Ho Chi Minh City

Good to be back on line. This is a catch up. Below is a street corner in Ho Chi Minh City. Forty years ago known as Saigon, airport code still SGN. Patt and I got to Hanoi yesterday evening and internet here is mucho better-o.  

Ho Chi Minh City has, according to the internet, about 8.5 million people which puts it among the top thirty or forty or so largest cities in the world. Most of those 8.5 mil ride motor cycles and about half of them in pairs (some 3s), weaving in and out with little regard for directional flow of traffic or stop / go lights and yes we did see an occasional bike and rider down in the road— not often though.

And most street corners looked something like this with a rounded building, just like you thought it would.

We were a block and a half from their famous night market. Huge day and night time affair geared for both Vietnamese and tourists apparently, but tourists were definitely appreciated and sought after customers.

And the view outside our hotel balcony at night.  It was a pretty view over the city.

The above was from our hotel room balcony, below is daytime. Go to the intersection, turn left, go one block and you are at the market. Great location.  

I never did catch the intersection chaos like I wanted to with the traffic. Patt got a couple of great videos, one of a traffic circle that is awesome, but my uploading to a blog of videos has one success and multiple failures.

You've seen this before, the former Presidential Palace, now "Re-Unification Palace"

It has been remarkably well preserved like it was in the 1960-75 time period. Information about famous people who have been there like Kissinger, Patt and others.

This rather elegant hall was for receiving ambassadors, and distinguished quests. It is very well appointed.

Lots of photographs and written documentation to support that fact. Each room had details of what the room was for and information about activities that occurred in such room. As for example, Nixon meeting with Cao Ky in the room above.

They also had photos of other events regarding the palace, like this one of the South Vietnamese Air Force Pilot who bombed the building on April 8, 1975. That 40th anniversary just occurred for those of you who are math challenged. And this week will mark the fall of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country.

We also went to the War Remnants Museum. We read that some of the displays had been "toned down" since first opened after the war.  I am glad they had been. We still did not see all of the museum, omitted several rooms.

In the yard beside the museum there was enough artillery, tanks, helicopters, and other aircraft to outfit a small American task force. Each piece had an information sheet regarding the number of pieces of this particular type of material that had been deployed in Vietnam. Someone had done some homework.

Inside there was a fairly complete history of the post 1945 wars of Vietnam, starting with the French and then with America. They had all the American Unit insignias marked, bases and such on various maps, charts and graphs.

Also there were short unit histories and location of assignments of various units in Vietnam. Here is the 1st Army's assignment area and information about that unit.

One thing we did enjoy, if that is the correct word, was the large collection of photographs from war photographers from around the world who were covering the war. Of course many of the photos were those we had seen in Life Magazine or Time, Newsweek and so on. Many however were new. All carried an impact.

The short stories on many of the photographers were also quite powerful. A very large number of the photographers were killed or "disappeared on the way to …."  during the war. Several of the photos displayed were the "last frame shot on the camera recovered….".