Hello from Saigon. The city was re-named Ho Chi Minh City after the war, but everyone still refers to it as Saigon. Its a busy, modern city - it feels a bit more like Singapore than Hanoi. There are lots of gleaming skyscrapers and tree lined avenues, which makes a change from the claustrophobic old quarter we stayed in in Hanoi. One thing that is the same though is the traffic. There are millions of motorbikes and a lot more cars than anywhere else in Vietnam, and as usual none of them seem to obey any rules of the road. Crossing the road is actually more difficult here than in Hanoi, due to the roads being a lot wider. The only rule is to walk slowly and steadily across the roads and trust that everyone swerves to avoid you. Although there are zebra crossings they are universally ignored! June was on the verge of a panic attack in the rush hour, and at one point it looked like we were going to have to spend the night on a traffic island.....
We went to the War Remnants Museum yesterday, which contains lots of photos, weapons and stories from the American War. It was pretty harrowing and moving, and some of the photos were incredible (both good and bad). The museum painted a pretty one-sided story (I'm sure the Viet Cong weren't entirely blameless in terms of war crimes) but it painted a damning picture of the US involvement in the war, and of war in general. Scary stuff.
In the afternoon we went to see the Reunification Palace, which is a beautiful place which used to be the residence of the South Vietnamese president. It was the place where the war ended, when the VC tanks crashed through the palace railings on 30th April 1975. It was interesting to be somewhere with such a recent history. Normally when we visit historic sights they remember things 200 / 500 / 100 years ago, so it was good to feel so "close" to history.
OK, we're about to head off into the city now. We'll post again soon - we may even have a blog from special guest star June.....
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