Vietnam: Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City)

Saigon. Back in the big city. Back to crap loads of scooters and non-stop noise. Hanoi actually seemed to quite down around 9 or 10 but that didn't seem to be the case in Saigon. Maybe it was just the area I was staying. Walked around the city the first full day there, visiting the re-unification palace and the war remnants museum. Man, talk about a bummer. Not a fun place to visit. Met up with Tuyet and some of her friends for dinner that night at a cool beer garden place. Also Much better than the war museum. The next day I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of over 250 km of tunnels that the Viet Cong dug over 20 years all by hand. Three different distinct levels going down to about 9 meters or so. Pretty cool and not as depressing as the war museum. Hung out with Tuyet again that evening and we went bowling before meeting up with some other friends of hers, including some of the folk that played in the Bangkok ultimate tournament. More good times. The next morning I grabbed a bus and went to Cambodia. Here are pics from Saigon.

Ahh...Saigon


Went to the Fine Arts Museum and saw some Vietnamese work. War and death seemed to be a common theme.




This guy was in the parking lot outside


Here's Uncle Ho in front of the city hall


Barber shop in Saigon


Little alleyway


scooter parking


Inside the post office. Looks like it used to be a train station.


Palace of re-unification.




The couple of tanks that rolled into the courtyard of the palace in 1975, basically ending the Vietnam war.


This was my favorite room inside


But where's the poker table??? Maybe Bob could build one for them.


Replica of the Huey that took the last few people from the building in 1975.


The president's bedroom in the reinforced concrete basement.


So, the War Remnants Museum. Talk about a bummer. But at least this guy was lucky.


One of many examples of the weapons of war the U.S. used during the conflict.


Yeah, great stuff. In case you can't tell, that's a U.S. Soldier holding up the severed torso of a dead Vietnamese.


Makes you feel warm and fuzzy doesn't it? (That has loads of sarcasm in it)


Some of the many types of bombs used.


Luckily this park was just a block or two from the museum and I was able to chill out there a little while and collect myself.




And then I went to a bar called Seventeen and had a couple of beers. I'm not sure why this menu says what it does in the lower right hand corner. Must be some sort of message.


Here's a model of part of the Cu Chi tunnels. Pretty amazing what they built here.


Some of the tunnels were as small as 24" or so in diameter. You were welcome to give it a shot if you're waist size was less than 34".


One of the many booby traps the Viet Cong employed near the tunnels.


They had a 90 meter stretch of tunnel that we were allowed to crawl through. Pretty tight fit.

Tuyet and I went bowling. Don't my shoes and socks luck stunning?


The bowling alley. Yeah, I ripped it up. Broke 100 twice....sometimes I wish I could swap my golf score and bowling scores.