Moviegoers will have recognised in the title of this article a reference to the excellent film "Good morning Vietnam" with the excellent and late Robin Williams of whom I am an unconditional fan.

Despite the quality of the film, I hesitated to use this title after visiting the war memorial in Ho Chi Minh City. I’ll come back to it below.

My first impressions of Vietnam are not great. I’m there for 15 days and I just spent 2 days in Ho Chi Minh. I hope that the rest of the trip will change my opinion about this country.

After 2 days in Ho Chi Minh, I really don’t like this city.

When I arrived in Bangkok, I was surprised, no doubt like all Westerners, to discover a noisy city, agitated by heavy traffic and which seems anarchic, but also a surprisingly clean, lively and cheerful city, filled with a noise that comes largely from traffic, but not only. There are also bars with music, street musicians, etc...

In Ho Chi Minh, ALL the noise comes from the traffic. It’s quite unbearable. It is probably the city in the world where there are the most scooters, much more than cars. Traffic is very anarchic, with scooters that cross, touch, touch each other in all directions. Everyone honks at the same time, which is obviously useless, and it is very difficult for a pedestrian to cross, although it seems that the Vietnamese have a technique for this.

On the other hand, the city is very dirty. I was pleasantly surprised by this detail in Bangkok. My son had told me that he found Bangkok dirty. I found this dirt very relative. Of course, garbage cans accumulate especially in the evening, but all this is cleaned every day.

This is not the case in Ho Chi Minh. The city is extremely dirty. The "beautiful neighbourhood" of the centre, around the opera, the central post office, the cathedral is very clean and you can see sweepers. Elsewhere, nothing. It’s really disgusting.

Second detail that surprised me in this city: practically no street food here, unlike Thailand; Definitely for what I have seen so far, I think it is better to come to Vietnam before going to Thailand so as not to be disappointed. But above all, it is NOT GOOD. Sorry for the Vietnamese, once again, I hope to change my mind later, but I haven’t eaten anything good here in 2 days.

On the other hand, as in all cities, there are nice places to visit.

– The cathedral inspired by Notre Dame looks very interesting. It is unfortunately being renovated, I could not enter it.

– The central post office, designed by Gustave Eiffel, is a very interesting building.

– The reunification palace has nothing exciting from an architectural point of view but brings rather interesting elements of historical knowledge.

– What about the war memorial? The Vietnamese did not establish any censorship on the photographic documents. You have to have a good heart. Even if we can consider that the presentation of the Vietnam War is biased since from the point of view of the Vietnamese, we still understand all the abjection shown by the United States government by using the Vietnamese population as guinea pigs for the new American weapons. Some visions of shattered bodies are unbearable, but the worst is probably the smiles on the faces of some G.I.s during sessions of torture or executions of women and children. Rooms are devoted to the testimonies of American soldiers and civilians who campaigned against the war, sacrificed themselves, etc...

I didn’t know this historical event very well. I admit that I took a hell of a slap while visiting this museum.

To finish on a more positive note, the markets are really interesting here. The amount of clothing, leather goods (of counterfeit unfortunately) is impressive, at quite correct prices.

My first impression of Vietnam is therefore quite negative, especially compared to Thailand, where everything is much better, cleaner, more smiling, much cheaper.

Icing on the cake, I come after examining the websites of the different golf courses around the city, which all look more beautiful than each other, to select one to play today. This is the only course that offers on its site a price that makes it affordable. the others are overpriced. Unfortunately, they told me that the rate does not apply in my case, because I am alone. While being unpleasant and not at all welcoming. I will not hesitate to mention it: it is the West Lakes Golf Course. So I won’t play golf in Ho Chi Minh. Even that sucks!!! Definitely, what a disappointment, Vietnam!

To be continued...