Ho Chi Min City

We woke early to the sound of heavy rain and grey skies. Maybe it was a good thing we were leaving quaint Hoi An today. The weather was not promising. An early flight took us to the largest city in Vietnam – Hoi Chi Min City in the south of Vietnam. It is interesting to note a comment from our guide: Danang and Hoi An are being overtaken with enormous 5 star resorts along the beach resulting in the locals being excluded from using some parts of the beach. It again raises the question of whether tourism is good for the average Vietnamese or just the rich ones.

Today involved a tour of some of the main sites of the city. It was a bit like visiting Canberra but with high humidity, sudden downpours and bustling traffic.

First stop was the War Museum – which particularly focussed on the Vietnam War and America’s involvement. It was pretty depressing. Quite graphic photos were shown of victims of bombs, torture and agent orange. Of course it was pretty much told from one point of view but it was hard not to be dispirited by the violence of war, the loss of lives on both sides and the atrocities committed. The use of agent orange on the landscape and the civilians is hard to justify.

We had lunch in a city restaurant – yummy Vietnamese food once again. The restaurant was a short walk from our hotel. You know how in the city of Sydney on the pedestrian crossings ‘LOOK RIGHT’ is written on the road for the benefit of international tourists so they don’t get run over. Well they need that here in Vietnam – but ‘LOOK LEFT’ for tourists who do the same here (not mentioning any names).

After lunch we were given a tour of the city post office built by the French in the late 1800s and the Palace, also built by the French. The palace has quite a history – being a palace for French leaders and then South Vietnamese leaders and finally Saigon City leaders. It was a bit like visiting Old Parliament House – seeing the president’s office, the dining room, the meeting room for national dignitaries, the meeting room for international dignitaries (including past Foreign Minister Downer from Australia), the bunker to escape the bombs etc. It was so humid the sweat was just pouring off us. We were glad to get back to our air conditioned room for a rest. Our hotel is also in the French style having been built in the 1930’s.

Tonight, we took an evening cruise down the Saigon River enjoying a typical buffet dinner, and the on-board local entertainment … pretty average food as usual, however the entertainment of musicians & dancers were quite good… even a roaming magician.