HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City, which is still refered to as Saigon by most Vietnamese, hasn't got a ton to offer within the city, but there are a few things worth seeing just outside the city. It is also a good starting point for seeing Vietnam as it has a Khao San Road-esque road to pick up some supplies and buy an open tour bus ticket. We decided(after talking with other fellow travellers) that we would buy an open tour bus ticket, through the Sinh Cafe, taking us along a specified route with the flexibility to get on and off as we pleased. Our route is as follows, Saigon-Mui Ne-Nha Trang-Hoi An-Hue-Hanoi. Mui Ne and Nha Trang offer beaches while Hoi An and Hue seem to be stopovers on the way to Hanoi, which is supposed to have some good treking and interesting hill tribes outside the city.

In Saigon, we stayed in the Dong Khoi area at the Hong Hoa Guesthouse. This was one of hundreds of cheap guesthouses in the area. It was right around the corner from the main strip and had a friendly family running it...

In Saigon it is easy to notice the French and American influences in abundance. From the businesses to the architecture to the way of life the impact is definitely not to be missed.

A couple of worthwile sites in Saigon are the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum(formerly known as the American War Crimes Museum). They are both in walking distance of where we were staying. Joy was not interested in seeing this stuff, so I headed out for an afternoon of sightseeing while she did a little shopping.

First, I hit the Reunification Palace. It was the presidential palace up until 1975 when the North Vietnamese took Saigon. It is now just a museum still in the same consition as when it was taken by the North Vietnamese Army with a couple tanks and a helicopter(which are still there as well). It was interesting to see the war rooms in the basement and the grand offices and rooms of the building. Second, I walked around the corner to the War Remnants Museum. Upon arrival I was not sure what to expect. Would there be an overwhelming sense of one-sidedness to the museum? Would it be full of lies and propoganda? Would people look at me accusingly as an American? What I did find was a partially open air museum with american tanks and jets as well as 7 or 8 buildings with photographs and explainations of the 'American War'. It made me sad as an american to be associated with this war and so many terrible things that we did in the war. As we were defeated in the war the sentiment is very skewed throughout. At the end, I didn't know how to feel, exactly. Just sad, in an overall sense. For all that happened the people here are still oppressed and so many lost there lives...

One side trip that we took from Saigon was to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are tunnels that the Viet Cong used to fight the Americans with during the war. They were really quite amazing to see. They built such an elaborate system and exceptional skill at thinking of ways to keep from being discovered and defeated. They showed us a film on how they constructed the tunnels(only big enough for a vietnamese so an american couldn't fit inside). They also showed us all sorts of booby traps that they employed during the war. The most remarkable part of these being that they knew exactly where to put them so that they would only get the americans and not the viet cong. Finally, we were able to clim through an enlarged tunnel for a 100 meters to get an idea of what it was like. Very cramped... This tour was very interesting but I wish we would have gone with a smaller group and not with the large tour from the Sinh Cafe. Oh well....