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We got to the Reunification Palace gate, and as we walked in, somebody jumped up from their seat and started calling for us to look at the sign in front of his desk - "Renovating the palace from April until June. Thank you." Guess we're not seeing the Palace today :)
Instead, we headed toward the War Remnants Museum (previously called "the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes"). Outside, we took a look at a tank, F4 and F5, a huey helicopter, and many artillery weapons. Inside, pictures (many from the US jounalists) show life at war, and the atrocities which occurred in Vietnam. Everything is painted in a red and white one-sided fashion, but what they're saying is true, and it's difficult to comprehend everything that happened in the 70's. I'm wondering what we'll think when we visit Iraq in 30 years. The museum certainly leaves you with pretty low feeling, especially if you are an American. After spending an hour in the museum, we headed off to the Notre Dame Cathedral, built in the 19th century. The cathedral doesn't have any stained-glass windows, due to the bombing in WWII. Across from the cathedral, is HCMC's french-style post office. Interestingly, on the wall in the back (see pic), is a picture of Ho Chi Minh. He's everywhere here - on all printed notes, and random pictures and posters around the city.
We grabbed lunch near the cathedral - we had seen a French (go figure) creperie restaurant with a lot of locals. It was extremely hot and humid outside (again), so we decided to eat indoors - the food (of course) was fabulous - we had 2 savory crepes and a shake.
We had read that the streets here change names often. We finally felt those pains, as streets would not only have changed from our map, but also change randomly along the street! It was difficult to navigate, but we made it to a few Chinese medicine shops. The most interesting thing they had was snake wine - with the (usually cobra) snake still in the bottle!! Crazy. The label said it was to cure rheumatism and sweating. We were profusely sweating, and wondered if it'd help us - but decided we'd rather sweat than drink snake wine :). It was interesting to watch the medicine guys create the mix from recipes of random herbs, and package them up for a customer.
By 2pm, we were drenched and tired. We headed back to our room to relax the afternoon away. We originally decided to go to the Canadian 281 hotel because they have internet in all rooms. Unfortunately, their internet "wasn't working". Frustrating, as we haven't had internet in our room for quite awhile, and it's hot in the open air shops we've been going to. Funny how it was easier to use the internet in S. America than in "high-tech" Asia :).
We walked to dinner at the Asian Kitchen - it's amazing how cheap things are here. We had dinner for $6 - including two fresh fruit shakes. Unbelievable. We also had 2 ice cream cones on the way home for $1 each with a nice waffle cone and 2 scoops. There were 5 people working there for $2 (we were on the only customers). We're not going to know how to handle home prices again :). Day 118 - Ho Chi Minh City < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 120 - HCMC and wrapping up Vietnam © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
We were off on our walking tour today. After getting breakfast to our room (there's no room for a restaurant in this extremely slim building we're in), we began to walk towards the reunification palace. Along the way, we passed through the Cong Vien Van Hoa Park, where there were a few people doing something similar to tai chi but with a sword, along with other weird stretch movements - it was interesting to watch :). 
The palace stands almost exactly as it was on 1975, when the northern Vietnamese (VC) liberated Saigon (it was previously called the Independence or Presidential Palace). 
The French influence here is pretty strong as well, besides the obvious architectural influences, we see many translations in French (besides English), and littered along the street shop vendors, we'll see a pastry shop in between a random scissors shop, a shoe shop, garden hose shop, and a random safe shop. It's interesting to see the entire mix.
After lunch, we caught a taxi to Cholon - the Chinese area of HCMC. Taxi's here are incredibly cheap - the taxi the night before was just $1.50 to our restaurant, and today's taxi was just $3 to Cholon (for a 10 minute ride). We walked along a few streets, just peering in the shops - we were hunting for the Chinese medicine shops. 
After the medicine, we headed to the electronics market. I had envisioned a huge "Frys" (west coast electronic warehouse store) but instead, we were greeted with random cd players and other boring electronics. Oh well. On the way and throughout our walking around Cholon, we stopped at a few Chinese pagodas for a taste of what's to come when we get to China in a few days. 
It's crazy how many motorbikes there are here - every time we try to cross the streets - it's probably better that we just close our eyes and walk. Jaimie pointed out how the roads wouldn't work at all if the locals each had cars. There are hundreds of motorbikes with 2-3 people riding going in all directions at all times. The roads would be so jammed with traffic if all of those people used cars instead. Not a bad way to solve traffic congestion :).