IF you're feeling suicidal and plan to kill yourself while crossing the road in Ho Chin Minh City (formerly Saigon), it won't happen.

This may sound ironical in view of the congested traffic in Vietnam's largest city. After all, the city has eight million people, 3.5 million motorcycles and more than 100,000 four-wheeled vehicles.

The din from blaring horns is deafening and the smoke from the exhaust fumes is terrible. It's common to see motorcyclists wearing face masks here.

But believe it or not, traffic does move in an orderly manner and there is some method to the madness. Drivers and riders keep an eye out for each other and especially for pedestrians.

Accidents are rare though it's unbelievable what they can carry on motorcycles - whole families, the dog and even a refrigerator.

Motorcycles are the main mode of transport.

End Of The War

Ho Chi Minh City is vibrant and modern, with trendy buildings, neon signs, fast food outlets and fashionable people. A good mix of locals and foreigners moves freely in the streets.

As Vietnam is part of Asean, Malaysians get automatic (tourist) visa on arrival for at least two weeks stay.

It was almost dark when we arrived at Than Sun Huat airport on an AirAsia flight but we could still see much scenery from the air, including a brightly lighted oil rig.

Three decades of war has greatly affected the country. Some 53,000 American soldiers and over 1 million Vietnamese lost their lives. But Vietnam has picked up the pieces and today, is an awakening economic giant with many foreign investors.

Rice is grown in the Mekong Delta for export to many countries, including Malaysia.

Easy On the Pocket

The country has lots of pagodas, temples and beautiful French colonial buildings (the country was under French rule for a century).

It was however quite a shock to see couples kissing openly while seated on motorcycles in a brightly lit park. The lower parts of trees are painted white to prevent bikers from hitting them. How practical.

Ho Chi Minh City is not an expensive place to visit but you have to pay a foreigner's price for everything. The exchange rate is about RM240 for 1 million Dong or USD1 for 14,000 Dong. A canned drink costs 10,000 Dong (about RM2).

Poor Service

Our otherwise pleasant tour of the city was marred by an unhelpful guide named Tommy who was more interested in sticking to his schedule than seeing to our needs and giving us more time to shoot pictures. He spoke barely intelligible English and we had a hard time understanding him.

On an overnight visit to Voon Thau, a coastal resort about three hours' drive from the city, we told Tommy we'd like to take pictures of a three-storey high terracotta warrior in the town square and fishing boats on the beach. But the bus whizzed right past these.

When we asked why the bus didn't stop, Tommy insisted that he had to stick to the schedule, adding that there was a similar statue in the city and that the fishing boats were too far away.

So much for the tourist guide service.

It caught us by surprise when Tommy kept our passports overnight 'for recording'. Luckily, the AirAsia PR staff - Mazlan Rasheed, Sherliza Zeharudin and Mohd Fairuz Majid - mediated on our behalf and made the trip bearable.

All for AirAsia

Part of our visit to Ho Chi Minh City was to cover AirAsia's inaugural flight to the city. The event was held at the Petro Vietnam tower, a new glass and brown marble building, a symbol of the country's new-found wealth.

Officiating at the launch was AirAsia chairman Datuk Pahamin Rajab and present were our Consul General to Ho Chi Minh, Kahiri Omar, Tourism Malaysia senior deputy director for internal promotion (South East Asia division) Ammar Abd Ghapar, CEO Thai AirAsia, Tassaporn Bijjleveld and Thailand's Consul General to Saigon, Pravit Chaimongkol.

To promote the new route, six scooters with riders and pretty girls dressed in the Vietnamese traditional dress rode around town. All were dressed in red, AirAsia's corporate colour. Even Pahamin wore a pair of red shoes.

Conspicuously missing though were representatives from the Vietnamese Tourism department. Considering that we had Tommy for a guide, their presence would have helped us get accurate information on the country.

Petro Vietnam building, one of Vietnam's new buildings.

Local Phrases

Despite our tight schedule, we managed to visit the shopping haven of Ben Than market, Vun Thau seaside resort, Agent Orange victims' handicraft centre, Chu Chi tunnel, the presidential palace and the war museum.

It's helpful for tourists to learn basic Vietnamese phrases like "sin chow" (hello), "kam-ern" (thank you), "zar bao new" (how much is it) and "dut kwa" (too expensive).

Most of the locals were amused to hear us attempt to communicate in their language. It didn't fail to draw laughter and smiles except from a few high-browed officials.

However, some shop-owners behaved like they were doing us a big favour by selling things to us.

Getting There

AirAsia flies 11 times weekly to Ho Chi Minh City - seven times from Kuala Lumpur and four times from Bangkok. Departures from Kuala Lumpur are via the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang. Flight time from KL to Ho Chi Minh takes nearly two hours. For details visit www.airasia.com