Vietnam - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 893

THE HO CHI MINH TRAIL
Conceived in 1959, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was a vital supply route from North Vietnam into
the South during the American War. By the end of its “working” life the trail had grown from a
rough assemblage of jungle paths to a highly effective logistical network stretching from near
Vinh, north of the Seventeenth Parallel, to Tay Ninh province on the edge of the Mekong Delta.
For much of its southerly route the trail ran through Laos and Cambodia , always through the
most di cult, mountainous terrain.
Initially, it took up to six months to walk from north to south, travelling mostly by night,
but by 1975, the Ho Chi Minh Trail - comprising at least three main arteries plus several
feeder roads and totalling more than 15,000km - was wide enough to take tanks and
heavy trucks, and could be driven in just one week. It was protected by anti-aircraft
emplacements and supported by fuel depots, ammunition dumps, food stores and
hospitals, often located underground.
By early 1965, aerial bombardment by American planes had begun in earnest, using
napalm and defoliants as well as conventional bombs. In eight years the US Air Force dropped
more than two million tonnes of bombs, mostly over Laos and the Central Highlands, in an
effort to cut the flow. But the trail was never completely severed, and you can ride parts of it
today. The Ho Chi Minh Highway is a stunning road that runs from south of Hanoi and passes
through some of the country's most picturesque mountain scenery along the way. Motorbike
tours can be arranged with Easy Riders in Da Lat (see p.895) and Flamingo in Hanoi (see p.844).

11

Trong Dong 220 Phan Dinh Phung. Feast on eel and
rabbit dishes - this restaurant's specialities - as well as
noodles, rice and soups at this bistro-type spot. Mains from
50,000VND. Daily noon-10pm.
V Café 1/1 Bui Thi Xuan. This American-run restaurant is
decked out with pictures of trains and musicians and the
menu features such comfort food as home-made macaroni
cheese, spinach cannelloni, pizza, and chewy, chocolatey
brownies. Live music most nights. Mains from 80,000VND.
Daily noon-11.30pm.

city's veins. Perched on the west bank of
the Saigon River, HCMC has gone
through many changes - serving first as
the capital of French Indochina as
Saigon, and then as the capital of the
Republic of Vietnam before it fell to the
northern Vietnamese forces in 1975. It
was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976,
a year after the communists rolled
through the gates of the Presidential
Palace and took control of the city, but
the evocative old name lives on.

DIRECTORY
Banks Vietin Bank, 1 Le Dai Hanh, and Agribank at 36 Hoa
Binh. There are Vietcombank ATMs south of the market.
Bike rental Hotels and tourist o ces rent bicycles and
mountain bikes ($3-5/day).
Hospital Lam Dong hospital, 4 Pham Ngoc Thach ( T 063
3821369).
Pharmacies 34 Khu Hoa Binh.
Post o ce 14 Tran Phu.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Ho Chi Minh City is divided into eighteen
districts, though tourists rarely travel
beyond districts 1, 3 and 5. he city
proper hugs the west bank of the Saigon
River, and its central area, District 1,
nestles in the hinge formed by the
confluence of the river with the silty Ben
Nghe Channel; traditionally the French
Quarter of the city, this area is still widely
known as Saigon . Dong Khoi is its
backbone, and around the T-shape it
forms with Le Duan are scattered most of
the city's museums and colonial
remnants. Except for Cho Lon , HCMC's
frenetic Chinatown, the city doesn't carve
up into homogeneous districts, so visitors
have to do a dot-to-dot between sights.
hese are almost invariably places that
relate to the American War, but there are

Ho Chi Minh City
Above the Mekong Delta, some 40km
north of the South China Sea, HO CHI
MINH CITY ( HCMC ) is Vietnam at its
frenetic best, with the city's colonial villas
and elegant pagodas sitting alongside
glitzy malls, stylish restaurants and
towering skyscrapers, and never-ceasing
ribbons of crazy tra c lubricating the