Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Our last stop in Vietnam would be Ho Chi Minh City, or what was previously known as Saigon. While this city was just as busy as Hanoi, it seemed much more manageable (or we are just getting more used to crossing the street amidst chaos!)

Our first night in town we went to the night market in order to pick up some last minute gifts from Vietnam. The shop was set up inside a large warehouse, with hundreds of small vendor stands selling everything from magnets to scorpion whisky! The vendors are constantly following you around the shop trying to make a deal with you on everything you walk by, but the prices are right which makes the “harassment” worthwhile…. :-)

We went to the Reunification Palace located in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City. This was built mainly to serve as South Vietnam’s presidential palace. This location is where the communist tank crashed the gate on April 30th, 1975, the day Saigon surrendered to the North Vietnamese. One of the more eerie things about the palace was that everything was basically left as it was when the South Vietnamese had to flee the building.

The gate now, and a picture of the gate then

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We also visited the War Remnants Museum, which displayed the relics of war, as well as an array of photographs honoring the victims of war. This was really one of the finer museums we have had the luxury of visiting…some are just one-room showcases, but this museum was very well done, with 4 floors of history on display! They also had numerous tanks and choppers from the Vietnam war.

An exercise/dancing class taking place in the local park

We still get a kick out of seeing entire families on motorbikes

A slightly more Asian version of an American stand-by… we stuck with the sour cream and onion flavor.