Saigon: Searching for my Son

Kia Ora!

Did our son live near here?

Our 5th child by entry into our family and oldest son by age is half Vietnamese and half American, a gift from the Viet Nam/American War. I had an emotional need to see where he came from, to search out the essence of the child who became our son by adoption. As a child, our guide, Anh lived at the port near where some of the mixed race children grew up. We drove through that neighborhood in Saigon, but I have no inkling of what part of this vast city our son came from. We may have been close to that locale or not. He talked of a traffic circle and of a pond. The city of Saigon may no longer resemble the city in which he was born.

Moon over Saigon skyline

Saigon City traffic circle

Defensive driving?

Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon is a modern 21st Century city in every sense of the word. Cars swirl around traffic circles and motorcyclists don defensive wear covering every inch of their bodies. We passed fast food chain restaurants, upscale neighborhoods and high rise towers. Our hotel, Liberty Central, is a 5-star hotel in the center of the city. From out the hotel window we viewed the Saigon skyline dominated by the shiny Bitexco building, the tallest in Saigon with a heliport projecting from an upper story.

High rise and high price apartments

Saigon Mega-mall

Upscale neighborhood

City market

Nearby was the city market, one square block of stalls jammed with every imaginable type of merchandise. I did a bit of last minute shopping at a shop in that market.

Something for grand kids here maybe?

 Friends chillin'  at street cafe

We hadn't had much of the famous Vietnamese cuisine but scored big with a fantastic lunch at Hoa Tuc, a fine upscale, but affordable, restaurant tucked into a courtyard on Hai Ba Trung St. Another lunch at a smaller cafe located in a small mall and

How do we eat this?

favored by locals and adventuresome tourists served tasty and interesting food I could not identify. We must have looked rather pitiful as the wait staff came to show us how to eat the food and later returned with a fork and knife--all part of entertaining the locals.

Cheers,
Kiwi Traveler