Lively, a little hectic: the never-ending stream of motorbikes rolls through the streets of Saigon like an avalanche. According to statistics, there are as many motorbikes as inhabitants here (and 8 deaths per day due to traffic accidents – still half as many as 4 years ago). The few propaganda signs with hammer and sickle or Uncle Ho seem somewhat out of place among the many much larger neon signs for Casio, Pepsi or Mercedes. The streets are lined with fashion boutiques and electronics shops; only the red flags with yellow stars hanging everywhere remind us that this is a socialist republic.
Many women wear long-sleeved gloves and a scarf in front of their faces during the day: to avoid getting a tan…
The interesting War Remnants Museum shows not only American weapons from the war, but above all hundreds of photos of GI’s, Viet Cong, wounded and dead, napalm victims and the consequences of Agent Orange… Outside the city, I crawl through a narrow, reconstructed Viet Cong tunnel, the extensive network outside the city gates enabled the guerrillas to inflict heavy losses on the US Army without ever being seen.