Walking Tour
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
April 29, 2009
We woke and headed down to check out breakfast. They have a decent breakfast buffet here. We had tea and juice. I sampled chicken porridge (OK, runny and bland), fried eggs, beef stir fry, Vietnamese fried rolls, peanut butter (they have it at the hotel) and jam on toast. Bill had bread, fried rice and watermelon.
The tub is clean and the shower pressure is good. We have towels, hand towels, face cloths, a blow dryer, a kettle and a fridge. Yeah!!
We are able to use an Eye Witness book here and are going to do the walking tour that they suggest. Bill tried to navigate us to the start of the tour and took us several blocks out of the way
Uncle Ho in front of City Hall
. The first stop was the Caravelle Hotel. It does not look like much when you see it in the skyline, it looks very dated, but it is beautiful on the inside. When it was built in 1959 it was 10 stories tall which made it the tallest building in the city. It also had a/c which was a big deal. During the American War (aka Vietnam War) this hotel was a central spot for journalists and diplomats; Australia and New Zealand set up Embassies here. When the war ended, the building was neglected until 1998 when it reopened. We may go have a drink later on at the rooftop bar.
The Opera House Municipal Theater is right across the street from the Caravelle. The Opera House was built in 1899. It had been the Head Quarters for the South Vietnam National Assembly in 1956. It is a beautiful looking building, but we did not go in.
Next to the Opera House is the Continental Hotel
. During the American War this also was home to many journalists, such as Walter Cronkite. The hotel was also used by Graham Greene for his novel "The Quiet American". We did go in to see the courtyard and the tropical wooden staircase.
A short stroll from there is City Hall. This impressive building is modeled after city hall in Paris. It was also known as Hotel De Ville. It is not open to the public, but we were able to get a good view of the facade from the well groomed park across the street. In this park there is a statue of Ho Chi Minh holding a child. He is the former Prime Minister and President of North Vietnam.
Our next stop was the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. It cost us 15,000 dong (over $1) each to enter. The building had been the Governor General's residence. The museum was an odd collection of things and was laid out poorly
Inside the American War Museum
. It was like being in a treasure hunt to find the display rooms. It did have lots of good English descriptions though.
The first floor had pictures and artifacts from the French colonial period. There was also a display of industry for Ho Chi Minh City which included wood carving, pottery, shipping,... There was also a display about different wedding traditions in Vietnam and pictures of different styles of wedding attire.
In the basement there was an old bomb shelter that we were able to go through.
On the second floor there were war artifacts - some history and some weapons. There was also a display of artwork from the American War. In other rooms there were displays of traditional villages. There were tools, weapons, cooking utensils, and artwork. Most pieces were for tomb abandonment - the tribes were nomadic and left statues (human or animals) to help the bodies of the deceased to release their spirits. There was also a display of gongs and some neat looking scarecrows.
Outside there was a Huey, an F5 and a tank that had been American, but were reclaimed and used by the Vietnamese.
We stopped at Cafe Deco, a very neat eclectic spot, for something to eat. We were seated at a sofa with a low table. It had a large bowl of water with floating flowers. We were given complimentary iced tea. The iced tea is green tea and does not have sugar. This is my kind of city! I had beef and Vietnamese noodles (flat wide noodles) with water and Bill had calamari and a beer called 333 (Ba, Ba, Ba in Vietnamese). I really enjoyed my dish, Bill was not crazy about the calamari. Most of the time while we were there they were playing instrumental versions of ABBA songs.
We went to the Rex Hotel which is famous for the "5 o'clock follies", aka the self-serving daily US military briefings. We went to the rooftop bar and had a view of City Hall, Caravelle and the Opera House while Bill sipped an expensive beer 72,000 dong ($5).
We walked by Notre Dame Cathedral next. It was built in 1883 and was the tallest building in the city at that time. It has red tiles from Marseilles and had stained glass from Chartres. The stained glass was destroyed during WWII and has been replaced by plain glass. There is a statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the cathedral that came from Rome in 1959. Sadly, we could not go into the Cathedral, it was locked up tight.
Across the street is the General Post Office that was designed by Gustave Eiffel and built from 1886 - 1891. It resembles a train station inside. At the far wall is a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh. We posted some letters to the grade 2/3's from Nigel and a couple of postcards from Freddie while we were there.
We had a hard time finding the entrance to the Reunification Hall. There were 2 side entrances that I did not think looked inviting and I was right. Both times the guards gave us had gestures to send us to another entrance. We are surprised by the lack of English in this city, especially compared to Cambodia. It is really surprising that the cab drivers have really poor English...
The Reunification Hall was formerly the home of the French Governor General and President Ngo Dinh Diem. The building had been bombed in an assassination attempt on the President's life (he escaped by helicopter just in time) and the building was rebuilt in 1962. The President was killed before he could return to the residence and the building has been kept to look as it did in 1962. There is a famous picture of a tank driving through the gates of these grounds when the South surrendered to the North.
The outside of the building is nothing much to look at, but there are some lovely rooms inside (apart from the dated and stained carpets). There are some lovely pieces in the reception rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms. There are some really nice chandeliers too. In the basement there is a large bunker too.
After this we had a snack of beef with noodles and seafood with noodles, iced tea and 333 for 87,000 dong ($7).
The next stop was the War Remnants Museum. The main building was undergoing renovations on the upper floors, so the display is smaller than normal. Overall the museum displays the horrors committed by Chinese, French and Americans (mostly Americans). Outside there was a F5, a Huey, a couple of tanks and armored personnel carriers.
In the main building there was three displays. One display was of children's paintings about war and peace. One display was about Agent Orange and it's effects. The other display was weapons.
Outside there was a section where a prison was set up and it talked about US war crimes and had a French guillotine. Another building had display of photos from an American photo journalist.
It was a pretty interesting museum. I found it very interesting that there were very few pictures of Vietnamese soldiers, but quite a few pictures of dead and injured civilians. I expected the museum to be very one-sided, and it was.
We went to Ben Thanh Market. It is a large indoor market with all kinds of great stuff. There was some great stalls with dried fruits (I bought some huge juicy raisins for $1), coffee beans, grains, fruit, veggies, fabric, clothing, souvenirs, lotions, perfumes, jewelery, leather goods, purses, flowers,... We bought 4 large apples for $2, American soldier Zippo lighters for $2.50 each, undies for $.70 each (I am WAY out of clean clothes) and lilies for our room for $3. We bought a Coke and Coke Light too. It is a really organized market and a great spot. We took one last stroll through a section with mens and womens shirts. We actually had people grabbing our arms as we walked by. That was a bit unusual!
We walked back to the hotel and discovered that they have some really good computers on the mezzanine level. In our room we watched the end of a movie and had apple and peanut butter for a snack.
We walked to Jaspas Restaurant and had some fried Vietnamese rolls (my first in this country) that were very good. Bill had a stir fry - Mongolian lamb and I had the Thai beef salad. I had a strong vodka soda and Bill had a couple of Tiger Beers and a CC and coke (the 2nd one of our trip). It was all really good until a lady sat at the table behind me and began chain smoking. I gobbled down my salad as fast as I could to avoid gulps of smoke with my food. Dinner was a bit pricey, $45, but was really good.
We picked up some soy milk so I can have cereal with raisins tomorrow, Khong Do barley iced tea (very few calories, carbs and no sugar) and a Coke. We went back to the hotel and used the internet for a few hours. I was able to catch up on some blogging and Bill was able to book a flight for us to Da Nang on April 2nd with Vietnam Airlines. I drank the barley iced tea, it was an odd flavour, but not too bad.
It was after midnight when we went to bed.