Ho Chi Minh March 2012
Late last month, I was able to take some time off work to go visit Vietnam and Cambodia. I haven’t been to these places before but I’ve always been very interested in them for a long time now.
Ho Chi Minh was an absolutely wonderful place to be in! All the restaurants I tried all served the tastiest food, and it was also fairly easy to go to around the city since a lot of people understand and speak English. Everything was very tourist-friendly, and one could easily feel how immensely proud they are of their own culture and history just by the way they casually describe the must-see places in their country. It’s really inspiring!
I’ll be blogging about Cambodia some other time, but here are my Vietnam pictures for now. :)
The view from my hotel room.
In front of Saigon Opera House is a park where people gather and pretty much cool themselves off on hot summer days.
Near the Opera House is this Louis Vuitton store that looks beautiful at night.
The Saigon Opera House or Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theater. Definitely one of the city’s iconic landmarks. The French initially built this building to host their opera shows, but now the Vietnamese locals get to showcase traditional and musical talent here.
Saigon at night. I had such a delightful time taking pictures in a buffet cruise ship on the first night I was there.
City of motorcycles. It’s amazing how they can totally dominate a whole road or a whole lane during certain parts of the day.
Giant langka!
At the Cu Chi Tunnels War Memorial Park, people can try going into some of these camouflaged hideouts that the Vietnamese used during the war against Americans.
Random photo of myself in the middle of the park. It was about 37 C that day so I took a break after walking quite a long distance! And that was when this photo was taken.
An example of one of the many entrances to a series of underground tunnels.
Sandals made out of old tires.
Just because! Normally insects freak me out, but this one looked as if it were waiting for me to take a photo of it.
Some of the tunnel entrances are free for tourists to try! There are many entrances and exits depending on your preferred distance. Some give up after 5 minutes, while some enjoy the thrill of going through these little spaces that were a huge part of Vietnamese history. During the war, there were even babies who were born in these tunnels because their parents couldn’t go out in the sun in fear of getting bombed or killed.
Had lunch at this beautiful place! They had wifi too, haha.
One of the temples I went to!
Office ladies praying.
In front of the war remnants museum were these giant tanks. Wasn’t able to take pictures but there were helicopters and other other aircrafts too!
Example of the things you can see in this museum. Skipped posting some of the more iconic war photos since I’d rather encourage everyone to see the prints for yourself! My photos of the photos don’t really do any justice, really!
My experience in this museum was very much like my experience last December at Nagasaki’s own atomic bomb museum. War photos break my heart every single time. Doesn’t really matter about the location since the involved parties ended up victims all the same.
While the contents of this museum might seem like propaganda against their aggressors, they really aren’t. They’re presented like this to remind everyone that war should never happen again.
After all the depressing stuff in the museum, I took pictures of random people outside the bus window. They actually try to pair their helmets and face masks with their clothes or their motorcycles.
Confirmed. It’s possible to ride the motorcycle in heels.
…and a sexy, revealing top!
The pretty Saigon Central Post Office that was built by the French during the early 20th century.
Inside. On the ground floor are some shops that sell tourist-y things.
The Saigon Notre-Dame basilica, situated right across the post office.
Lights at Marina Seafood restaurant. One of the best places I was able to go to for dinner! Must try: fire coconut prawns.
I figured I should post this even if it’s quite useless since mirror-camwhoring shots have started to become a staple in almost all my travel entries!
The reunification palace where the President stayed during the Vietnam War.
Vintage telephones! I’d love a pink one in my room!
Ending this post with some yummy photos of food. I can’t explain enough how surprisingly good Vietnamese cuisine is. I used to just overlook them before, but once I got to taste authentic Vietnamese cooking, I feel like I could live eating these kinds of food often.
More travel photos from Cambodia coming soon! I’ll just have to sort and post-process all the glorious temple photos first, as soon as I come home from Paris. Prepare yourselves for *the* Angkor Wat and a lot of places that can remind you of Temple Run!
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