The area around the port was pretty industrial, but not far from the port you start seeing seeing huts with thatched roofs that look like they're barely standing, some with open sides with hammocks strung up. Getting a little further out you start to see a moderately sized town, composed mostly of small stores, open to the front with roofs made out of thatch, sheet metal, or tarps (the ones with the thatch tend to be better than the others, but not by much). There are a few decent houses set back from the road, but by and large the only nice buildings are the temples and one huge catholic church.
Getting away from the town you start to see some agriculture, but it all seems to be marginal with small farms and people out working the fields by hand. There isn't much livestock, and the cows seem to be under fed.
Further Thoughts: Once we get in to Saigon (even the locals don't seem to call it Ho Chi Minh city) things seem to abruptly get a lot more modern, with modern tall buildings. The areas away from the heart of the city still seem to be pretty dirty, with quite a bit of litter, and people with cheap carts selling miscellaneous stuff. The city center is clean with the typical glass and and steel skyscrapers, surrounded by smaller buildings full of shops and restaurants. Western brands don't seem to have penetrated much here, unlike the cities before this.
Of particular note here is the traffic: there are motor scooters EVERYWHERE, and every last one is driven by a maniac. Lane markings don't seem to mean anything to them, and traffic lights are nothing more than polite suggestions. I don't know about everyone else, but I wouldn't go playing chicken with a tour bus or cutting in front of it with a margin of about a meter, but they do it constantly. The only point in favor of their sanity is that I saw a grand total of one person not wearing a helmet. I'm guessing donor organs are easy to come by here.
Tour: The best tour yet. The tour guide doesn't try to be funny, they drive us in to the city, and drop us off to explore on our own.
Food: This is where Vietnam shines. There are street food carts, or people who just set up a small grill on the sidewalk; unfortunately none of it actually looks that interesting, and I'm a little put off by the repurposed bottles filled with mystery liquid. However, the first restaurant served up a wonderful sea bass with caramel sauce in a clay pot. It's something that I'm going to have to try to recreate, especially since caramel sauce is fairly easy to make.
The real gem though is a restaurant I found when I set off on my own. On going in I'm quickly shown in to an elevator that looks a little on the rickety side, and involves the receptionist showing me in, reaching in to hit the button for the third floor, and then latching the door closed. I'm still a flight of stairs away from the dining room, but it has a good view of the city and a delightful breeze. Having had lunch I decide on a light snack listed as pickled vegetables with shrimp paste sauce. The waiter, like everyone else I've encountered, speaks better than passable English. He makes a valiant effort to deter me from getting the pickled vegetables, saying it's more of a dish for locals. He also offers up an alternative sauce, saying the shrimp sauce has a very strong smell. I convince him I want the good stuff, and ultimately he gets it for me and seems shocked when I tell him it's delicious and eat every last bit of it. The first part of the vegetables are pretty standard pickled cabbage, chiles, and some herbs, while the rest seem to be (I think) a type of white eggplant about the size of a cherry tomato which are crunchy with a burst of small seeds. The sauce itself is rather pungent, but amazingly delicious. I've picked up a jar of shrimp paste, and I'm looking forward to trying to make it.
Chance of getting mugged: I doubt you're in much danger in the city center, but I think you'd be lucky to get by with just being mugged if you're out in a small town.
Would I go back: Oh hell yes; I may actually like Vietnam more than Shanghai, and it seems like English is spoken by pretty much everyone to some extent. Beyond just eating my way across the country I'd like to just see more of the culture, since I really saw only a small part of one city.
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