Saigon

---

Ho Chi Minh City - the city formerly known as Saigon

So we arrived in Saigon early evening and started the dreaded search for accommodation. This already grueling task has been made more uncomfortable with the added load of new clothes and wares from Hoi An. As Rachel isn't back until December she decided to get her clothes shipped back by boat, costing about 23 pounds or so as it takes about 3 months. I however, didn't want to wait 3 months for my clothes as I would need and want to use them before November/December time and the airfreight (3 weeks) was three times the price so I decided that I shall carry everything with me for another 2 weeks or so and make it like a packhorse - I am currently planning on wearing nearly everything on the plane. We finally found somewhere after seeing some very shady places that was nice but probably our most expensive accommodation to do - but I think your accommodation can affect your enjoyment of somewhere without a doubt. On our way to grab a bite to eat we bumped into Michael, the French Canadian, who we had first met on the way to the Thai-Laos border and had since met in Luang Prabang, Hanoi and Hoi An - we couldn't believe it!! We decided to get a picture of the three of us taken together so that we could remember all of our chance meetings.

The next day, our only full day in Saigon, we wanted to take in the city's historical sites. We managed to find a brilliant place opposite our hotel for breakfast, they had amazing pastries that cost about 30p and an absolutely delicious banana and coffee fruit shake for 30p as well! We managed to have all breakfasts here whilst in Saigon (including a take away one for our bus to Cambodia) First of all we started off at the Reunification Palace. I had misread the blurb about the palace in the book and was searching for a beautiful colonial building and so could not believe my eyes when we turned up at the palace only to find a huge 1960s building! It turns out that the colonial building was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1966 I think by the South Vietnamese leader. I must admit, it was a beautiful building inside in its own special 1960s way and is most probably a gem of 1960s architecture. We had a free guided tour which was really informative about the American-Vietnamese war and the fall of Saigon to Northern Vietnamese powers. It is really interesting as obviously the south lost to the north but they have (freely/forced) to accept Ho Chi Minh as this hero figure. Its also interesting as a spy in the south Vietnamese army bombed the palace, luckily no one died, is still alive and is a national hero amongst all Vietnamese. After that we started to walk up to the Notre Dame cathedral when this Italian guy started to talk to us. He decided that he wanted to go to the cathedral as well so we walked up there together. The cathedral could have been in Europe, it was so Western both inside and out, except for a statue of Mary that was surrounded by strip blue neon lights. We then decided to go to the National Museum and had a look around there, slightly awkwardly the Italian guy paid for both mine and Rachel's ticket - we felt a bit awkward about this but what can you do once someone has paid for them? The museum wasn't particularly great so we whipped around it in no time. Rachel and I decided that we had had enough time in museums learning about war and realised that we really didn't want to go to the War Remnants museum as we thought that it would be a bit too distressing (it has various exhibits and photos detailing the atrocities of the American/Vietnamese war - including deformed babies and fetuses in jars showing the effects of the chemicals sprayed by the Americans). We decided that we wanted to have a rest and a cold drink somewhere before we continued to the Diamond Plaza mall and the walk around town. The Italian guy decided to stay with us... his English wasn't great so it was still a bit awkward at times.

After a good lunch we took a walk to the Mosque that was marked on my guidebook's map. When we arrived it didn't look as if you could go in and have a look until this man inside started to wave at us. After I put my cardigan on to cover my shoulders we walked up the steps and this Vietnamese man smiled and gestured for us to have a look around. This young guy said to us that there wasn't much to look at but we still walked around and I took a few photos that I thought would be helpful for class. As we were about to leave the man who waves us in gestured for us to sit with him and these other men who had just arrived. These men it turned out were Indonesian pilots who had amazing English, so for about an hour we all sat down and chatted. The Vietnamese man who waved us in turned out to be the keeper/caretaker of the mosque and he said to the youngest of the Indonesians that he could show me into the main chamber of the mosque (where women aren't usually allowed) so that I could take photos. I was so grateful, it was such a lovely gesture of him, I hadn't even asked him to go in! The guy took me in there and showed me some of the important parts and then I asked him about different rituals surrounding prayer, such as wudu (washing before prayer) and he showed me the routine used for it. It was a fantastic afternoon, Rachel and I couldn't stop smiling as it had been such a lovely surprise. Saigon is a lot more modern than Hanoi, the streets are wider but it still had a lot of character. The french influence in Saigon could still be seen like Hanoi, both had 'french quarters, cathedrals inspired by french churches', opera houses and of course the cuisine (countless cafes, bistros, patisseries).


We finally parted from the Italian guy and returned to our room to freshen up. We decided to yet again have an Indian meal at a place that was recommended in the guide book. It had a really good menu that was full of lots of dishes that I had never seen or heard of before. I had these potatoes that were stuffed with peas, spices and paneer - they were really tasty. We had eaten early as we wanted to go the cinema as Rachel had been absolutely dying to see the new Harry Potter film. We walked for about 20 minutes into the centre of Saigon back to the Diamond Plaza to see whether they were showing the film - unluckily they weren't and all of the other films were just not worth seeing. Instead we thought we would try bowling but it was ridiculously expensive - you even had to pay to hire the socks and shoes! We decided against doing anything more and Rach was pretty tired so we went back to the room and had an early night, especially as we were to be up early the next day for the Mekong Delta tour.

---