Weekend in Ho Chi Minh

Because of Chinese New Year there was a 2 day public holiday followed by the weekend so 4 days off. We had been told that most Singaporean families spend this time visiting family and friends, many shops are closed and to put it rather bluntly Singapore would be 'dead'.
 So it seemed a good opportunity to go away and visit somewhere different. After lots of research and frustration (as I discovered that lots of flights and hotels were either fully booked or over priced because of CNY) I found a good deal in Ho Chi Minh, Saigon.

On arriving we went for a walk and found a park that was hosting a huge Spring festival in celebration of Tet Nguyen Dan or Tet for short-the Vietnamese Lunar New Year!
The park was full of floral displays, bonsai, caged birds, fish in tanks and lots more.

                   

Neil choosing a rock, possibly a good 'pet' for apartment living...
 certainly less care required than with bonsais.

 Many people were 'dressed up' and some were in traditional Vietnamese clothing, particularly the children.

Later in the evening there was a lion dance, children were lifted up to 'feed' the lion with bank notes.


 One display was of mushrooms that were reported to help with health and in particular immunity.


















Preparing the mushrooms for packaging.
The tea made from boiling up the dried mushrooms tasted pretty horrible!

The hotel's Tet celebration floral display

The following morning with our guide ;Tham, we drove out of the city to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. This huge network of tunnels had been developed by the Viet Cong soldiers in their fight against American forces from 1968-1973.

     There were rather gruesome examples of the man traps that were set to catch unwary American soldiers

Captured US tanks.

Also unexploded US bombs, the Viet Cong defused these and used the explosives to make their own bombs

                                                                                             We were invited to go into one of the secret tunnel entrances to show just how concealed they are when the cover is replaced

Then we went down into a small part of the tunnel network. These tunnels have been enlarged to allow tourists to fit in, we could only imagine how much more cramped they must have been previously when used for hiding in, as communication and supply routes and for living in during the war

 Once out we were given pandan tea and boiled sago which you dipped into the crushed peanut, sugar and salt dip-both were interesting but not really to my taste.

 We drove back to Saigon (as we were now calling it as all the locals still do) and after lunch went to the Reunification Palace. This was built in the 1960's as South Vietnam's Presidential Palace. It has been left just as it looked on the 30th April 1975 when the communist tanks crashed through the main gates and Saigon surrendered to the North.

In spite of it's austere facade the concrete screen filtered the sunlight rather beautifully inside

Mahjong set

There was always a helicopter ready for the President's use 

 Next stop Notre Dame Cathedral, this was established by French colonists in the late 1800s, all materials were imported from France 

 Tham and I outside the Cathedral

                                  Next stop the main post office, designed by Gustave Eiffel

Inside are the phone booths used back in the day when people had to go to a post office to make a phone call

 Our last stop for the day was the War Remnants Museum, previously known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. Many of the atrocities are documented here from a communist view with graphic photographs of the horrors of war and it's aftermath. The separate display about the use and effects of chemical warfare in particular Agent-Orange was particularly sobering.
I only photographed the outside area which had many captured US army machines

We felt pretty exhausted after our first days sightseeing but after a lovely massage at the hotel ventured out for supper.

  We had been recommended to eat on a particular street renowned for it's street food stalls but due to it being Tet these were closed. However we found a lovely restaurant called Nha Nang Ngon and enjoyed a delicious Vietnamese meal along with a beer or two, just what we needed after a long but very interesting day.