Lonely Planet

MARCEL THEROUX is a novelist, broadcasterand regular contributor to Lonely PlanetTraveller. His latest novel, The Secret Books,is published in September.``````motion have left me feeling disorientatedand slightly deafened. The faintly decrepitair of the station belies the fact that it isthe gateway to a city of 10 million people,a metropolis that blends elements of itsFrench past with vertiginous 21st-centuryskyscrapers and teeming street life.At the heart of old Saigon is the formerFrench City Hall, a weird Gallic interloperfeaturing yellow stucco, wooden shuttersand smart topiary. Opposite the building,in a pretty tree-lined square, a statue of HoChi Minh faces down his former colonialmasters. But even Uncle Ho is dwarfed bythe changes that have taken place in thecity that now bears his name.Today, Ho Chi Minh City seems poisedto become an Asian megalopolis to rivalSeoul or even Tokyo. It’s still home to alively Chinatown, and hawkers peddletofu and low-cost snacks for its busyworkforce, but luxury shops and shoppingmalls are multiplying. The city’s subwayis due to be completed in 2019 and fromthe EON Heli Bar, on the 51st floor of theBitexco Financial Tower, you see a citythat appears to be growing before youreyes. Against a mother-of-pearl sky,buildings are sprouting up in variousstates of completion. Some are framed withscaffolding, others ready for occupationare dotted with yellow bulbs. The cityseems to stretch to the horizon. The street-level traffic chaos becomes, at this height,harmonious rivers of yellow headlampsand red taillights. The dark curve ofthe Saigon River marks the next stageof the hungry city’s expansion: the luxurydevelopments of Diamond Island –promising a future very far from Uncle Ho’sdream of austere egalitarianism.Before I leave Vietnam, I go back to GaSaigon. There’s an hour before the nextarrival and the station has an off-duty air.Behind the ticket desk, a wallchart showsthe timetable of the Reunification Express.When I’d stepped off the train the daybefore, I’d wondered if I’d ever want to getback on again. Now, however, as I read thestation names – from Hanoi to Ninh Binh,Hue, Saigon, the places I remember andthe ones I slept through – I feel a sneakingregret that the journey is over. It’s likelooking at a book I only skimmed and amnow determined to read properly.66 Lonely Planet Traveller October 2017PHOTOGRAPHS:VIETNAM BY TRAIN‘HO CHI MINH CITYIS A METROPOLISTHAT BLENDS ITSFRENCH PAST WITHVERTIGINOUS21ST-CENTURYSKYSCRAPERS’End the tripwith craft beerat the PasteurStreet BrewingCompany``````Turquoisewaters andwhite-sandbeach here``````Retro Socialistde'cor and greatstreet food atPropagranda bistro