Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Part 4

Our last full day in Vietnam was spent on a full-day city course (a definitely must for first-timers to any city!). We were picked up near our hotel at 8AM in the morning again (gee, these Vietnamese people really like to start the day early) and were bundled into a waiting van where some 10 other tourists were sitting, waiting for the tour to begin. Our tour guide was nice, but he had a horrible habit of drifting his sentences away into nothing, so you couldn’t hear the last half of all his sentences (“And this is the Chinese temple for Goddess…….*mumble mumble*”). Still, I had enough information from my pre-trip research to understand what was going on.

Our first stop was at the old Chinese temple at the centre of the city. It was over 200 years old, and was built when Chinese merchants settled in Vietnam after the country was conquered by the Chinese. All the parts of the temple were directly shipped from China, and the details in the ornate carvings depicted intricate scenes of everyday life, such as merchants haggling and funeral processions and such. The temple was dedicated to the Sky Goddess Ho (though I had to remind myself not to laugh every time the tour guide said her name), and devotees would burn wishes attached to coils of incense, as they believed that when the incense was finished burning, the wish would be carried up into the sky along with the smoke.

Our next stop was a rather depressing stay at the War Remnants Museum. It was a state-funded and state-operated museum dedicated to “exposing the truths of the Vietnam War”. Although it was rather jingoistic and took the chance to portray the US government in a negative light every chance it had, it was a very educational stay, especially where the exhibits showed the consequences of the use of Agent Orange. Definitely not for the faint-hearted though. On every wall of the exhibition rooms, there were photographs of children born with defects as a result of the chemicals used, of children with huge gaping wounds and burns from bombs and napalms, and even two pickled remains of stillborn babies born to mother exposed to Agent Orange. *shudder*

We then proceeded to go to the Reunification Palace. This was where the end of the Vietnam War happened when the two tanks came crashing in through the gates.  All the rooms were preserved exactly as they were at the end of the war, and although some of the rooms were still being used today for state meetings and such, most of the rooms still had the antique feel of being stuck in the mid-70’s. There was even a model helicopter on the roof, similar to the one that took Saigon’s President and his family to safety when the tanks came crashing in.

The most fascinating part of the building was the underground bunker. A labyrinth of metal hallways, all the rooms were left exactly as they were during the war. There were posters marking the number of troops in certain areas, number of casualties, a room full of old typewriters, and even some escape routes hidden behind secret doors that were never used. Kind of spooky, but in a good way.

We then went to the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. Built by French missionaries, the signature red façade was built with bricks that were brought straight from Marseille! In front of the cathedral, there was a small round area of grass with the statue of the Virgin Mary in the centre of it. There was tons of people, just sitting, feeding the pigeons, or in the case of one woman, having a photo shoot (well, it WAS a nice day out).

After some time had passed, we were allowed into the cathedral itself. The sudden rush of tourists all flocking in simultaneously created a very claustrophobic wave, but that didn’t deter me from admiring the internal architecture. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to the Vatican and have seen grander cathedrals, but honestly, the inside was not awe-inspiring or anything like that. However, the stained-glass windows were really pretty, especially in contrast with the rest of the dark and rather gloomy inside.

That concluded the day-tour. We were dropped off at our hotel again, and after a quick dinner, we took the cab to go to the Bitexco Financial Tower, the tallest building in HCMC.

The night view of the observation deck on the 49th floor was fantastic! We had a 360 degree view of all of Saigon, and with the night lights on, the view was beautiful. There were also these snazzy computer screens located strategically around the observation deck that you could use to look up more information on specific buildings or sites. Our visit to the tower coincided with Earth Hour, which meant that all the lights were turned off, which didn’t matter too much; in fact, it made the view even better as there weren’t any inside lights interfering with the night lights outside.

So that concludes my Vietnam trip! The next day, after a quick breakfast, we went back to the very hot and inefficient airport and flew back to Malaysia. Whew! 🙂

Signing off,
Marie

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Part 3

After our trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, we took a much well-deserved break at the hotel (the weather was incredibly hot) before leaving for the Saigon River with our hotel guide, Thao. Thao was our amazing guide/hotel manager/tour organizer person. She was very prompt with emails and was very thorough in making sure our entire trip went very smoothly. And she also accompanied us to the riverside to make sure we got on the right boat! How nice of her. 🙂

We rode to the Saigon riverside on cyclos. Cyclos were basically these sort of carriages attached to the front of bicycles. The person driving would sit on the bicycle, and steer with handles attached to the back of the carriage. Our drivers were all very nice, and they spoke English (hurrah!) so they explained to us the various buildings and parks that we went past. In contrast to the blazing hot weather of the early afternoon, it was much cooler at night, with a wind blowing from the river. The only part that terrified me slightly was the plethora of motorcycles, all rushing around and honking at us. Still, we took our leisurely time to the river and we survived.

At the river, we got on a traditional Vietnamese junk for our dinner cruise. We had a spectacular view of District 1 and 2 with all the lights on, and we were also treated to a pretty decadent 6 course dinner as well. Throughout the meal, there were entertainers dancing and singing at the front of the boat, which was interesting as they performed traditional Vietnamese songs. The only annoying part was when they tried to come up to our table after the performance, trying to sell us CDs of their performances. But I suppose that’s what’s being a tourist is about. Near the end of the cruise, we went up to the top of boat where we enjoyed the night breeze and the scenery. There was this other boat behind us that had neon lights that made it look like a fish. Well, my dad thought it was a shark at first, so we started calling it Shark Boat. We grew a little obsessed with it after a while. You’ll see what I mean in Part 4.

Angry Shark Boat!

Part 4 will be up soon (hopefully!)

*update* Part 4 is here! Click here to read it! 😀

Signing off,
Marie

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Part 2

Our second day in HCMC started off pretty early in the morning. Our tour bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels came to pick us up at our hotel at 8AM, which meant that we had to get up at 7AM to get ready and have breakfast. Breakfast at the hotel (included in the fees, by the way) was a simple affair of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions and the typical Vietnamese-style baguettes, called Banh Mi Tay. They were shorter and rounder than the traditional French baguettes, but the insides were softer and tastier. Yummy!

Before arriving at the Cu Chi Tunnels, we stopped by at this wooden lacquer factory. There were rows and rows of workers, all assigned to different various tasks, such as cutting pieces out of shells with a handsaw, gluing bits of egg onto the board, or polishing the boards used for the pieces. I never realized that it was such a labour-intensive task!

Some of the pieces were very intricate as well. Like this one, that an evidently much more skilled labourer was working on. It must have taken hours and hours and patience and effort! After the workshop area, there was a small gift store area as well. Tons of little lacquered boxes and art everywhere. For some reason, there were a lot of Tintin art pieces with the words “Tintin in Vietnam” and a picture of Tintin on a rickshaw, which was little confusing because Tintin (as far as I know) has never been in Vietnam, and the closest he has ever been to was China. Huh?

And then it was (finally) on to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels were used during the Vietnam war by Viet Cong guerillas as well as civilians to hide from American soldiers. They were a vast system of underground tunnels, complete with dining rooms and weapons workshops, and even had ventilation systems and multiple entryways to fool the soldiers. There were also a vast array of booby traps on display, all of them involving some sort of impalement with bamboo sticks or metal rods. Ouch.

We were also given the chance to hop into one of the original entrances to the tunnels. As you can see in the photo above, it was a pretty tight fit for most of us. And the tunnels were pretty deep too. I tried jumping in and ended up bashing my head. Ouch. We also had some time to watch a 15 minute video made by the Vietnamese government after the war, praising the guerillas for their triumphs against the American soldiers. It was all rather anti-American and very jingoistic, which was a very peculiar experience, and the video itself was very corny with overly dramatic music and such, but it was a very unique experience, I must say.

Part 3 will be up soon (hopefully)!

*update* Part 3 is here! Click here to read it! 😀

Signing off,
Marie