Bitexco Tower, Ho Chi Minh City

I have a confession to make. I am not particularly enamoured of big towers.
My Freudian readers can make of it what they will, but I am largely uninterested in the enormous concrete and steel erections that seem to be springing up all over Asia.
But I couldn't resist a trip up Saigon's new-ish Bitexco Tower, a quite beautiful building that is the tallest in Ho Chi Minh City and is said to symbolise a lotus bud.

Saigon hair stylist Kien Nguyen and a pictorial representation of Bitexco Tower inside Bitexco Tower. Very po-mo.

I don't quite see the bud myself, but it is nonetheless a striking-looking building that stands out in a reasonably low-rise city.
Getting up costs around $10, which is a bargain by big tower standards (you need to mortgage your house to take a trip up Sydney's sad old Centerpoint Tower).
Once up there it is cool and slick and almost empty. My Vietnamese companions loved the outing, though they were perplexed by what they saw - the Vietnamese inability to read maps (it doesn't seem to be taught in schools) meant that viewing the city from this elevation seemed to confuse them.

The view over Saigon from the Bitexco Tower

There is also a monster telescope which is meant to be amazing at night, but apparently is useless doing the day.

Kien Nguyen checking out the big telescope

The standard telescopes arranged around the viewing tower are free to use and excellent.
It's actually quite fascinating to view this constantly developing city from above, and I think it was money well spent.

Cute tattooed Japanese guy we flirted with

The boys pose for a shot outside the tower inside the tower. I love this stuff.

The Bitexco Tower (centre) viewed from a ferry on the Saigon River

My friend Hai looking out over Saigon from the Bitexco Tower observation deck

Go now before the locals discover it and it becomes insanely crowded.

Why I Love Hanoi

I will confess that the first time I visited Hanoi I hated the place.
It was back in the dark days of 1994, and we visited the capital city right in the middle of winter. It was grey, drizzly and filthy, with abysmal food and shocking service. We were gleefuly overcharged by sullen shopkeepers, fleeced and robbed by cyclos and taxi drivers and forced to pay bribes to sneering, smelly policemen. Even the bus driver that took us back to the airport on the way out managed to cheat us, leaving us with that last bitter taste of Hanoi. I swore I would never return, and I never did until 2006.
A friend of mine from Australia had fallen in love with a girl in Hanoi, and they were living there. It seemed churlish not to fly up and see them, and when I did I discovered a wonderful city that had made some remarkable changes for the better. The food was good, the nightlife was fun, and, though it was again the middle of winter, I found the foggy cool a wonderful respite from Saigon's endless heat.
Hanoi has turned into a little treasure, the kind of place you could easily while away a lifetime. I could stroll along Hoan Kiem lake for days, and I adore the shopping in Hanoi, the wonderful arts and crafts that are so distinctively Vietnamese - my house is full of such things these days.



And I think that is a clue as to what distinguishes Hanoi - the interest in aesthetics, in the small details that beautify a place and make it charming.



And I love the cramped, crowded nature of the city.



It has none of the sprawl of Ho Chi Minh City. In the winter months at least, you can comfortably walk around Hanoi and really absorb the city and its little pockets.



Of course, Hanoi taxi drivers and cyclos are still notorious brigands, but I am hopeful that someday some competent government tourist authority will take that little problem in hand.
Until then, enjoy the walking.

Binh Dinh

At Binh Dinh, an obscure little province in South-Central Vietnam which I think is one of the country’s best-kept secrets, they are really pushing a leper colony which is being run as a tourist park.
It is exquisite, I’ll give them that – the leprosarium is situated right on the ocean, and there are beachside seafood restaurants owned and operated by the lepers themselves.
But I think that pinning your hopes on a very-much-active seaside lepers' colony is a strange kind of tourist strategy.

Our Lady of La Vang

The manifestations of the feminine divine in Vietnam are of special interest to me, and in Destination Saigon I discuss my rather disappointing visit to La Vang in the Central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri.
Our Lady of La Vang is a common figure of worship in Catholic churches and homes everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City, and her statues are frequently beautfully rendered in white marble. This apparition of the Virgin is entirely (and appropriately) Vietnamese, dressed in ao dai, and clutching a Vietnamese Christ Child.
The apparitions of the Virgin at La Vang occured in the 18th century when Catholics in Vietnam experienced religious oppression at the hands of the ruling family.
These days overseas Vietnamese Catholic communities make a special cult of Our Lady of La Vang, and supernatural events are said to have occured at a shrine to her in Inala,Brisbane.
It must be said, however, that La Vang itself is a rather lacklustre spot - the day I was there it was quite deserted, and the grounds and gardens at the shrine, as well as the old church buildings, were poorly kept. It interests me that the Church hasn't seen fit to pay more attention - and spend more money - on such a significant site. Certainly its tourist potential is currently well under-developed. I couldn't even buy a statue of Our Lady at the site, and you all know how much I love statues.
To my mind the nicest shrine to Our Lady of La Vang stands at the Ba Chuong church on Le Van Sy St, in Phu Nhuan, Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, the whole church is extraordinary and quite beautiful, and well worth visiting.