Today we had a city tour of Ho Chi Minh City. We started out at Independence Palace, which is also known as Reunification Palace. It’s where the Vietnam War ended when the North Vietnamese bulldozed a tank through the main gate during the fall of Saigon. It was really interesting to see all of the conference rooms and especially the war rooms in the basement. We even saw the plane that bombed the palace (although no significant damage was caused). The photos below were taken at the palace.
After we finished at the palace, we went to the War Remnants Museum. Our guide actually told us that this used to be called the Exhibition House for U.S. and Puppet Crimes, but many American visitors complained about the name so they changed it in 1995. The museum portrayed the United States as the enemy, which is something that was mostly unfamiliar to me since I am from there. It was a very harrowing experience; war is gruesome and it was quite graphic. However, I think it’s important to see. The two main rooms were on Agent Orange and war crimes, respectively. I didn’t take any pictures inside either room in the museum. After the rooms inside, we went outside and saw lots of different types of tanks and planes which was fun. Some tanks are pictured below as well as a photo of our group.
After that, we went to lunch. At lunch they had a fixed menu for us so we got to try some of everything. An image of the menu is below. I tried everything but wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of it. However, I loved the fish.
After lunch we resumed our walking tour. We went to the Bitexco Financial Tower. Inside on the 59th floor is the Saigon Sky Deck. This was really fun and a cool thing to do! It was interesting how the city is mostly flat. I was at one of these in Chicago this summer and the buildings there are so tall. I have included some pictures below, including a picture of their national bank (the square building).
Finally, our last stop for the day was a market. Honestly I wasn’t totally impressed with the market. It was obviously very touristy and there were lots of knockoffs of American brands but not really anything I liked. However I did buy a pair of elephant pants but I think I overpaid. I paid close to 16 USD and my professor said that last year, someone got a pair for only $3.
Finally, we had dinner. We went to a BBQ restaurant where you grill the food yourself. It was a similar style to lunch where they had a menu of things they were bringing us and we shared everything. My favorite thing at dinner was beef that was wrapped around an onion (although I took the onion out). I have included a picture of the menu below.
Overall, it was a great first day! I had a lot of fun and also learned a lot. I’m in love with Ho Chi Minh City already!
Allison Around the World 