Phnom Penh - Saigon

Saigon

Since North Vietnam took over the South in 1975, official papers, administrative documents, cards, and plane tickets refer to Ho Chi Minh City. Variously called the "Paris" or "Pearl of the Orient", the "Marseille of Vietnam" or "Balcony of the Pacific", the name Saigon remains etched in people's memories and is the name used in everyday speech.

Formerly the capital of Cochin Chine that became a French possession in 1867, its downtown is home to many restored colonial buildings including the theater, town hall, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Majestic Hotel, the Continental Hotel, main post office, etc... and the list goes on. Beside them are modern skyscrapers, luxury hotels and huge billboards. Economic activity is growing at breakneck speed. The city's population of over four million is constantly on the go. The American embargo of Vietnam was lifted ten years ago and the metropolis of the South literally exploded. Despite the omnipresence of communism, a new land of opportunity is being born, between the charm of the past and western-style development that is so much a part of its present.

Young people are confident in the country's future and girl students wearing ao-dai, the elegant traditional dress, sip Coca Cola, sway as they walk or speed about on Chinese-made motorcycles, and smile at foreign visitors. Saigon, a multifaceted city, exuberant and bustling, traditional and modern, has retained the joie de vivre that makes it so charming and attractive. Saigon, free of hang-ups, is entering the 21st century while keeping its typically Asian magic.

Everywhere in Phnom Penh, signs of the thirty years of war can be discerned; people's looks, their bodies and souls, betray evidence of the horrifying genocide committed by the Khmers Rouges, followed by the Vietnamese occupation, coups d'etat and bloody gangland killings. Now, after the chaos and the ensuing night of blood, like Cambodia as a whole, Phnom Penh is struggling to come alive again.

The former "Pearl of Asia", despite rampant corruption, assaults by developers and the onslaught of motor vehicles, hasn't lost the exquisite charm of the past.

At dawn, down on the riverfront, crowds of people come to contemplate the harmonious river of alternating flow, a people once crushed but now hopeful of better days to come.

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