Ho Chi Minh City - Remnants of War... and Pho!

We've been in Vietnam for two and a half days and David still hadn't had his Pho.  And he was getting grumpy about it.  Too bad he had to follow me through a historical walking tour of Saigon on a muggy morning first.

"Aimed at displaying Christianity and the greatness of the French civilization" (of course), the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica was built back in 1877.

Inside, there were a couple of alcoves that had some very cool engravings.

Outside is the spot of choice for wedding pictures.

Afterward we walked over to the Reunification Palace.  Less of a "palace" than a throwback to awesome 60's architecture, it's the place that at 10:45am on April 30th, 1975, a tank of the North Vietnamese Army bulldozed through the main gate, ending the Vietnam War.  Right here.

It's interior has been left pretty much as it was on that day.  Check out the 60's and 70's decor...

There are also a network of underground bunkers and meeting rooms, but since there was no air-conditioning in the entire place, we pretty much poked our heads in the main rooms and headed back out into the heat of the city.  At least ouside there was a breeze.

Finally, the War Remnants Museum.  Formerly called "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government of South Vietnam", the current name is intended to reflect the normalization of relations with the United States.  And it takes up less room on the side of a building.

Outside, US military aircraft...

David facing the business end of a machine gun.

Those Chinooks are pretty impressive.

The first thing you see when you go inside is an excerpt from the US Declaration of Independence.

Followed by an exhibit about Agent Orange.  Ouch.  I knew Agent Orange was bad stuff, but what I didn't know was that it was originally intended to defoliate rural/forested land, the end goal being to deprive guerrillas of food and cover.  The subsequent Agent-Orange related birth defects that have affected the first, second and even third generations of those who were exposed was a very unfortunate side effect.  I'll spare you pictures of the three-legged fetuses they also have on display.

My favorite was the photography exhibition, where you can see a lot of famous pictures:

Whew.

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After all this in-your-face horribleness, we headed back out into the new, much friendlier version of Ho Chi Minh City.  By cyclo!

We stopped by the tailor to pick up the clothing and see my little friend..

Back on the cyclos... to pho!



Finally.

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And thus ends our whirlwind tour of Saigon.  Tạm biệt!