Ben Thanh market (a more cultural version of our own Greenhills tiangge, because it was a showcase of Vietnam’s best arts, crafts and produce) and the now iconic noodle store Pho 2000  President Bill Clinton had chicken noodle soup there during a visit to Saigon in 2000. His photos are displayed all over the eatery, which is perhaps only 30 sq. meters in floor area. Clinton stayed at the New World during his Saigon visit, as did President George H.W. Bush in 1995 and President George W. Bush in 2006.

The hotel is right across a tree-shaded park (Saigon’s micro-version of NYC’s Central Park), the likes of which I no longer see in downtown Metro Manila these days. There are no beggars roaming the streets, no street kids or stray dogs. Ed noted that virtually all the streets had conspicuous street signs and major intersections had traffic lights that worked.

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After exploring Ben Thanh Market and Antique Row (Le Cong Kieu) on our first afternoon, both a stone’s throw away from New World, we welcomed the night with a light dinner and cocktails at the famed Caravelle Hotel’s Saigon Saigon bar. During the Vietnam War in the ‘70s, this was the hangout of foreign correspondents. The al fresco bar, on the hotel’s ninth floor, overlooked the elegant Saigon Opera House and the lamplit streets around it for a most romantic ambience. After cocktails, we crossed over to the Opera House, a mini version of its Paris counterpart. Sandwiched between the Caravelle and the Opera House you are locked in the past  and unlocked from it just as readily when you viewed the Louis Vuitton store on another corner facing the Opera House. Okay, I am in the present.

We began our Sunday with bold and brewed Vietnamese coffee before we headed for the calm of Holy Mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral, some seven minutes away by taxi. The 19th-century cathedral, built with materials imported from France, is one of Saigon’s architectural marvels. But its interiors are austere, devoid of the grandeur of European and even old Philippine churches. The 9:30 a.m. Mass was in English, and the pink cathedral was filled to the rafters with devotees from every race on earth. There were tourists in sandals with backpacks, as well as well-coiffed Vietnamese matrons with Chanel and Hermes bags.

Chill, the only open-air skybar in Vietnam.

(I was told Vietnam’s new rich are very rich  a businessman paid the down payment for a hotel he was purchasing with $1 million in cold cash.)

To the side of the cathedral is a yellow colonial building designed by renowned architect Gustav Eiffel that was once the city’s central train station. Now its Post Office, it is another “mini-me” of Europe’s old train terminal buildings, with its cavernous ceiling and intricately designed marbled floors. There are souvenir shops inside the Post Office and I recommend them for the quality of their products (though limited) and reasonable fixed prices (about the same as Ben Thanh but without the haggling!).

We had lunch at a fast food noodle outlet, Pho 24, inside a mall where I had chicken noodle soup with mint, basil and coriander leaves to chew on the side. A typical fastfood meal consisting of noodles and soda costs about $3.

Filipino expat Grace Agatep, director of marketing of Saigon’s ParkRoyal Hotel, then brought me to her favorite massage center.

The Vietnamese are famed for their reflexologists and my 90-minute foot and body massage at one airconditioned hole-in-the wall massage place was like no other I have had in my life. I heard my joints click and creak, felt my limbs stretch like never before. The piece de resistance was the stone massage at the end of the 90-minute session  bearably hot flat stones are run through your back, kneading it at certain points, before they are finally perched side by side on top of your back. You feel the warmth oozing from the stones to every layer of your skin and muscles, relaxing and de-stressing you. This 90-minute nirvana costs about $12.

The sprawling New World Hotel Saigon.

After a day of authentic Vietnamese homegrown delights, we capped the night with a world-class treat  dinner and drinks at the newly opened Chill, a skybar on the 27th floor of a building right behind the New World. Chill, the first, all open-air skybar in Vietnam, offers the most spectacular view of Saigon’s skyline at night. It simply took my breath away with its posh uber modern interiors and furniture, including its translucent bar and bar tables that resembled ice carvings.

To be able to leap from the charms of the past to the dizzying allure of the future in a single day in a single city is part of Saigon’s hidden charm.

I miss Saigon already.

(You may e-mail me at j[email protected])