Tag: Independence Palace

We left Hoi An and drove about 40 minutes to the airport and we took about an hour long flight to get to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Our hotel was a new one that G Adventures just started using and it was in the city but there was no bar, restaurant, pool, gathering place and it was not close to any anything, including restaurants. It was clean though……..We would sit in the tiny lobby in the evenings to have a beer and visit with other people on our tour.

We arrived Thursday morning and were there until Sunday morning. We went to the War Remnants Museum and it was a very sad place. The museum was well done, organized and very informative. It was heartbreaking to read some of the stories and see the photos, especially about Agent Orange and the after affects.

We also stopped at the Old Post Office which was built from 1886-1891 and it’s quite the building. Just to the right of this building is a yellow building where helicopters took people of the rooftop and out of Saigon as Saigon fell. I remember the photos from that time, helicopters landing on the rooftop.

We did a cyclo tour, we sit in a little wagon? and someone pedals us around the city. Clint is on a cyclo in the very first photo on this post. We also went to Independence Palace and saw a few other things on our cyclo tour. There was a tank outside the Palace, it’s one of the ones that rammed the gates during a coup by the North Vietnamese. These tanks were instrumental in These tanks were instrumental in the events of April 30, 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War. 

We also did the Rex Hotel to have drinks on the rooftop; this was the hotel that was a favourite haunt of American officers and where a lot of press briefings were given. (during the Vietnam war). It was a beautiful hotel and the rooftop view was amazing.

This post is getting long so I have decided to write about the Cu Chi Tunnels and Unicorn Island on the next post……….See you then !