Blog 12 - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We left Sihanouk Ville via the night bus and headed to Vietnam, first stop Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived at about 10am, the boarder crossing was very easy and the journey straight forward. It took about 13 hours as we changed buses in Phnom Penh.

We found a hotel in trip advisor but were not sure of our location when we got off the bus so we jumped in a taxi. It cost $2 to be taken around the block, the hotel was literally through the alley way if we had walked! We were staying in District 1 which is where most travellers stay. There are lots of restaurants, bars, shops etc... We booked on a city tour for the following day for $7 to see most of the major sites- war museum, the reunification palace, the Notre Dame (replica of course), Chinese market etc...

The war museum painted a very sad story of the war displaying lots of pictures of people injured/killed including children born with deformities as their mothers were infected by the agent orange chemicals the Americans plastered Vietnam with. I appreciate that this is only one side of the story but it is hard not to be affected by it.

After the museum, we visited a Chinese temple. As it has just been the Chinese new year the temple has a special ceremony for new year wishes which Simon and I take part in. We basically wrote all of our hopes and wishes for 2011 on a special piece of paper that was attached to a coil, set alight and hung in the temple. It burns for 1 week whilst people prey for your wishes.

We then visited Reunification palace where the 4 presidents of Vietnam lived. The place was completely destroyed once and rebuilt to then be bombed again but at least 80% still remains. The palace is no longer used for state business today. It is ok but very modern for a palace, the president even had his own gambling room and night club. After a few more sights, we finished around 5pm.

We learned some interesting trivia from the guide along the way e.g Vietnamese words have several meanings. The word for rice can also mean wife if used in the correct context. The word for noodle can also mean girlfriend. The guide said that this may be because you have rice every day but noodles on special occasions e.g many people have both wives and girlfirends, you may even have several girlfriends if you have several motorbikes!