I'm Guessing Maybe They Won

In a previous post I mentioned stepping off a bus in the backpacker district of Saigon and being swept up in a torrent of raucous, scooter riding, flag waving humanity. I found out later it was all due to a soccer game that Vietnam had won in the SEA (southeast Asia) games that are still going on in the region. Last night I saw there was another game on, Vietnam vs. Singapore, and thought to myself 'Maybe there'll be another little street free-for-all tonight after it's over. Well, if they win the game, that is.'

It started rather quietly like a gathering storm. A few pots and pans banging, some yells, a few scooter engines revving at their upper limits of 4 or 5 thousand RPM's. And then it gathered momentum like an unstoppable tornado spinning through the streets of Saigon. So of course I had to abandon the safety of my hotel room and, like one of those storm chasers of questionable sanity on Discovery channel, allow myself to once again be swept into the maelstrom. And this time I brought my camera!

Crossing the street in front of the Ben Thanh market was actually physically impossible unless one was OK with literally climbing over stationary scooters jammed wheel-to-wheel and seat-to-seat that were packed from curb to curb, no curb to sidewalk to park lawn, and that seemed to be going nowhere until they could somehow be forced forward like a cloth lodged in the neck of wine bottle. I take it this eventually happened because today they're gone.

I ventured up to the heart of District 1, Dong Khoi street in front of the opera house, and it was non-stop mayhem the whole way up, close to a mile. Little pockets of amplified cheering would periodically erupt when an (overly? no!) enthusiastic individual would achieve a new plateau of fanaticism by gaining a high tree branch or the upper reaches of a lamp post or the top of a mail box amidst an explosion of camera flashes and pumping fists. I came a little too close to being mowed down by a scooter whose driver felt it was appropriate to adopt an s-shaped path down the street at a high rate of speed. Police were out and did what little they could to keep the chaos somewhat contained.




Video of the area in front of the Ben Thanh market. I did not cross here!






I liked these little guys. After I took the photo, they made sure I understood that they felt Vietnam was #1. I sort of had that impression already!










Though a little dark, this captures a lot of present-day Saigon. The street celebration, the august Saigon Continental Hotel (The Quiet American, etc.), and the cranes in the background working non-stop through the celebration and the night on yet another new high rise building in the central business district.