From cold, rainy Hanoi we arrived in warm, sunny Ho Chi Minn City, formerly known as Saigon. We traveled with two other Americans we met while cruising around Halong Bay.
We stayed the first couple of nights at PP Backpackers, which was right in the heart of HCMC. It was quite evident, even with the limited amount of time we spent in Hanoi, that HCMC is more developed and modern.
We stayed in the top room of PP Backpackers and we had it all to ourselves. Above is a photo of the view from our little balcony on the seventh floor.
This was written on one of the walls in our room by, I suspect, a guest that stayed here. The message is a good one for everyone to hear periodically to remember to be respectful and kind at all times.
In the park by our hostel, people were preparing for a flower festival. Beautiful flowers everywhere 🌻
Here is a poster for the Party in Vietnam in a main square in HCMC.
In this square in HCMC, which was only about a fifteen minutes walk from PP Backpackers, we saw some dancers practicing on the stage behind the globe, covered from head to toe to protect their fair complexion.
Next we headed to a market catty corner to the main square with the stage.
All of the Vietnamese candy you could ever want.
Searching for shoes on the streets of Saigon ;)
Jenna was on the look out for lamps throughout our trip and unfortunately was unsuccessful in finding some to buy. These were on display above a restaurant.
We found another park to meander through. It had some beautiful flower beds and some exercise equipment that we tested out.
Sunflowers have taken over the world now! From humble beginnings in North America and 500 years later, you can find them everywhere!
Some refreshments to reenergize and cool us down on a hot January afternoon.
We even made it to one of the biggest, fanciest post offices I have ever seen, which was right next to Vietnam's Notre Dame. Apparently I did not take a photo of it. So if you have been to or seen a photo of Notre Dame de Paris, the cathedral in Vietnam looks essentially the same but is only 3/4 the size of the Parisian cathedral.
The next day we headed to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum.
The Party flag displayed outside of the museum.
The view from the balcony of the museum.
We went to a rooftop restaurant with Emily and Yulia on their last night in Vietnam. It was great traveling with you guys and I am glad you two enjoyed Cambodia :)
We watched the sunrise from a different hostel, Vietnam Inn, just across the park from PP Backpackers. Unfortunately, I took my anti-malarial pills on an empty stomach in anticipation of breakfast, which came later than I expected. I stayed in HCMC for the day, while Jenna headed with Dan's cousin to see the Mekong Delta.
I headed to the War Remnants Museum, which was incredibly crowded with fellow western tourists. I did not take many photos while in the museum but this was by far one of the best museums I went to while on this trip, in spite of quite a bit of propaganda-esque rhetoric used in the names of the exhibits and in the descriptions. The Vietnam War is commonly called the American War in Vietnam but the War Remnants Museum takes it a bit further by referring to it as the American War of Aggression. It compares with the WWII museum Ben, Sonja and I visited in Bonn in 2012. This museum completely drives home the message that war is brutal and that noncombatants are the people that suffer the most, which is especially true in the case of this war because two-thirds of the three million Vietnamese killed during this conflict were civilians.
This museum tracks the beginnings of the conflict between France and Vietnam, continues on to cover the impact of American involvement during the 1970s and the lasting effect that Agent Orange and other forms of chemical warfare still has one both sides.
This table compares WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, revealing that the Vietnam War used more resources than the other two wars combined.
There was a whole section devoted to global protest of American involvement in Vietnam, complete with posters and photographs of rallies.
There is a permanent exhibition that was compiled by photo journalists Tim Page and Horst Faas of photographs taken during the French and American wars of mutilation, torture and massacres. Many of the photographs are violent and difficult to look at let alone imagine the country I was visiting being torn apart by both armies.
Five words for the world to live by.
Ho Chi Minh City by night with motorbikes abounding.
