Peter's Notes | The Saigon Metro

Peter is 70, well-travelled, and not remotely done yet. A decades-long plan, a Graham Greene novel, and a 16-year-old daughter who said "just go, Dad" brought him to DECADES - and to Vietnam. This is his story, written for anyone who's ever stood at a major milestone and wondered if now might finally be the time.

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It must seem a little odd to wish to see a city via an underground. But like the London Tube, PATH in Toronto and Berlin U-Bahn, large sections of the newly built Saigon Metro run over ground. In fact, nearly all of the HCMC Metro's current single line is over ground and is a fast and convenient way - just 35 minutes - to see more of the city than wandering or walking to visit certain places.

Starting from the city centre terminus of Ben Thanh to the end-of-the-line Ben Xe Suoi Tein, one is transported in cool comfort high above the roads and the insane traffic that seems to extend far into the suburbs.

Buying a ticket could not be simpler; in fact, you do not have to do so at all. Simply swipe your phone or Mastercard at the entrance and you are in. It is all very clean and fully air-conditioned. WiFi is of course free. The only thing that there is not are passengers. This must be the least used metro I've ever seen. In my long carriage there were perhaps twenty students going up to the University stop and very few others got on or off for the whole journey.

Everything is very clean and new, having been opened for less than a year. Even the track bed is clean and free from weeds, waste and debris. When the further seven lines are completed, this will be a Metro to rival most in the world.

I suppose for some a cityscape may not be too interesting, but the mix of vacant lots, the narrow three-storey houses that are prevalent and the high-rise accommodation - in construction, dereliction or occupied - creates a patchwork of grey shades, separated by the occasional park or pickleball court.

There are the occasional pagodas and, towards the end of the line, a gigantic concrete mountain as part of a theme park. The station at the end of the line really is a terminus. Buses and Grab riders, dust and debris and construction machinery for sale and hire on every side.

The cost for this less usual DECADES journey? 54p.