JC’s Road Trip – Vietnam Pt 3

Well for all the fans sick of seeing Thailand, we are still in HCMC (Saigon)! We are enjoying being in a different SE Asian country like Vietnam.
In part 3 we will continue to cover what it costs and what is it like to live in Vietnam? We will try to answer the question can a category 1 RIPper (Retiree In Paradise) live well in Vietnam? Well I am off finding out. We will see what the upsides and downsides are to living in a Communist country. This video is a little intro and some comments.

In this video we are still in Saigon. Or should I say HCMC. Which name should you use? Well not sure really. Here are some considerations for using Saigon:
• The airport code for Ho Chi Minh City is still SGN.
• Saigon is still used as a label for District 1, the center of Ho Chi Minh City.
• New hotel developments often opt for ‘Saigon’ in their name rather than ‘Ho Chi Minh City.’
• Some bus stations still label signs and tickets with ‘Saigon.’
• The river flowing through the city is still named the Saigon River.
• Vietnamese people living overseas who fled at the end of the war usually say Saigon for political reasons.
And some considerations for Ho Chi Minh City:
• In Hanoi and the north, you’ll more often hear ‘Ho Chi Minh City.’
• All government publications and productions use ‘Ho Chi Minh City.’
• All official documents and writings use ‘Ho Chi Minh City.’
• Places in the province surrounding Saigon, far from District 1, are often referred to as being in Ho Chi Minh City rather than in Saigon.
For those not up to speed on Vietnam and it’s history here is a little background info. Its real name is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and their motto is, “Independence – Freedom – Happiness”. Vietnam is a socialist one party state with a population of about 92 million people.
Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to the southwest.
Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium and the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century.
Vietnam had Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, eventually expelling the French in 1954. Thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy intervention from the United States, in what is known as the Vietnam War. The war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished and politically isolated. In 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnam’s path towards integration into the world economy and as a result free enterprise is in full effect!

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