Impressions of Saigon - Vietnam

Impressions of Saigon – Vietnam

During the division of Vietnam, Hanoi was the capital of the North, and Saigon the capital of the South. Saigon fell to the North in 1975 and was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after the founding father of Vietnamese independence who did not live to see his country reunited.

Ho Chi Minh is watching you! - Saigon, Vietnam

I’m still going to refer to the city as Saigon. Pretty much everyone in Vietnam does, expect in official communications and documentation.

We reached Saigon by leapfrogging the lower half of the country by aeroplane from Da Nang. The flight took about an hour. Saigon was to be my departure city from Vietnam.

Not even close to Rush Hour - Saigon, Vietnam

Compared to Hanoi, Saigon makes you feel as though you’ve hopped on a time machine for a jaunt twenty years into the future. The tallest Hanoi buildings appear to be as high as the average building in Saigon. Mopeds dominate less: there are a lot more cars in the mix. Big label brands are everywhere, as are iShops (selling Apple products).

A lot of our time was spent outside Saigon at the Mekong Delta and the Chu Chi Tunnels, with some sightseeing in Saigon in between. I’ll post about the two excursions later on.

We took a walk around the city – another surprise: people actually responded to traffic lights as if they were there and meant something. I say “responded”, because that would be more accurate than saying “obey”.

Remembrance Wall at Notre Dame - Saigon, Vietnam

The walk took us past the current seat of government power, and via the grandiosely-named Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. the building itself isn’t particularly impressive, and you can have a look at the photo of it on the Wikipedia link, but inside it was interesting to see the French influences, the French memorials and also to hear a church service being held in Vietnamese.

Main Post Office - Saigon, Vietnam

From the Basilica, we walked to the Central Post Office. The Post Office was built in the early 20th Century and was still going strong. I came back here later to send home some propaganda poster reprints, and despite my non-existent Vietnamese, was able to ship them safely. I had asked for a container to ship the posters in so that they would not bend, and was pointed in the direction of a young woman sitting on a short plastic seat. I tried to mime the shape of a tube, but the woman took the rolled-up posters, measured them with a perfunctory flick of a ruler, and went to fetch an enormous sheet of cardboard. This cardboard was big enough to box a washing machine, but proved no problem for her. She slapped it on the ground, whipped out a box cutter, and made 8 or nine quick slashes at the card. The posters were wrapped in a perfect custom-fit box within seconds, and for pennies. In the UK, we’d just buy an expensive poster tube to ship them, and I think we’re poorer in many ways for that.

Reunification Palace and tank - Saigon, Vietnam

Well, I digress, we carried on to the Reunification Palace, once home and workplace  of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was here that the war ended on April 30th, 1975, when a North Vietnamese tank rolled over its gates.

"Minigun", War Museum - Saigon, Vietnam

On the subject of the war, some of us later visited the War Remnants Museum. It has gone through a few name changes over time, in the following order:

  • The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government.
  • Museum of American War Crimes
  • War Crimes Museum
  • War Remnants Museum (after the normalisation of relations with the USA)

The museum sits in a garden filled with American tanks, troop carriers, aeroplanes and (inactive) bombs. Inside the museum are several galleries depicting the atrocities of war, the effects of Agent Orange, and other historical curios.

The galleries are truly horrendous and distressing, especially the Agent Orange gallery, which shows the consequences of DNA damage inflicted by the defoliant for the generations. All in all, its pretty arduous viewing, which is why I chose only to feature a picture of a Minigun from the door of a Huey helicopter in the garden of the museum.

The name might have changed to drop the words “war crimes”, but the finger is still pointed squarely at the USA for war crimes and atrocities, whilst making no admission of guilt on the side of the NVA or Viet Cong. It is a perfect example of the victor writing history.

Hammer and Sickle banner at a bus stop - Saigon, Vietnam

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...