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Published: November 2nd 2011
Our first weekend venture into Ho Chi Minh City was fabulous. We stayed in the
An An 2 Hotel in the heart of the backpacker district. You get accustomed to being tall at the Uni as the students are general quite short, but once you're rubbing shoulders with Aussie and American giants on their way around South East Asia, you soon get a different perspective!! The hotel was good, clean and comfortable, and not too badly priced either at US$36 for a double room. We were well located to nip out for a good curry and explore some of the bars frequented by mostly English speaking tourists. It was loud and tacky at times, but we found a lovely little bar which was friendly and not very busy.
Bread and Butter is owned by an ex-pat American and, apparently, a favourite amongst English teachers. Add us to that list!!
Saturday was a touristy day. We began by walking to the Reunifiactaion Palace where North Vietnamese tanks rolled in through the gates in 1975 signifying the end of the war and the start of the reunification process. In the grounds we saw a pop video being filmed but so far no students have managed to identify
Pop Stars
Nobody seems to know who was filming a pop video in the grounds of Reunification Palace!who they were! It was very interesting wandering around the rooms and seeing the various displays. We even got a photo with Uncle Ho, or rather a golden statue of him! Up on the roof you can see a helicopter similar to the one which evacuated people out of danger and was the inspiration for the hit musical
Miss Saigon. Down in the basement there are a few radio rooms in the communications area but most rooms were simply bare with a table and a couple of telephones. The tunnels were pretty boring to look at too, but when you imagine what life must have been down there in the heat of the moment, they are quite significant.
The main reason for going into town for the weekend was to see some English language theatre. A British-American company were putting on a performance of The Scottish Play. You know, the one whose name you're not supposed to say. Well, we picked up our tickets for MacBeth (whoops!!) then wandered over to the
Bitexco Tower. We had an expensive but very fulfilling lunch of burger and chips washed down with an ice cold beer. Well, we eat Vietnamese food EVERY day
at work so there's no need to pay for anything with rice or noodles in it!! The plan had been to go up to the observation deck but we decided that US$10 just to ride a lift was too much on the day. We may go back in the future but for now we are trying to find out if there is a restaurant or a bar high up in the tower where we could spend the $10 on a beer and enjoy the view more! We missed out on registration for the
Bitexco Vertical Run which would have enabled us to go up for nothing, as long as we walked all the way!!! Maybe next year............?
That evening we took our seats in the Saigon Opera House. Ticket sales had not been spectacular considering it was the final performance in HCMC before they move up to Hanoi. It wasn't very ornate inside and there wasn't even a bar! It's not hard to understand that people say you should go there for a performance rather than simply to see the building. It's much grander on the outside. The play was pretty good though. It didn't get rave reviews and we don't
Phạm Ngũ Lão
The backpacker district really understand why. Okay, so it was a bit long, but two and a half hours gives better value for money, doesn't it???!!! Afterwards we stumbled across a German Bierhaus with a massive hall for its Oktoberfest which we have just missed. The beer was pretty good and it was full of Japanese delegates from some conference or other.
Sunday was a shopping day. We won't bore you with the details of two ex-pat teachers in search of decaffeinated coffee at a price we could afford as it was a fruitless search! We did find a market which was very interesting for two ex-military travellers - the army surplus market. Anyone want a gas mask??? We found a place to buy your coffin, and very pretty they were too! Finally we found some shops catering to Saigon's ex-pats and stocked up with a few bits and pieces that we can't find in Vietnamese supermarkets - no decaf but plenty of Indian spices and two cans of
Heinz Baked Beans!!!!!!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Great blog!
Keep them coming.