We had a great time in Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon). We were there during the Lunar New Year (in Vietnam it is called Tết), so during our first couple days a lot of restaurants were closed and we were told that the streets were a lot less busy (which was very surprising because it was SO busy as it was!) The food in Saigon was amazing! At night, many of the buildings have sky lights shining powerful beams into the sky, colorful lights decorating the buildings, and night bars on the buildings’ roofs with loud music playing. My favorite restaurant that we went to was called Bún Bò Nam Bộ Bà Bà which sold beef noodle soup. We ate there four times! All the workers there were so nice! Their faces lit up each time we walked in and the last two times they gave us free drinks! We also went to a museum called War Remnants Museum, which was sad but educational. We learned about the Vietnam War from the communists’ perspectives which was interesting to hear because we were not as familiar with that side. There were some really awful things that happened in the war due to the Americans’ actions. One thing in particular was that the Americans sprayed Agent Orange, a very harmful herbicide/chemical, over the jungles of Vietnam in order to destroy forest cover and food crops used by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The Americans didn’t know (or they didn’t care?) that the exposure to Agent Orange would wind up causing many very serious health problems even among future generations. The museum was interesting but my parents caught some misinformation and said there was a lot of propaganda.
As we were headed to the War Remnants Museum, we wound up getting caught in a scam. We passed a guy carrying some coconuts hanging down from a bamboo stick which was resting on his shoulder. At first he seemed friendly and he pointed us in the direction of a couple museums and asked us where we were from. Then he put the bamboo stick on William’s shoulder and then my shoulder. After that, he got down on his knees and started cutting off the tops of the coconuts and giving them to us to drink. We said no but he kept cutting and giving them to us. We ended up with three in our hands and then he wanted us to pay a ridiculous price for them and mom said NO. We agreed to taking two at what we decided was a fair price and then went on our way. Later, my parents looked it up and it turns out it is a common tourist scam.
We also got to meet up with our friends, the Gouldings, who were with us on the slow boat in Laos. We had realized that we would be in Saigon at the same time and got to have dinner with them again!
We really enjoyed our days in Saigon! Here are some pictures:
If you go to Saigon, watch out for these guys!
Wow Findlay! Neat and difficult stories. I learned a lot from your post! Thank you for writing and for sharing all the pictures and even the little notes below them! Blessings on your family!
Thank you Mrs. Hakkarainen!!
What a city! I have friends who escaped from Vietnam and some of them have returned to visit (and some have not and don’t want to), and they say that things have changed so much for the better in recent years. It’s great that you got to go see some of the history from a different perspective as well.
I imagine it is probably so different… but I think I might also have a hard time returning if I were in their shoes.