Ho Chi Minh City

So, being the slacker that I am, it has taken me a week to get around to starting my posts from my vacation. Sorry!!
Ok, so this  year for Christmas, since I was yet again not able to spend it with my loved ones, I decided to go to Vietnam and Cambodia! Such a great decision! Though I probably should have picked just one country since there was so much to see!

So Christmas morning I woke up early to get to the airport. I hate the bus to the airport. It takes 5 hours and it was freezing cold! What is it with Koreans NOT using the heaters properly?!? I finally got to the airport and ran into Blake and Cecile who were on the same flight. The first leg of the flight was to Guangzhou airport, which is probably the worst airport I've ever been to! It was so inefficient. To transfer flights we had to go through Passport Control. So they took our passports and waved  us through to wait. They would take our passports back into this little room to be processed then brought out again to the desks to be processed again. They were done randomly so some people who had gotten waved through early were waiting longer than others. I met a girl who is also a teacher in Korea and we complained and waited together. Go figure Cassie and I were actually the last 2 people waiting for our passports. Luckily, we had plenty of time before our flights left so we were in no hurry. So we went through security and grabbed food at one of the airport cafes that was still open. It was expensive. I only got a pineapple pastry and it was $4. Cassie got an actual meal of noodles and a fruity drink and it was about $20! geeze...So, we spent the rest of the time just walking around the terminal talking, then it was finally time for me to board my flight, leaving Cassie tired and bored until hers left.
Luckily, I slept the whole flight! Got into Vietnam with no problem (despite having left my passport photos at home for the visa application, apparently they don't actually need those?). Since it was so late and I was tired, I wasn't good at bargaining and ended up spending more than I should have on a taxi to the city, oh well. Went to a few overpriced hotels then finally found one for a decent price, though again, probably more expensive than it should have been, but I didnt have the energy or patience to keep going around. I ended up staying at the Hotel Hong Vy 2. It cost me $75 for 2 nights and a bus ticket to Phnom Penh which the hotel booked for me. It was actually a nice place. The room was comfy with a nice bathroom, air con, and a tv. I'm pretty sure the tv had more English channels than i've seen in a long time.
When I woke up Sunday morning, I got to enjoy a lovely breakfast of fried rice and fruit on the roof overlooking the city. It was a spectacular view!

After breakfast I headed to the Unification Palace aka Independence Palace. This was formerly Norodom Palace, then was replaced and became the home of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam war, then was the place where the Vietnam war ended during the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

So I spent some time walking around. Most of the areas are roped off but you can look into the rooms, such as the Banquet room, bedrooms, Cabinet meeting rooms, Conference hall, dining room, gambling room, map room, movie room, private garden, and so many more. My favorite was the library (above). On two of the walls not shown, it had ceiling high glass cases filled with books. The one thing I want in my home when I'm all settled down? A library very similar to this! Enough about libraries...

After walking around the upper floors and the roof, you then head down to the basement where you can see all the war command rooms, map rooms, and telephone rooms.

After visiting all of the rooms, the final thing to see is the movie room where they show (in Vietnamese and English) a movie about the "War of Aggression". The movie spent a lot of time talking about how the Americans should have never gone to war there....yea. Anyway, while I was in there 2 Vietnam guys about my age came into the room and started talking to me. After the movie they continued to practice their English, and were also very curious about what Americans think about the Vietnam war. It was a fairly short, though interesting conversation.

After leaving my new friends, I headed to the War Remnants Museum, previously known as the "Museum of American War Crimes". (You can tell how they feel about the war...)

Here are some of the pictures I took. They aren't very pleasant, but what do you expect from a War Remnants Museum? Read the captions, that's what made the photos so moving.

Outside of the museum they have a walled off area you can go to to see the "Tiger Cages" where prisoners were tortured and killed during the war.

Also...

yea. Before I entered this part of the museum, an American family was about to enter but the mother said to her two sons not to go in, so they stayed outside while the father went in. Smart move on the part of the mother, definitely wouldn't want kids seeing some of this stuff!
Though this is all disturbing, I got a bit of a laugh when I got the shit scared out of me by this next image, it's not that the picture is terribly frightening, but you view it through a small square hole in a door. I was expecting just to see an empty cell, but no...

I immediately jumped back in surprise not expecting to see a dummy in there! Creepy when you're not expecting it!
So, enough about war and torture and on to a more enjoyable trip! After leaving the museum I was walking down the road to find some food and a lost Korean man came up and asked me for directions. We started talking and decided to go to lunch together. We found this nice Vietnamese restaurant where I got chicken and vegetable noodles. yummy!

After lunch we walked to Notre Dame. Yes, there is one in Saigon! However, it wasn't opened when we went.

Then I walked across the street to the impressive Gothic style post office which was built while Saigon was a part of French Indochina. Pretty convenient having the post office as a tourist attraction, you can see it and send post cards at the same time!

After the post office I left my new Korean friend and went by myself to the Ben Thanh market.  A crowded market where you can bargain your way to cheap souvenirs, such as $2 sandals or a $3 bag, just for example haha.

And my last stop in Ho Chi Minh...dinner! You really can't leave Vietnam without eating Pho, so I found a restaurant called Pho 24 and got beef pho soup and a pineapple drink. Shortly after I ambled back to my hotel and got a good night sleep before moving on to Cambodia.

More entries to come soon about the rest of the trip, in the meantime enjoy all the pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/aeihrig/HoChiMinh#