Sweaty Saigon


Advertisement
Vietnam's flag
Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City
December 21st 2007
Published: December 31st 2007
Edit Blog Post

tanktanktank

War remanent museum
Jeff speaking (Qing Editing)

Our trip to Saigon didn't start out on the right foot. First of all, Qing and I both have a case of the sniffles and our bus to Saigon ended up overheating when we were 10 km away from the center of the city. We ended up waiting in the evening for about half an hour for another bus to come and pick us all up. It could have been worse, Saigon is horrible during the midday sun, it may only be 86F or 30C outside, but the humidity could easily rival NYC's.

Because of the horrid humidity, our daily routine was to wake up at the sparrow's fart of 6am and get out of our room by 7 to see the sites. At about 11 it became too hot and we would seek refuge in one of Saigon's malls. Its friggen December for gosh sakes! Its not supposed to get that muggy north of the equator, in December! We came to SE Asia during this time of year to avoid the heat and humidity. I'd hate to see how this area is during the rest of the year. So after about 4 hours of
Reunification PalaceReunification PalaceReunification Palace

Bamboo inspired bris soleil
just lounging around we would head home and find dinner.

One way we avoided the midday heat was by watching a movie. We chose the Comebacks, not by choice, it was the only movie they were showing that was in English. When the movie started we noticed that we must be the only westerners watching the film since we started laughing at moments that only people growing up in US culture would understand. Why would Hollywood choose to export this specific movie to a foreign land that had so many references to other cheesy sports movies? The movie was not that great-but the AC was spectacular.

Since we were limited to the amount of time we alloted for sites we focused on a few main ones; Saigon Fine Art Museum, War Remnant Museum, and Reunification Palace (beautiful building).

The War Remnant Museum was very memorable. The exhibits were pretty depressing and numbing. The photos were graphical and the descriptions are very detailed. During our first hour there, everyone there was walking around in silence out of respect and because of the nature of the pieces. Then this one tourist came by, all she did was talk, joke, laugh, and pose with all the torture devices. Where's the respect? That really irked the both of us.

Another odd thing was fast food was more expensive than other eateries here. We can attribute one reason for this, air conditioning. Other eateries have their fronts open to the elements while the fast food eateries are enclosed in glass with the AC semi on. Furthermore, the people that served us always had a smile and not the usual grumpy pimply ones we see back home...hehe...no offense. One fast food eatery that we ate at that I have to mention is... JOLLIBEE's!!! Theres a friggen Jollibee in Saigon!!! While not the greatest, I still have to support my Filipinos.




Additional photos below
Photos: 11, Displayed: 11


Advertisement

Reunification PalaceReunification Palace
Reunification Palace

View of the entrance where the tanks rolled in
TrafficTraffic
Traffic

Now imagine trying to cross this
Jollybee!Jollybee!
Jollybee!

not so great but who cares-filipino pride!!!
War remenantWar remenant
War remenant

Tiger Cage exhibit
Art MuseumArt Museum
Art Museum

Courtyard
Post OfficePost Office
Post Office

interior
Me and CatMe and Cat
Me and Cat

Me and my cat friend. She decided to sit next to me while I ate. But then again I tempted her with a piece of bacon


30th January 2008

Same here!
In Korean theaters, when they show movies with a bunch of American references, I'm the only one laughing! *sigh* Makes me miss home...
26th December 2009

HCMC
I'm attempting saigon on january, oh yeah saigon to siam reap, any advice?

Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 54; dbt: 0.062s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb