Rajeev's World: Saigon, Here We Are...

And here we are in Saigon, errr... oh! It's Uncle Ho's city, it's Ho Chi Minh City...

But there's little you can do in a city if you're there barely for two hours, transiting between flights. And that is a tad disappointing, afterall HCMC is such a historic city, a city that has seen it all over the last century, it has had its share of fame, intrigue, downfall and an impressive rediscovery...

Our flight from Hanoi landed at Terminal 1A, but our next flight, to Siem Reap takes off from Terminal 2 and it was a scramble to make it in time for checkin at Terminal 2. And somewhere on the way, I saw Uncle Ho, who gave this city its new name...

The city had its origin centuries ago as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor, or Forest City. The area was originally swampland, and was populated by the Khmer people (a Cambodian tribe) for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. Khmer legends say that southern Vietnam was given to the Vietnamese government as a dowry for the marriage of a Vietnamese princess to a Khmer prince - that was a political deal to stop constant invasions and pillaging of Khmer villages.

By the 1700s, the Nguyễn Dynasty established their control on the area, followed by the French colonists who came in, in the 1800s, who set up their administration base here.

After the end of the Second World War that ravaged most of the region, the French IndoChina effectively split into three - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. And Vietnam got further split into two, with the communists and the western forces dividing Vietnam into two along the 17th parallel.

While Uncle Ho assumed charge of North Vietnam from Hanoi, Saigon became the capital of South Vietnam, led by the former Emperor Bảo Đại. The two partitioned and fledgling states vied for control of the entire country and were aided by the two superpowers - the then Soviet Union and the United States in a 20 year long war. The communists made the westerners meet Waterloo and Saigon fell in April 1975, after which the country was reunited under the communists. And then, a year later , the communist regime rechristened the city as Ho Chi Minh City...

And I am told the city retains a lot of its old French colonial charm, which hopefully, Neeti and I will explore very soon, but definitely not on this trip...