We’re here at the tail end of the rainy season and I’m reminded of the opening line of the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’, as Captain Willard peers through his hotel room window, and curses the streetscape.
It’s well over 30 degrees and raining biblically, yet this teeming city of nine million still seems to be in constant two-wheeled motion, so that picking our way through this motorised tsunami requires an act of faith and chutzpah, as it swirls and eddies around you and you are drenched from both above and below.
We have less than 48 hours here, so undaunted we buy kagoules from Ban Thanh Night market and splash our way in flip flops to a packed lean-to seafood restaurant with an extravagantly leaking plastic roof. Our sumptuous dinner includes gigantic barbecued prawns. These, or more likely the drops of polluted rainwater they are liberally sprinkled with from the leaking roof as we eat, will give me a monumental upset stomach later that night (a second reason they remain an indelible memory)!
Giant Barbecued Prawns: Serves 3
9 extra large uncooked prawns, shell on, split down the back and vein removed; 3 per person
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 fresh red birdseye chilli, finely chopped
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
3 garlic clove, finely chopped
For the dipping sauce:
1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice or to taste
fish sauce to taste
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh Thai basil
Combine the prawns, fish sauce, sherry, chilli, ginger, garlic, fresh coriander and sesame oil in a large bowl. Cover and place in fridge for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, to make the dipping sauce, stir in the lime juice, fish sauce, coriander and basil to the sweet chilli sauce. Transfer to small serving bowls.
Pre-heat a barbecue or chargrill on high. Add the prawns and cook for 2 minutes each side or until they change colour. Transfer to a large serving bowl and serve immediately with the dipping sauce.
It’s way too early to go back to our hotel in the French Quarter, so we flag down a tuk tuk which drops us at the Hotel Continental where Graham Greene wrote ‘The Quiet American’ in 1955. Satisfyingly, the hotel seems to be frozen permanently in that era and we enjoy Singapore Slings on the (properly covered) pavement side terrace with the Opera House and neon streetscape beautifully lit up across the square from our table.
Next morning I nurse my delicate stomach with a hearty bowl of Pho and our guide takes us upriver by speedboat under lowering black clouds. It’s a longish trip, so we ask him to tell us his family and country’s story through a Saigon lens, from the French occupation up to the final American withdrawal in 1975. It’s a tragic tale of suspicion, betrayal and unimaginable cruelty that he continues over lunch on Binh Quoc island, which unaccountably for a weekday is packed with joyful pre-wedding couples on their photo shoots. Mercifully oblivious of the weight of their country’s recent past, their smiles remind me of the happy figures depicted on the propaganda billboards all over town which are often situated, without a shred of irony, next to advertisements for luxury condo developments.
Returning downriver after visiting the Cu Chi tunnels- a monument to the Viet Cong’s bravery and ingenuity, our guide concludes his sad story as a suddenly appeared late afternoon sun glints on the Saigon river and lights up the water hyacinths that choke the waterways in tangled masses, an iridescent green. A brief interlude that hints at what might have been, had we visited in the drier months.
Tomorrow morning we embark from My Tho on the Mekong Delta on a slow boat up the Mekong through Tonlé Sap, the inland sea which is usually only navigable at the height of the wet season. With the risk of grounding the vessel ever-present at this time of year, we know we’re rolling the dice wishing for sunny skies.
Oh Southeast Asia, the love of my life. So happy to be traveling back there through your writing :)
(I was in Saigon in 2012, and I too had an upset stomach for the whole time.)
Really enjoyed this one!