Uncle Ho

Flying into Ho Chi Minh City, formally (currently to its residents) known as Saigon, it did not take long to realize this would be a totally different experience. The roads leading into the busy city were lined with narrow, tall houses all crammed next to each other. Clusters of palm trees around small bodies of water and vast patches of grasslands were expected as the plane touched down on the tarmac.

I regret to say that I do not know much about communism. Other than the fundamentals of total equality, I am sad to say I am pretty dense on the subject. Arriving in a communist country I had expectations of the immigration process, lifestyle of the people, condition of the buildings and cities, and even what would be shown on TV. I was expecting poverty, rundown buildings, and one channel set to Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as they affectingly call him, talking for hours. After all, my most current interaction with anything communist was The Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogan. So, needless to say, I have been pleasantly surprised.

Saigon was just like any other city -- full, busy, bustling people, darting everywhere on their scooters in a hurry to get somewhere. I had expected nothing less than a huge metropolis, but driving north I was ready to see the poverty stricken villages I had arrogantly assumed accompanied communism. We exited the city through a toll road and headed due north. But it seemed Saigon never ended. Towns were growing into each other; the only way to tell you were in a different town was a small blue sign with a drawing of a city and a red line through it. Construction of new roads and buildings where constant and small businesses, from hardware to fruit stands, crowded the streets. The hotel rooms have more English channels than South Korea -- I watched Frozen just the other night on the Disney Channel.

The most baffling characteristic was not the booming economy or the veracious free enterprise but the lack of homeless people. I have been in Vietnam for a week and covered over 300 kilometers and I have not seen one homeless person.

Traveling by motorbike, regular bike, or walking are the most popular means of transportation throughout Vietnam. The people wear the face masks, not for smell or germs, but to keep the sun away from their skin. The darker the skin, the less money or poorer quality of life.

A large platform of communism is the discouragement of religion. Google says that 80% of Vietnam is nonreligious, which is hard to believe because most Asian cultures are incredibly spiritual, and because of the 300 kilometers we have traveled,  90% of the houses or businesses we have seen have had some sort of religious icons in their windowsill.

While all of this does not scream communism, the pristine government buildings, huge propaganda posters lining the streets, and the megaphone blaring the national anthem of Vietnam followed by a 10 minute speech about the greatness of this country outside my hotel sure does. I am not supporting the current government in any way. But it is nice to see, that after a long hard war against communism that we technically lost, not everything went to waste. On paper, Vietnam is very much a communist country, but, as the megaphone stops you can hear the singing of the Catholic Church choir from across the street, and it seems the Vietnamese people have no intention of giving up but are finding a nice compromise between the strict rules of government and tradition.