After arriving at Ho Chi Minh airport late the night before (within 10 minutes of Stacey's flight), getting our visas sorted (unfortunately Vietnam is similar to China in its lack of visa efficiency), finding our driver and crashing at our hostel we were up early and ready to take Saigon by storm. Since the Vietnamese also celebrate their new year, called Tet, according to the lunar calendar we had just a few days before the festivities kicked in. As a result we decided planned to leave for Siem Reap right away and hit Ho Chi Minh on the tail end of our trip. The earliest flight we could get to SR was at 3:00, so we hit the sightseeing trail running and got a feel for Saigon right away.
We set off walking towards Reunification Palace and on our way passed a huge makeshift market of potted flowers, plants and trees. A big part of the celebration of Tet is to return home for the holiday, and having one of these beautiful plants is the equivalent of having a Christmas tree at Christmas. According to vietnam-beauty.com, Vietnamese people decorate their houses and offices with these ornamental plants during Tet as symbols of warmth, wealth and good luck for the country’s biggest holiday. Here are some pictures from the market:
We continued on our way Reunification Palace, which under the Republic of Vietnam was
known as Independence Palace or the Presidential Palace.
On April 30, 1975 this was the location to which the first communist tanks in Saigon charged. A very famous photo depicts the tanks knocking down the front gate (shown below). We couldn't help but think of the fear the leader, Duong Van Minh, felt as he watched the tanks roll down the long street towards, and then through, his front gate. Apparently when he surrendered he told the VC officer "I have been waiting since early this morning to transfer power to you", to which the officer replied, "There is no question of transferring power. You cannot give up what you do not have." Yikes.
We had fun looking at the basically untouched interior decorating style of the 60's and exploring the basement with all of its war rooms, radio equipment, and bomb tunnels.
After this we headed to the War Remnants Museum.
Although loaded with its fair share of propaganda,
it had a very large room dedicated to the photographers and journalists (mostly foreign) who gave their lives in an effort to show the rest of the world what was happening throughout the country. We found this very moving. Overall, it was much less biased than a similar museum we saw last year in the northern part of the country.
The final room depicted many of the uglier aspects of war. Including brutality inflicted by frustrated troops and the effects of bombing, agent orange and various other weapons. The basic takeaway was regardless of the issue, war is terrible - especially for the civilians in the war zone. The room also included paintings of peace by Vietnamese children, which were powerful.
Outside was a yard full of weapons on display.
In an effort to overcome our depression at the moving images we had just seen and rejuvinate our minds and mouths, we grabbed lunch at an amazing restaurant called Bunta. Bunta is named after the rice vermicelli noodles called "Bun" which are famous in Vietnam. Stacey claims it was one of the best meals of her life due to their refreshingly fresh spring rolls and smoothies.
After lunch we rushed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and headed to the airport. We got to Cambodia, actually had an enjoyable and efficient visa experience and loaded ourselves and all of our stuff onto a tuk-tuk. When we got on the motorbike on the front almost capsized, but we managed to make it to the hostel without any major hiccups. That night we set out to explore Siem Reap, but first joined in a makeshift dance party across the street. Iced beer on a hot night in the company of friends. Fun times.
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