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| Downtown Ho Chi Minh City |
Ma Maison is one of the most interesting
hotels that we have ever stayed at. It is a very small boutique hotel, and we
were greeted at the door by a lovely young woman asking us to take off our
shoes. She asked us to take a seat, and Ha, the owner of the hotel came to meet
us. A staff member brought us a glass of
mango juice and passion fruit. What an amazing welcome! As we enjoyed this
lovely refreshment, Ha showed us on a map where to find all the best sights in
the city. He recommended a close restaurant for our supper and then showed us
to our room.
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| Beautiful buildings |
It was short 5 minute walk to the main
street where all the action is, and I mean action! Motorcycle madness in Ho Chi
Minh City makes the scooter scurrying Chinese look slow by comparison! It was
difficult just walking down the sidewalks, because all the vendors have their
wares for sale, and we had to walk in the street just to get by. This is really
taking your life into your hands, because the street is a hive of motorcycles
zooming along. Crossing the street is an experience that I will never forget, as
we just had to say a prayer and dodge in and around all the traffic. We were
great entertainment for a couple of old guys watching us waiting for the
longest time before we finally screwed up enough courage to make a beeline for
the other side. We laughed along with them and hoped that our death defying act
made their day!
Before going to bed, we were asked to put in
our order for breakfast. Both Bryce and I chose an omelet. Yum, a breakfast
that doesn’t consist of noodles and rice!
Our tour of the city was another
breathtaking day. After meeting the travel agent to book our trip to Cambodia
and Ankor Wat, we did a walking tour of the city. There are a never ending
number of beautiful French style buildings built in the 1800s. It is astounding
to see how picturesque the city is, considering the amount of damage that it
suffered during the war.
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| Bryce in City Museum |
The next morning, we spent several hours in
the war remnants museum. This building has three floors, consisting of one
floor chronicling the support that Vietnam had from people and governments all
over the world, including Canada. The second floor has information about the
areas of Vietnam that were under attack, as well as the number of troops
deployed and killed, and the numbers of Vietnamese killed in the war. This was
hard to take, and brought back so many memories. The war went for 30 long
years, from 1945 – 1975, with America getting involved primarily from 1953 –
1975. Although there were regular stories and pictures in the newspaper during
this time, seeing it here in this country made it all so real. The third floor
was the hardest to take. This is where the agent orange room was, with pictures
of all the people, including babies, who suffered as a result of the widespread
spraying of this poison in an effort to defoliate the jungle, and prevent the
Viet Cong from hiding. It is expected that the Vietnamese will feel the effects
to the 2nd and 3rd generation, and many more babies with
congenital birth defects as a result of their parents’ exposure to agent orange
yet to be born. While it is to be expected that the war museum is one sided and
presents all the sins of the Americans and none of those of the Vietnamese, it
is clear that this is a country that has suffered a great deal. As we walk
around this city and see men and women of our age, who would have survived the
war, we have nothing but the utmost respect for such lovely people who so
graciously welcome us to their country.
We enjoyed the City Museum, mostly because
it is a beautiful old building that made us feel like we had returned to
another century. It was built during the French colonial era, and was the
palace of the last President of the republic in the 1960s.
Going from the 19th century to
the 21st, we went up to the 48th floor of the Bitexco Tower.
This building is only two years old, and has the most amazing 360 degree view
of the city. We came home early to pack, because we are up at 5:00 am tomorrow
to catch a plan to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
There are many things that we would do
differently if we did this trip over again. One of them is that we would have
booked our hotels in Hong Kong and in Ho Chi Minh City closer in, as they were
both 20 – 30 minutes away from the city. We used TripAdvisor for all our
hotels, and always went for highly rated hotels, but it is easy to overlook
details such as this! The other thing that we would do is plan for more time in
both places. Maybe next time, we will take 6 months for this trip! No matter
how much time there is, it is never enough!
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| motorcycle madness |
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| view of city from Bitexco Tower |
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| view of city from Bitexco Tower |
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