Saigon, Loud, Proud, and one Heck of a Great Time

August 13, 2009

Our last stop in Vietnam was the southern city, and the largest in Vietnam. The flight was pretty bumpy, since it is the middle of monsoon season and there is lots of weather, thus lots of turbulence.

As we got into town, we found that our hotel was down in a warren of alleyways. We had to walk down a couple in the dark and rain before finding our place. At first, it was kind of creepy to be back in a series of alleys, but after we got to know our way around, it was kind of cool. When we first got into town, we dropped our bags and headed off for a good meal. We found a French/American place call “Allez Boo” and had a couple of meat and potato meals, and a few beers. It was interesting how they mixed western and eastern foods. For example, in the barbecue section, they served barbecue ribs with white rice, instead of French fries or potatoes. Nonetheless, the food was great and satisfying.

Saigon is great for sitting and relaxing while you shop. Whenever you are sitting, vendors will walk up to you to sell you things. We had people with toiletries, DVD’s, dried squid, and even huge stacks of counterfeit books that they would bring to you to sell. It didn’t matter if you were in the middle of your dinner or not! So it was convenient, but sometimes intrusive. There are motorbikes everywhere, although the streets are larger and there are more parks than old Hanoi. There are also a lot more neon lights. Saigon seems to be much more industrialized and wealthy than Hanoi, but we enjoyed the character of both cities very much. We still ate at restaurants on the street and in back alleys for incredibly low prices. Two meals and two drinks for $2-3. You cant beat that!

Our first touristy sightseeing stop was the “Reunification Palace” which was the Presidential Palace of South Vietnam. It was an interesting place to see, because that is where the war ended back in the 70’s. The underground bunkers and war rooms were still there, and the whole building had some great 1960’s architecture. We almost felt as if we were back in the cold war. Our next stop was one of the oldest pagodas in Saigon, and was filled with all sorts of marvelous statues and decorations. We also stopped by Notre Dame Cathedral, which was built by the French in the late 1800’s during their occupation of Indochina. We walked around downtown for a bit and also saw the railway station and the city theatre, both of which were really nice buildings.

We spent a lot of time in Saigon doing fun activities. We found a Mexican restaurant that was pretty accurate, and also went bowling, which was a lot of fun. The bowling place had KFC and pizza hut, and was cosmic bowling themed, so we almost forgot that we were in Vietnam for a bit.

Two of our days in Saigon were spent on day trips, which will be the next blog. After that, we are homeward bound! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Laura at the Reunification Palace

Laura in the main meeting room of the palace

Eric in the cabinet conference room

Laura in the library. Yes, that is a stuffed Cheetah

Eric and Laura in front of the fountain at the Palace

Laura at the Reunification Palace

Eric onthe roof of the palace. The red circles mark the places where the south vietnamese airforce dropped bombs to try to kill the south vietnamese president.