I escaped Vietnam after the fall of Saigon as a young boy and I'm now a thriving Edinburgh entrepreneur

I left Saigon on April 30, 1975, the day Vietnam fell to the Soviet-backed North Vietnamese, when I was just seven-years-old. The war was finished and my family and I fled by boat to Hong Kong, it was a very traumatic experience for such a young boy.

We were on the boat for two months, just a sail boat, no engine, with 120 people on it. It was terrible living conditions, people were sick, I was sick all the time from being at sea for so long. But we were just happy to be away from the war. We hated the communists, our country was a mess.

We originally lived in the north of the country but our house was bombed and wiped out by an American B-52 bomber, four people died, our neighbours. My family survived as we had evacuated just in time, and we fled south as the war continued. I remember we went back once and there was nothing there anymore, just gone.

The war was terrible, a proxy war. I feel terrible now thinking about my son, as if he had grown up then he would have been forced to take part, as the young were conscripted to fight, in the north and the south. It was such a waste of life.

Keith Pham, in the white shirt next to his mother, second from the left, when he and his family arrived in Edinburgh. | Keith Pham

There was me and my three other brothers along with our mum and dad. We preferred when the Americans were in charge. When they left, everybody was scared. The North Vietnamese were rounding up people and putting them in jail.

When the soldiers came we were told we would be “re-educated” for three months, but some people ended up being in jail for up to 13 years. Thankfully, my family are Chinese so the authorities just took our home and threw us out.

They went for the educated classes and the Chinese, who were seen as richer generally. I remember my mum just saying to us suddenly one day “lets go”, as the police had come to our house with guns, they wanted us to leave so they could take our home. We left everything behind and fled with only our birth certificates, I’ve still got mine all these years later.

We had to pay officials the equivalent of 5,000 dollars each to escape. So 30,000 dollars for our whole family, that was everything we had, my mum and dad sold everything they could to raise the money, and then we left with nothing.

In 1979 we came to Edinburgh, it was too cold! We had originally been taken to a camp in Wishaw for about eight months, and then everyone was split up and spread out across the country. So we were sent to Edinburgh, but lots then went down south, mostly to London, hence the large Vietnamese community there now.

My mum and dad were fed-up of moving and settled here. We adapted to our new lives and my brothers and I all went on to university here in Scotland.

I started work as a waiter at the Rendezvous Chinese restaurant at Queensferry Street, and later I bought the restaurant when I was 29 and never looked back. I have owned quite a few restaurants here since, over 30.

I was a millionaire, but I lost everything in the 2008 financial crash. I got it all back and then lost a lot again during Covid when all my restaurants had to close due to the restrictions.

I owned the Saigon Saigon Chinese buffet restaurant in the city centre and I owned the building, but lost it twice. I have now got the restaurant back again and recently re-opened it as Saigon Memoire, a Vietnamese restaurant, which I’m very proud of. Although I’m just leasing the unit now.

I now own four restaurants in Edinburgh, I’m a survivor, and I’m thriving now again.

I love life in Edinburgh, it’s a very friendly and beautiful city, with fantastic architecture. And it’s a much more diverse city now from when I first came here. People used to stop us in the street and talk to us, ask us where we were from, as they had never seen anyone like us before, it was all very friendly, nothing bad.

I want to keep making more money and eventually move back to Vietnam to retire there. I want to live in Saigon again, but like a king.

Keith has settled well in Edinburgh and has owned several restaurants in the city, including Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Memoire in the city centre. | National World

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Thinking back to that time half a century ago now, I don’t feel sad, I feel stronger. I didn’t go back to Vietnam for 30 years. American president Bill Clinton went there in the 90s to uplift the embargo on Vietnam, as the Soviet Union had collapsed and left Vietnam with nowhere to go.

The Soviet Union were behind the initial success of Vietnam after the war, but by the 90s Vietnam was finished and poverty was widespread. After then, Vietnam got back on its feet and opened up to the Western world.

I go back now and again, I love my birth country. It’s all open now and a hot tourist spot. I was last there two years ago, it’s such a beautiful country, it was just the regime that was the problem.

So I have mixed emotions about leaving my homeland, but it was a corrupt and bloody country back then, so much so that people tattooed their children with their names and ages so they could be identified if they were killed, it was such a brutal time.

I love Vietnam as it has such rich culture and beautiful scenery, a place more people must visit, the people are beautiful and friendly.

Sadly when we think of Vietnam, the first thing in our mind is the war. The war brought many sad experiences and traumas that no child should go through, but it’s definitely made us stronger and more resilient.