Saigon
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2004
1
10
11
Trip End
Jul 07, 2004
Saigon, Vietnam
Friday, July 2, 2004
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
We were very lucky when we returned from the Easy Rider tour and were told that we could get the Wednesday flight to Ho Chi Minh City (the government favors that name, the residents favor Saigon). After the horrible bus ride from Nha Trang we were determined not to do that to ourselves again; however, the Wednesday flight was totally booked so we would have only had one day in this huge city. We arrived at about 1:30 and decided to treat ourselves to luxury and stayed at the Rex Hotel in the city center.
The hotel is a place that many US officers and journalists stayed at during the Vietnam War and was very luxurious, quite different than the places we normally stay (comfortable beds and pillows, no bedbugs, big bathroom, etc.) Wednesday afternoon and evening we did a little exploring around the town to orient ourselves
Hammer and Sickle
. We had been warned that Saigon was not nice, too crowded, and more dangerous than other cities. We found all of that to be not true. Crossing the street was not any more harrowing than in Hanoi--there were just more lanes to cross. We never once felt like we were going to have our pockets picked. It was really a pretty nice city that I would like to be able to return and have some more time. While in Saigon, we opted mostly for western food. The rice and the noodles are getting kind of old at this point and we found an Australian place that we had been to in Hanoi called Al Fresco's. The place had good food and was very comfortable. We ate there both nights. We tried to eat at a place Lonely Planet recommends called Miss Saigon; however, the menu was not appealing and Melanie thinks she saw a rat scurry through the grass.
As far as the sights go, we spent Thursday touring. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral but it was closed and we could not get in. We also went to the Reunification Palace. This was the Presidential Palace before the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. It was very ugly and dull and we would not recommend it to other travellers. We also went to the War Remnants Museum. This was a very interesting place despite the one-sidedness. You would believe that the VC were angels throughout the entire war. Unfortunately, our country did some things that we were not particularly proud of. We saw many pictures of the effects of Napalm and Agent Orange. We also saw two fetuses deformed by Agent Orange. The pictures were very graphic and really show the horrors of war. There was some military equipment, a simulation of a South Vietnamese jail, a guillotine used by the French when they occupied Indochina and several photographic exhibits by western photographers. We also saw many posters from other nations protesting the war, for example, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, but also from Finland and Denmark. Overall, it was a very interesting place (we stayed for nearly three hours).
We also shopped in Saigon and got a massage at the hotel. It was really an excellent city, one that we would like to return to visit someday. Today we head back to Bangkok and are headed back to the states by Sunday.
