Get to Saigon before time catches it up

Twenty six years after the end of the Vietnam War GLYN MAY visits the former frontline cities of Saigon.

It was pretty obvious, despite the sign on the door, that neither hyper-happy Jose from the Philippines nor his assistant Ekaterina from Moscow were actually "Harry" of Harry's Bar.

"Izz no Harrye jus Jose and me," explains Ekaterina with a smile as wide as Red Square. In an instant, the six or so newly arrived patrons of Harry's Bar are totally captivated.

"You would like ze Russian cocktails, yes? Maybe a KGB or perhaps a Kremlin Special ?"

Yes, yes. So many magical mixes of Vodka, Drambuie, Curacao, Campari, Gin, Whisky and Benedictine later, the mob are hanging on to their barstools and silently giving thanks to the Great Barman In the Sky who had led us to this little haven on our journey from Bangkok to Saigon.

As it transpired, the evening in Harry's Bar - by any yardstick a heart-thumping adventure - had prepared us admirably for what was to come in Vietnam.

But just to set the record straight, in case you go searching for Harry's Bar along some dusty backpacker trail, it's on deck 7 of Star Cruises' SuperStar Europe (previously the liner Europa) which has begun five-night cruises from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, Con Son Island, Koh Samui and back to Bangkok. SuperStar Europe leaves Bangkok's port of Laem Chabang on Sundays and returns Friday. (Cruise-only prices start at $1491).

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is one of the most exciting places in Asia: tree-lined boulevards packed with nearly three million motorcycles, decaying buildings nuzzling up to soaring blue-glass office blocks, wonderful French colonial architecture stirring the romance of the 1930s, and sprawling food markets sharing the footpath with boutique bars and grand hotels.

It's a city where just crossing the street unscathed is a challenge of epic proportions. To successfully negotiate the river of motorcycles, bicycles, cyclos (trishaws) that swirl through the streets day and night, one simply steps off the footpath and walks slowly through the maze. The theory is that the highly manoeuvrable vehicles will make their way around you. A terrifying initiation to Ho Chi Minh City traffic, but it works.

Among the throng, the women are straight-backed and elegant as they cycle past in their flowing national dress, the stunning Ao Dai.

It is important to make an early start on untangling the currency and language. American dollars are the flavour of the century, but exchange too much of any currency and you'll need a suitcase to lug it around.

In Saigon, a can of beer costs $1.60, a five-course healthy, Vietnamese meal starts from $6, good hotels abound at $50 a night and metered taxis will take you almost anywhere for a few dollars.

Our affable Saigon-based Aussie host, John Powell, an old Asia hand who represents Peregrine Adventures Australia (in New Zealand, The Adventure Travel Company) presents us with a Vietnamese phrasebook. We note among its 175 pages a few phrases useful in any language: May I have this dance? You are very pretty. Would you like to go out with me? Congratulations on an excellent performance.

We make a mandatory visit to the Cu Chi tunnels about an hour out of the city and watch a flickering black and white documentary on the "glory of the Viet Cong and their heroic slaughter of American GIs."

A couple from Texas storm out after a few minutes.

We venture into the maze of tunnels, crawl 20m in pitch blackness, emerge, back and legs aching at the first sign of daylight, and stumble along a jungle path until we meet an astute little man selling two age-old cure-alls - Tiger Balm and cold beer.

As we leave, the sound of gunfire echoes in the distance. The tourist cowboys are at it again blasting AK47s on the firing range at $1 a bullet.

Back in town we visit the War Museum where chilling Communist propaganda photographs denounce the American invaders as child killers and torturers.

And then on to the Reunification Palace, former headquarters of the South Vietnamese regime. In these few places, the doctrine of Communism is alive and well.

Otherwise, in the streets, the bars, shops and markets, the wheeling and dealing goes on in typically democratic Asian fashion.

Also on our list of must-dos in and around Ho Chi Minh City is a visit to the vast delta area, a two-hour drive from the city where the mighty Mekong splits into narrow streams and spills into the South China Sea. Here are vast rice paddies and fruit orchards, jungles, mangroves.

For a few dollars a night the down-to-earth traveller can stay with a Vietnamese family in a stilt house perched on a remote riverbank. This means sleeping dormitory-style on a mattress under a mosquito net and waking to the sounds of the bush.

We return to the bright lights for a final leisurely trawl through the famous watering-holes that make after-dark Ho Chi Minh City famous - Apocalypse Now, Gossips, Q Bar, and the former Vietnam war correspondents' hangouts, the Rex and Continental Hotels.

Go now before it changes. Taste a part of real Asia that has, thankfully, yet to catch up with its neighbours.

Casenotes

GETTING THERE: Thai Airways International flies from Auckland to Bangkok three times a week and from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City 10 times a week, ph 0800 100 992 or (09) 377 3886.

CONTACT: The Adventure Travel Company in Auckland, ph (09) 379 9755, has details of Peregrine Adventures holidays in Vietnam.

For an upmarket overnight stay in Bangkok, try the award-winning Westin Banyan Tree hotel for $150 a person which includes private car transfers by World Travel Service and breakfast.