Vietnam Vacay 2008, Day 2

For our first day in 'Nam, we got up early for our Full-Day Tour of Ho Chi Minh City. We booked this tour through the www.viator.com website (which I highly recommend). Buffalo Tours, the local Vietnamese company hosting the tour, came early. Our guide, Vinh, was meek, but really really nice.

It was nice to see HCMC (formerly Saigon) for the first time in broad daylight. We quickly discovered who the kings of the road are in Vietnam.... The scooters and motorcycles! There weren't really a lot of big vehicles (apart from the tourist buses, taxi cabs, and a few privately owned cars) in the streets. There weren't a lot of a high rise buildings either. The city reminded us of Manila, ten or fifteen years ago. Only cleaner! Haha.

Anyway, first stop on our city tour is the very famous, Reunification Palace . This famous landmark was the home of the President of South Vietnam back in the day. It kinda reminded us of Malacanang Palace, because of some of the opulent rooms.



Tonton and I had fun taking pics with these wall mountings. Hehe.



Here's a view of a busy Saigon street from the topmost floor of the Palace.



Next stop was the Notre Dame Basilica . A very pretty church which resembles the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, minus the scary gargolyes and the intricate carvings on the doorway. This is one of my fave pics this trip. The clouds and the blue sky were a nice backdrop to the bright red bricks which were imported all the way from Marseille in 1877.



A few photos after, we crossed the street to the Saigon Central Post Office. Also quite gothic/French in design! The interior was also quite nice, with phone booths close to the entrance.






Our last stop that morning was the War Remnants Musuem (which is probably my favorite HCMC spot (of those we saw). We didn't exactly need a verbose guide here, as the museum spoke for itself, with pictures, tanks, and war armaments. According to the very dependable Wikipedia, this place used to be called, "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]."



For the next hour or so, we saw the horrors of war. It was a very visual reminder of how much this country (Vietnam) has gone through.







Lunch was up next and I was impressed that the guide took us to this nice Vietnamese resto which was quite European looking. The food they served was just awesome! Salad was good and so were the other dishes. The bros took this chance to sample the local beer. "333", which they say tasted like San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen.



After lunch, we dragged our sleepy and full selves to the Emperor Jade Pagoda. Vinh the guide said that this temple is 200 years old. We lit this spiral incense.





It was Ben Thanh Market after the Pagoda. We were slightly tired, but we had the stored energy for shopping! I heart shopping in BKK, and I found out that in HCMC, the vendors are actually more ruthless! They dragged us into their shops. Haggling is an art form here! Haha. I got a few good deals. Some of which I think I could have done a better job driving the price down. Oh well.

Shopping didn't stop there of course. In the evening (after dinner at Barbecue Garden), Tita Marison and I braved the District 1 Streets in search for the Nigh Market. Which we found, right beside Ben Than.



After shopping, Tita and I walked home. The warm shower I took after a long day of touring was priceless!

Other key things worth mentioning...

Highlands Coffee - Macky recommended this nice local Starbucks of sorts place, which was incidentally, a block away from our hotel. Tita and I had the Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk and it was fab! I noticed that their ice cubes were minature tube ice.

Lovers Lane at the park close by - While walking, Tita and I wanted to pass by safe places, where we likely wouldn't be mugged. So we saw a flock of people from a distance in the park. So we walked, and when we came closer, we saw that these peeps were actually couples on their motorbikes, making out! Literally tens of them lined up on the dark sidewalk. Haha. Course, us singletons cursed under our breaths. Thank you Fate!