Ho Chi Minh city aka Saigon

Into Ho Chi Minh city, previously known as Saigon. Wow! A thriving community of 9 ti 15 million (depending who you ask) with a standard of living above what I have been seeing in Indonesia. It is clear there has been a lot of American investment with most signs in English as well as Vietnamese. Skyscrapers abound. New luxury apartment complexes are going up. Traffic is pretty dreadful yet roads are better and construction is underway on new highways and bridges.

The guides attribute much of the infrastructure development to American, Australian and British development after a change in leadership in late 1980s and early 1990s.Read more