INDEPENDENCE PALACE
(Reunification palace)
This is where the North Vietnamese Armt drove a tank through the gates & symbolically ended the war.
The symbolism of this palace was incredible. It was built to reflect Chinese symbols. For example, the building, with the flag above, resembles the Chinese word for leadership. I should've taken a picture of the plaque displaying all the symbolism.
The guide books said this palace was a blast from the past as nothing inside had been changed since 1975.
Maybe so, but I liked how this was a museum not about the war. The descriptions talked about what the rooms were used for & their last uses in a very matter of fact way. It was the most neutral museum we saw in Vietnam. We toured all the stately rooms. I might now be a fan of mustard yellow-it really is versatile.
I enjoyed the presidential quarters-frozen in time complete with toiletries from the 1970s.
Chris and I finally made it on a dance floor. The builder had intended for this space to be for meditation-but one if the presidents turned it into a party room. I like him.
Other "fun" spots included the helipad, game room, library, shooting range, and radio equipment.
We were able to go underground to the bunker. I finally found the HCM trail!!!
And Chris learned how to duck & cover.
I even got to go to work.
As you can tell, we quite enjoyed ourselves at Independence Palace. I think the guidebooks underestimate this place!!
WE'RE SUCKERS
Once on the street, headed to our next museum, we had a local vendor walking alongside us. He gave Chris his load to carry & I snapped some pics.
He then stopped to cut open a coconut for Chris-before we could stop him he opened another-and then wanted $5 for them!!!!!!!
That is 1/4 of our daily food budget. We paid it because we're suckers & then continued to talk all day about the expensive coconut water. He was an excellent salesman & had great tactics. We did notice that while drinking the coconuts every single vendor came up to us. We needed to hurry up & finish our sucker drinks & go back to being regular tourists.
WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM
This was a hard place to be an American. Most everything was our fault and we broke rules of warfare by using agent orange. I'll spare you the photos of the effects of agent orange & of the tiger cages used for torture. Again, my overwhelming sentiment: Vietnam was a war where you never knew friend or foe-that's enough to give anyone PTSD, let alone the sights encountered.
Outside had a wonderful collection of fighter jets & tanks. I recognized many of these from a collection my brother used to have. He knew the differences, I just knew there was one camouflage one-and it was my favorite.
As we've been in Vietnam we have questioned how a Vietnam Vet would feel coming back to the country & seeing the country as a tourist. We were using our selfie stick when an older man offered to take our photo. He immediately asked if either of us were in the service-and when we asked him, he served in Vietnam. He said it was odd to need a visa to enter and aside from not wanting to go North of the DMZ, he was delighted to be in Vietnam. He was a bit hard to understand-otherwise we would have asked him more questions. This is the photo he took for us.
This is a museum that actually closes for lunch (12-1:20). The good news-our tickets were valid all day!! We headed out in the Saigon mid-day heat for some lunch. Given that our budget was incredibly tight due to the coconut water, we had a lunch special for $1.64. No photos as it wasn't worth noting.
We later realized that we did the museum bottom to top when it was designed to go top to bottom. Thus we started with agent orange & our POWs. I didn't take very many photos-as the point of view was hard to stomach at times as well as the atrocities of war. War is ugly.
When I saw these statistics-I wondered how the North won. (Yes, I know how...)
The museum has an exhibit on the photographers of the Vietnam war-both sides. They told the stories of photographers, those who served for years with regiments and those who lost their lives. These were the stories-they inckuded many Pulitzer Prize winners and the collections had photographers from both the North & South. Color photographs had just come out towards the end of the conflict-there was a Life magazine spread. I found a photo of the trenches at Khe San-the same trenches I stood in.
And the hill where Marines landed helicopters. The sights of our DMZ tour became real as we walked through the museum. I was proud to be an American.
I spent a bit of time outside the exhibit rooms-just taking a minute. I wondered what the museum at Pearl Harbor is like or the memorial at Ground Zero. I'd like to think that America honors the sacrifices of those who served as opposed to vilifying the enemy. My memory of Washington, DC was that of honoring those who served & sacrificed, not pointing fingers at the enemy. By the second round of Agent Orange exhibits, I was ready to leave the museum.
We returned to our hostel, our room was ready-air con fixed, so we checked in & cooled down. Saigon is noticeably cooler than other cities, but Chris wants it known that it was in no way pleasant (I thought it was just fine-provided I wasn't in direct sunlight for too long). I can't honestly say if the temperatures were lower or if we've adjusted to constant sweating. But you can tell the focus of our blog posts is no longer on the heat.
I wanted springrolls with fish sause before we left Vietnam. Our hostel recommended a food stand in the alleyway but it wasn't there tonight. Right next door was a restaurant and we had dinner to a cheesy romantic soundtrack which included When a man loves a woman. I should take this opportunity to mention the odd music we've heard in Vietnam. One restaurant in Hue played every single song from Pitch Perfect, even the songs that were remixed together. My memory of Hoi An is going to bed to the Titanic theme song. I danced down the street to lady Gaga's Pokerface in Saigon (yes, I busted out dance moves). They played Celine Dion as we had our last meal in Vietnam together.
In the midst of the busy day of museum-going Chris' sunglasses broke at the hinge. We had to finish off our last evening with a trip to the night market. There was one stall that bad sunglasses-he started at $12, we paid $4.50 and Chris got a free sunglasses case. As we walked back to the hostel on this Saturday night the park was full of families and kids.
A frisbee came was sent over a kids head and I reached out to grab it. Although it bounced out of my hand, the youngster giggled with joy that I tried to even catch his frisbee. Those are the moments of travel that I love, that a camera will never capture.
Good night Vietnam. Early tomorrow morning we are off to Cambodia.
I'll leave you with this photo of a day well spent in Saigon.
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