January 15, 2017

January 15, 2017

We are on the road early this morning.  Out of the hotel at 6am we transfer to the airport for our flight to Saigon, or now Ho Chi Minh City.  Arriving safely, and too early for our hotel check-in, we board our bus for a visit to the Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine.  This was mostly a snoozer but it does reinforce that Asians are still incredibly into alternative herbal treatments.  The best part of the experience is the nice artwork on the walls and the collection of ancient artifacts.

Afterwards, we head to lunch at the Propaganda Bistro.  The food was excellent and the restaurant was decorated in colorful kitschy war propaganda themed artwork.  Aimee really liked the pomelo salad.

Our next stop was the Reunification Palace.  This is the renamed Presidential Palace of the South Vietnamese government and where the war ended when NVA tanks crashed the gates in April 1975.  We spent an hour touring it.  It felt like we were in a time-warp with all the 60’s decorations.

We then went to the War Remnants Museum.  This place is packed with people making it hard to read anything and do justice to the exhibits.  Formerly called the American War Crimes Museum, it gives the North Vietnamese perspective on the war with photos about Napalm, Agent Orange, massacres, and carpet bombing.  Obviously one-sided, it does a good reinforcing that war is hell and we should have pulled out long before we did.  An army veteran friend explains it with the phrase, “we got in it for all the right reasons and stayed for all the wrong ones.”

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After this sobering experience we did a short walking tour to what is left of some of the old French colonial buildings in this now very modern city.  We started at Notre Dame Cathedral (which looks like the Paris version), then across the street to the Post Office designed by Eiffel, and then on to the Opera House.

After a long day we find our nearby hotel and check in to our high-rise accommodations. Aimee and I and another couple from the trip decide to go up to the rooftop bar on the 31st floor to enjoy the view and have a drink.  Finding it very romantic we stay and have dinner on an open-air balcony.  It feels like we have a private room since we are in a small nook and we are the only guests.  We share a half dozen Spanish Tapas dishes washed down with Saigon beer. Great way to end a long travel day.