Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon),
Vietnam
We had three pleasant days within Saigon. Ho Chi Minh City isn’t about seeing world famous landmarks, even though history fans have a lot to see and explore. Instead, it’s about tasting, smelling and experiencing the sights and sounds of life on the street. Having had some busy work schedules, and a long trip ahead of us, we didn’t attempt to cram in every attraction, sight or tour. Instead, we took the slower pace approach, and tried to settle into the city during our time here.
Ho Chi Minh City is full of older buildings and colonial area structures that were left over from the French.
From an easy walk from our hotel in the Dong Khoi area, we walked to the Notre Dame Catherdal. It’s a major stop on the tourist circuit as one of the largest European styled churches in Asia.
Immediately across the street, is the beautiful yellow Saigon post office. It’s unique as inside, it’s got maps of old Saigon. It also has a wicket style window that is reminiscent of old communist style offices (think heavy on staff space), with different counters for different things.
Another interesting sight was the Reunification Palace. This was previously the seat of government in South Vietnam. The North crashed tanks through the front gates, which was well covered by photo journalism, prompting in part a massive US led evacuation of Saigon. Although a 70’s era building, I found the visit to be quite steeped in modern history.
The Reunification Palace included the seventies war rooms used to communicate, helicopter escapes, red circles where bombs previously struck, and a little bit of history in the basement.
There were lots of other general buildings around, that made the city an interesting place to wander around for a few days.
Along with the old history is the contrast of contemporary Ho Chi Minh. This means the Lotus Flower building with a skyline bar and it’s own helicopter pad on the 51st floor. It had great views from the top, although this concept hasn’t caught on yet since there we were the only visitors having a $10 beer on a weekday at 3 PM.
