Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

After returning from the Mekong I a had a look around Saigon, it only took a day. First up was the war remnants museum - a must see for everyone giving a more Vietnamese perspective than we're used to on the war, with plenty of gruesome details of the effects of agent orange, massacres and torture (including examples of the Americans using water torture and electric shocks - nice to know that things have moved on since then).

Next up was the reunification palace, where the President of the South ran things from and lived before the tanks of the North arrived at the gates in 1975. It was nice for a building built in the 60s in the modern style. It is preserved the way it was in 1975 and got to see the presidents private cinema and gambling room (with bar) as well as map rooms and bunkers in the basement. There were also marks on the roof where bombs had hit, dropped by a spy from the North who'd worked in the palace, using a plane of the South, not long before Saigon fell.

I also went to the fine arts museum, a so-so collection of Vietnamese paintings and a few other objects. The next morning was taken up with boring visits to the bank and post office (nicest post office I ever did see) before getting on the bus to Pnomh Penh at lunchtime and waving goodbye to Uncle Ho.

Edit: Oops I forgot about my trip to Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple...

The Cao Dai is a sort of hybrid religion which combines aspects f Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, it also has 3 main 'saints' which include Victor Hugo. There main temple (Vatican style headquarters) can be combined with a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, so I did. It was quite weird, as they all wear different coloured robes, and the symbol of the religion is an eye, which they wear on their hats, giving them a very cultlike appearance.

We had a very fun guide that day (whose Aussie name was Slim Jim, apparently) and he whisked us through the Cu Chi tunnels site, where we saw a number of vicious traps and the guerrillas lived before having a go at crawling through part of the tunnels ourselves. This tunnel had been widened to twice the size and had electric lights put in, but was still a tight squeeze and only a few of us made it through to the end. Also available was the opportunity to shoot an M16 or a Kalashnikov (for a price of course) which I decided to decline.


The Cao Dai Church.


Me in the (double size!) Cu-Chi tunnel.


In the Presidential Palace.