Vietnam - Saigon

Leaving Hoi An we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) around the middle of the day after a one hour flight. The locals still call it Saigon and the baggage labels still carry the SAG code. I will opt to use the names the locals give to the city.

It was New Years Day ( First day of the TET calendar) when we arrived and the opening of the New Year Festival. Two of the main streets were closed off with all sorts of displays and entertainment providing plenty to see. The locals were out in their tens of thousands, mostly dressed up in their traditional clothes for photos.



Dragon in the main street, Nguyen Hue.

These girls were only too pleased to have their photos taken.

The floral displays down Nguyen Hue stretched around 1.5 km down to the river and contained all sorts of arrangements. A couple of photos here to give you an idea. Wheel-barrows, butterflies and dragonflies being easily recognisable  arrangements. There were many orchids too but I wasn't pleased with any of my photos.

The balloon lady

Returning to our hotel one day we came across this young lad who was putting on a show for everyone. He had obviously done this before.



Drummer boy

This statue of Uncle Ho was very popular and I had to cut out the throngs lining up to have their photos. I'm not too keen on photographs full of posers!



Uncle Ho

The central square in Saigon has the Catholic Cathedral and the post office across the street.



Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon

The Saigon Post Office is a remnant from French colonial days. It is very worthwhile going in there and posting something. Post cards sent from here take around 3 weeks to get to their destination. Also a good place to post gifts to lighten the baggage load on the way home. We posted boxes, which you buy and get help to pack and seal, which again took around 3 weeks to get to New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. We spent nearly an hour doing this.



Saigon Post Office



Saigon Opera House

Outside our hotel one afternoon we found a street theatre group warming up for a performance later on in the festival

Keen spectator - one of the family

There are good day trips to be had from Saigon.  These are easily arranged at the hotel and are quite cheap. We went on a trip out to the Mekong Delta and a boat trip from My Tho. Not sure if I would put it on a "must do" list though. The War Remnants Museum in Saigon is a must see though.

We enjoyed a day trip out to Tay Ninh to visit the Cao Temple. The devotees pray 6 times a day with midday being the one where everyone dresses for the occasion - a tourist spectacle as well which we arrived in time to see.

Cao Dai Temple

The interior of the temple is very richly decorated as this photo shows.

Prayer time

Deep in meditation

On the way back to Saigon after lunch we stopped off at the tunnels at Cu Chi. There was an extensive network of around 250km of tunnels used by the Viet Cong. The entrances to the tunnels were designed small so that larger Americans could not fit in!

Tunnel entrance disguised under a layer of leaves would be difficult to find.



The man disappeared down the tunnel and was gone in a few seconds.

Tunnel entrance

The Vietcong kept their tunnel entrance small. This was to make access by larger American troops more difficult.

Inside the tunnel

One part of the tunnel system of around 100m is still open and one can get through with some difficulty. There are emergency escapes for those who get claustrophobic. There was even an entrance into the waters of the Mekong which was not easy to find as it was underwater for most of the time.

Jungle warfare in the 1960s and 70s was full of booby traps with bamboo traps and many other horrible examples on display as well. A big exhibit of different kinds of booby traps made me feel too sick to photo so the man trap will have to do here.

Bamboo spears for  unwary GIs

Underground kitchens had an ingenious system of ducting the smoke away and dispersing it so that there was little sign of the fires from aerial observers. Helps keep the B52s at bay!

Underground kitchen

Kitchen chimney

An ingenious system of pipes was used to disperse smoke from the kitchens away from it. The idea was that if smoke was spotted from the air, bombs dropped would miss the actual target.

The Viet Cong made use of bomb casings, shrapnel and downed planes after the B52s and helicopters had paid them a visit. Underground weapons factories in the tunnels supplied the materials for booby traps etc.

Working model in the weapons factory exhibit.

Back in Saigon that night it was pizzas for dinner at the Italian restaurant on Le Loi Street. The "best pizzas outside Italy" could possibly be true.

Next day it was time to check out and get the bus for Phnom Penh.