Travel Diary #6: The Charm of Vietnam (Day 2)

To continue my last travel diary in Vietnam, I will be taking you on a City Tour (Ho Chi Minh City Tour). For our second day in Ho Chi Minh, we only had around 7-8 hours to tour the city because we were scheduled to leave for Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the afternoon.

You can read about the first part of our Vietnam trip here.

Pho 2000

To start this off, let me talk about a famous restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Pho 2000. It is a small chain of noodle restaurant that is located right next to Ben Thanh Market. This restaurant is well known for former US President Bill Clinton having a bowl of soup in year 2000. It is said that Pho 2000 is an improved version of a typical Vietnamese soup stall with proper chairs, tables and waitress service. They also have English Menu which is very convenient for tourist. On the wall, there are fading photos and press clippings from the former president's visit.

To be honest, I did not find the bowl of pho soup served here to my liking. It is a little bland for my taste but I've read other people that really enjoyed the soup. So probably, I just have a unique palate.

Ba Thien Hau Temple

We also had this quick stop at Ba Thien Hau Temple. It is a Buddhist temple dedicated to the Chinese sea goddess, Mazu. When we enter through the iron gate, the first thing we saw was this stone incense burners in front of the altar. We also noticed many sculptures, statues, and artworks at small corners of this temple.

Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral

One notable landmark in Ho Chi Minh City is the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral.

Established between 1863 and 1880 by French colonists, the central Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the most famous landmarks in Ho Chi Minh City, thanks to its special architecture, rich spirituality and oozing history. Located in the most crowded district of Saigon ñ District 1, the Cathedral is also in close proximity to Saigon Post Office and Reunification Palace. - Source

^{Back view of the Cathedral}

^{Front view of the Cathedral}

Unfortunately, the Cathedral was close when we were there. We just took few photos outside the church. There is also this small garden in front of the church where a Statue of the Virgin Mary is placed. This is also another popular area for tourist photos.

Saigon Central Post Office

Just close to Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral is the Saigon Central Post Office. The building is one of the country's finest examples of French Colonial Architecture and again another recognisable landmark in the city.

The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the late 19th century. It counts with Gothic, Renaissance and French influences. It was constructed between 1886-1891 and is now a tourist attraction. - Source

The post office is no ordinary place to buy stamps. It feels like you have time travelled to that era, from its ornate furnishings, pattern-tiled floors to its high ceilings. There are also those red phone booths inside which are just the same since the colonial period. I've have never seen a post office as grandiose as this and we did enjoy our time taking photos with the phone booths.

Reunification Palace

Another close by landmark is the Reunification Palace. At this point of our tour, we did not have enough time and energy to go inside the palace since it is massive. Based on our research, you have to a lot at least 1 hour to fully explore the building. Instead, we just roam the grounds of the palace, took some photos and left. It was very unfortunate but we can always go back next time.

War Remnants Museum

My most memorable visit during our day 2 tour is going to the War Remnants Museum.

The War Remnants Museum is located in District 3 which is not that far from where were staying around 10 minutes drive. This museum is currently one of the most popular museums in Vietnam and most visited every year. It is said that it attracts an estimated of half a million visitors every year and about two-thirds of these are foreigners.

Operated by the Vietnamese government, an earlier version of this museum opened on September 4, 1975, as the "Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes". It was located in the former United States Information Agency building. The exhibition was not the first of its kind for the North Vietnamese side, but rather followed a tradition of such exhibitions exposing war crimes, first those of the French and then those of the Americans, who had operated in the country as early as 1954.

In 1990, the name was changed to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression, dropping both "U.S." and "Puppet." In 1995, following the normalization of diplomatic relations with the United States and end of the US embargo a year before, the references to "war crimes" and "aggression" were dropped from the museum's title as well; it became the War Remnants Museum. (Source: WikiPedia)

For only USD 1 for the entrance fee, you are able to access all the themed rooms in several buildings. There is also a brochure that is readily available for you to help guide you navigate the museum. Each room also has a corresponding number that matches the one in the brochure.

Displayed outside of the museum, you can see US armoured vehicles, artillery pieces, bombs and infantry weapons. While inside the building, exhibitions are spread across three floors with each floor showcasing different themes. One of the staff has informed us to start on the 3rd level to better appreciate the exhibits and so we did.

On the third floor also called as Requiem (which means an act or token of remembrance), it is where the photography exhibition shows the work of international correspondents who died in action. You can read each featured photographer's bio and their body of work. Some of the photos are even hard to bear because of how vivid and raw these are.

On the second floor is the Aggression War Crimes, it has some of the images from the war, one of which is the "Napalm Girl" (a soldier holding a gun to a man's head). Also found on the same floor is an exhibition of a chemical weapon called "Agent Orange" that was used during the war and the horrific effects to both exposed Americans and Vietnamese troops and families. To read more about this, here is a link for more information. I was speechless while looking at the graphic images I saw on this floor. Both my travel buddy, Katrina and I left the exhibit with a heavy heart and in deep thoughts.

The ground floor of the museum is devoted to a collection of posters and photographs showing support for the antiwar movement internationally. This somewhat "bright" display provides a good balance to the unflinching and disturbing graphical images they have on the upper levels. It was a good idea that we started on the 3rd level since the exhibit on the ground floor helped lessen the heartbreaking images we saw before that.

In my opinion, visiting the War Remnants Museum is definitely worth while. I believe this is where every visitor will realise the horrors of war and why it is important to ensure that this should not be allowed to happen again.

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This concludes my Ho Chi Minh travel diary. For my next travel blog, I will be talking about our trip in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Thank you for reading.

See you on the next one,
Wincee