Saigon
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2009
1
18
29
Trip End
Aug 07, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Saturday, April 4, 2009
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City just as it got dark. With Fiona on crutches, itīs too hard for her to look around for accomodation with me so she hung back while i scoped out the scene. Not ideal but there was a bus station she could wait in which was safe. I found a hotel (with an elevator...bonus!) just around the corner from where we got off the bus. It was a great place in great location and we were happy to call it home for a few days.
Saigon is a massive city with even more motor bikes than we have seen anywhere else. Rush hour traffic was quite the site! You could hardly spot a car in the sea of motor bikes (between 5 and 7 million in Saigon). We had been told that you may not want to hang around Ho Chi Minh for very long as it is a very hectic city but we actually found it less confronting than the capital Hanoi
All smiles in Saigon
. We walked around the streets near our hotel and went out to eat at a few nice restaurants and found the city had a nice buzz to it. While Fiona rested her ankle I did a day of sight seeing which included the most prominent structure in Saigon, the Reunification Palace and I also visited the War Remanents museum. Both of these sights were near our hotel so I made my way on foot.The Reunification Palace was the sight of the "Fall of Saigon" on April 30th, 1975. After the Vietnam War, the Vietnemese communist party crashed the gates of the palace (using Russian tanks) and seized cotrol of the city. Walking around the grounds and inside the palace was like watching a documentary on the History Channel. It was fascinating! A few of the tanks used to crash the gates were on display as well as an American helicopter which was used to evacuate people from the palace. I spent a few hours walking around and checked out all of the different rooms in this massive palace.
After the Palace I made my way over to the War Remanents museum. It was open for visitors as was the Reunification Palace despite a number of Tuk-Tuk drivers telling me that they were "closed for holiday" but they could take me to better sights in the city. I wonder where they wanted to take me? Anyway, I went inside the museum and although I was warned that it was going to be confronting, nothing could prepare me for the absolute horror which was displayed at the museum. I didnīt miss a single display and although I didnīt want to look at most of what I saw I could not look away. The War Remanents museum was the most interesting and most depressing place I have ever been. I walked out of the museum, bought a water and sat down outside to contemplate what I had just seen. Itīs hard to imagine that so many horrible things happened in this country. If you ever travel to Ho Chi Minh City the War Remanents museum is a must see. But beware.
Weīre now off to Cambodia....Goodbye Vietnam!
