Although this is a socialist state, people buy their property and build their houses so it's not uncommon to see a rather grand house built right next to a shack. In the markets you can buy clothes at ridiculously cheap prices and there is some wonderful woodwork and lacquer furniture which they will ship back to South Africa for you. We ate lunch at the Rex Royal Court Hotel in Saigon and the food was superb. I checked prices for hotel rooms and meals and can assure you that even a South African can afford to holiday in Vietnam. The locals don't speak much English so bargaining is done by using a calculator and quoting prices in US dollars.
Life is tough and everyone is out to make a buck there.
And yet I don't recall seeing any beggars in Saigon. The Cu Chi tunnels are quite an experience and as I stood in the humid forest I had some idea of what it must have been like for American troops in full battle dress carrying an 80kgm backpack and surrounded by an unseen enemy. The underground tunnels stretch for over 250km from the Cambodian border to just outside Saigon. It's now possible for tourists to crawl through the tunnels which gives some idea of what conditions must have been like. The difference today is that the tunnels are lit, cleared of scorpions and snakes every day and widened for European bodies.