Even though Hanoi on 10 Oct 10 will celebrate its millennial anniversary, it's Saigon that stole my heart, perhaps because it was the first city I visited in Vietnam.

Or because of its dynamic and frenzied energy which is quite opposed to the more subdued Hanoi. Or maybe it's simply because I was so impressed with the electrical cabling all over town.

When a country has two main cities, one never knows which one to visit first.  Vietnam, due to historical reasons (prior to unification in 1976 there were two countries with two capitals), has the long-named Ho Chi Minh City in the south, and the current capital Hanoi in the north. We decided to start with the former.

Last night at dinner, a friend clarified the difference.  She said Ho Chi Minh City (also abbreviated as HCMC) is the Shanghai to Hanoi's comparison to Beijing.  The former being a commercial centre, where capitalism is rampant, while the latter being the government seat, political, bureacratic.  A brilliant way to differentiate between the two.

Of course many people know HCMC as Saigon ... a name given by the French, that evokes a romantic image of this city.  And even though the official name of the city is HCMC (named after the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party), everyone other than the government still calls it Saigon.

Follow the link below to read the entire article:

www.webintravel.com/blog/saigon-the-city-of-tangled-wires-and-buzzing-motorbikes_657