After spending sometime in Cambodia, we came to SaiGon. The bus journeys in South East Asia are extremely comfortable and pretty easy to book too.
We crossed the massive Mekong River on the route.
Once we arrived in Saigon the first thing we did was have Vietnamese coffee. They do all sorts of coffees; egg, coconut, fruity, milk, non-milk, condensed milk, etc etc; plus hot & cold of each flavour. Phew! The problem always is - what to choose and "will I like it"? I had pineapple coffee & Trupti had egg coffee! Each to their own, but that didn't bring a revolution to my taste buds.
When in Vietnam, we had to have Pho.
Note: Just be aware that if you want vegetarian Pho, do ask for a vegetarian broth, or else you will get beef broth.
Location: District 1: Ben Nigh Street Food
And a Banh Mi! The origin of Banh Mi is when the French brought their baguettes with them as part of the colonisation and the Vietnamese adopted the baguette to create the Banh Mi! We loved it so much we ended up going here few times.
However, the best way to experience Vietnamese food, is on the pavements. They cook it in front of you and then serve it warm & fresh. And, almost every time it is 1/2 the price.
Most shops do have fresh flowers on the counters. England sometimes feels very bland compared to how many colours, sites and sounds we see across the South East of Asia.
We also ate a few times at this outdoor night market in District 1.
We did get hooked on to Grass Jelley Tea and kind of became our lunch thing!
ShuYi is a Chinese company that makes excellent grass jelly tea with nuts and raisins and milk, it was delicious.
We visited the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. It's pretty underwhelming I would say.
The War Remnants Museum is a must see museum in Saigon. The below picture shows the involvement of various US Combat Units during the Vietnam war.
The photos in the museum showcase the difficult times the country had in the 1950s-1970s. A lot of us know about the Vietnamese history, however the museum also shows the protests done in the US during the invasion of the US troops to Vietnam.
A lot of university students protested during the war and especially the women of the US were very vocal.
The below poster stood out for me.
Dr King also protested against the war.
We took some customary photos with some old planes reminiscing about the difficult times Vietnam has seen, and how it is now standing on it's feet moving forward.
While walking back, we encountered half-showers. There was no rain where we were standing and it was pouring down 5 meters from us. UNBELIEVABLE!
While walking on the streets of Saigon, we saw this couple playing badminton with their feet. It's called Da Cau, and is pretty popular here.
Saigon Central post office is also pretty picturesque. From the outside...
...and the inside.
They had old calling booths, like the BT Phone Boxes.
We also visited the books lane near the post office, but were disappointed. Most of the books were in Vietnamese, that's fine; but many people came there just for photos. I liked few books however ended up realising that "I need to learn Vietnamese first"! Worth the visit and look at the youngsters taking 100s of photos.
The Independence Palace of Saigon was also the Presidential Palace. It's a 1960s modern design surrounded by expansive gardens.
The rooms inside were lovely.
...and the offices were empty. Not sure where was the boss?
The views from the top were lovely.
The helicopter was ready for the ride, but someone misplaced the keys! Ah pants!
The palace also has a set of tunnels allowing the safe passage incase something untoward happens, like "A Revolution or two"!
The Saigon City Hall is a very old European style building. We loved the architecture and it reminded us of Parisian or London streets during the spring season!
And there was the statue of Ho Chi Minh, the father of modern Vietnam. While growing up, we did have streets in India that were named after him. I remember one in Calcutta: Ho Chi Minh Sarani. The Bengalis named it that, because there is the Consulate of USA on that street. 😜
We celebrated the new years with Lam and Hieu. We met them in Agra, when they & we were visiting the Taj Mahal.
And it was also Trupti's birthday. The day when everyone celebrates & parties with her!
Fireworks near the Saigon River.
We were quite surprised to see the Vietnamese dressing up and dancing to the camera. Apparently this is a cultural thing and people spend a lot of money to get their photos clicked. We saw this everywhere in Saigon.
The Opera House is another stunning European looking building.
We also strolled along the Saigon River. Across South East Asia, the rivers play an important part of where the cities are located. Most cities we have been to, are located along these massive and important rivers.
Within the city there were a lot of secret weapons bunkers and people would build this to support the north Vietnamese army. A bunker in District 3 with the underground tunnel is still available for people to visit. Go to the one Trupti is pointing at, not the one behind her.
..and off she went to see how big or small it was.
When it was found, the South Vietnamese army attacked the bunker. We can still see the bullet marks on the gate.
The owner of the house created a foldable table and hid the guns and ammunition inside the table.
We were very impressed with Saigon and it's development. Vietnam seems to be moving in the right direction and will very soon become a middle income country. Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City) has lots of things working well. As long as they can keep the progress going, there is no one stopping them.
We stayed in District 4 and this footer the river bridge was a daily walking commute into District 1. The video below shows the skyscrapers that have come up in and around the central city.
They are now building multiple bridges over the river to connect all the major districts with each other.
HCMC Metro started on 22nd of December and was free for the whole month.
A lot of people were disappointed that the metro took so long to build. Apparently it took 8 years to build the 18kms of metro, but a lot of people were extremely happy that there are plans to build 6-7 new metro lines.
We had a lovely time in Saigon and would love to visit it again sometime in the future.
