Vietnam :Post #4 From Ho Chi Minh City

It's 8.00 pm here in HCM City. I am sitting in a cybercafe on the Pham Ngu Lao Street, the budget area in District 1. For the first time in more than 1 week after I left Hanoi, I can access blogspot.com. I stepped into the first cybercafe and I found there was no firewall to block access to blog sites. I guess being in HCM City, the commercial capital of Vietnam, 1700 km away from the Hanoi, the political centre of Vietnam helps. Censorship be dammed here!.

Next to this cafe, a noisy karaoke in progress. Outside on the street there is a continuous buzz and honking sounds from motorcyles. This city has a noticeable human energy. Everyone is busy moving ahead, to make more $$$. Despite the recent commercial freedoms in Hanoi, HCM City is still where the action is.

A summary of my recent travels over the past 10 days (in chronological order).

• 2 days in Ninh Binh, 90 km South of Hanoi. Post #3 was about this place.
  
• I stayed to Hanoi for 1 night and took a flight to Hue. It was my 2nd visit to Hue. This time I visited the museums which I didn't go to in 1998.
  
• After Hue, I took a bus to another town, Hoi An. Visiting this town was the main purpose of my trip to Vietnam. The town was a trading centre for Chinese, Dutch etc merchants n the 15 and 16th century. There is area in the old town which has been preserved as it was in the 15th century. It reminded me of Malacca but with historically and architecturally more aunthentic. Hoi An is a Unesco Heritage site.I also visited another Unesco heritage site, 30 km from Hoi An, My Son. I spent 4 days in Hoi An.
  
• Today from Hoi An, I took a taxi to Danang and a 1 hour flight to HCM City.

After spending 2 weeks in Vietnam, this is what I can say:-

I found out 2 days ago that China is now the 6th largest economy in the world. In a few years , it will overtake France and the UK. There are only 2 other countries in the world which can rival the economic dyamism of China; India and Vietnam.

Everyone wants to move ahead here. Democracy and a free society ? How important are these things? Well in a survey carried out a few years ago among young people (50 % of Vietnam's population is below 30 years old), democracy was ranked 9th among 12 things considered important among young people.

As long as the communist party keeps the economy capitalist, few people care about democarcy and political freedom.