Motorcycles whizz by in all directions. Street vendors ply their wares at every turn. To the untrained eye, and especially the recently arrived tourist, it seems as if chaos abounds.<\/p>\n
This is Ho Chi Minh City, the commercial heart of a resurgent Vietnam. It\u2019s a city that is in thrall to constant change. And yet, beneath it all, there lies a deep love and respect for tradition and the past. You just need to know where to look.<\/p>\n
As the journalist and author Graham Greene once said, \u201cYou come to Vietnam, you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greene knew better than most. His classic \u201cThe Quiet American\u201d remains a bestseller here, available from seemingly every souvenir shop you pass. Greene made four trips to the country as a foreign correspondent between 1952 and 1955 and saw up close its transition from a French colony to an independent state, making him well placed to understand the American War, as it\u2019s often called there, that soon followed.<\/p>\n
This sense of feeling the past in the present is felt immediately on arrival. It may be Ho Chi Minh City. But to many locals, it\u2019s still Saigon, its name prior to the victory of the city\u2019s eponymous hero in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is, it is!\u201d says our guide Po when asked whether it\u2019s still OK to use the famous former name.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of things (are) still being called Saigon,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a Saigon River, we have Saigon beer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nomenclature concerns allayed, Po is readying us to embrace the crazy. As the CEO of a local tour operator, he knows his way around the city. And there\u2019s no better way to get around than by motorbike.<\/p>\n