We actually arrived in Saigon on May 20 but only stayed one night before we headed to Can Tho. I'm combining our Ho Chi Minh City activities from May 20 and May 23-25 in one post.
When we read about Ho Chi Minh City, it was described as super chaotic with tons of motorbikes. This should be the description for most of the cities in Vietnam but Saigon was supposed to be the worst. We saw a lot of traffic and crazy moves but we didn't think it was worse than Ha Noi.
 |
| Just look at this traffic |
 |
| Everywhere, really |
 |
| After checking into our hotel, we headed for a walk |
 |
| And we found the only Starbucks in Vietnam... |
 |
| A nice one! |
 |
| Everyone loves their Starbucks! |
 |
| Then we walked through a park |
 |
| It was nice except my face was melting |
 |
| Paul played the Vietnamese version of hackie sack with these guys |
 |
| We also walked by the Ben Thanh Market and the statue of Tran Nguyen Han |
 |
| Later that night we had dinner on the 23rd floor of the Sheraton for this spectacular view |
Upon our return from Can Tho, we noticed how dirty the Saigon River was.
After recovering from our Can Tho trip, we took a day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels on May 25.
 |
| We opted for a boat ride along the Saigon River instead of a car |
 |
| It took about the same time but we were spared constant honking and bad driving |
 |
| Our guide, Tree, gave a quick explanation of how far the tunnels went - about 250km of tunnels! |
 |
| We saw some trap doors |
 |
| Here's a different angle of the same trap door |
 |
| Can you see where the door is? |
 |
| Peek a boo |
 |
| I got to give it a try too |
 |
| And with my weak upper body, almost got stuck |
 |
| More tunnels |
 |
| Air holes were needed for the tunnel system - the VC disguised them as ant hills |
 |
| Paul checking out the tank |
 |
| Anyone home? |
 |
| These are just a few examples of the different booby traps used by the VC |
 |
| This mural shows how the soldiers may have reacted to the booby traps |
 |
| Here is another hidden tunnel entrance about the width of Paul's foot |
 |
| Then we got to shoot some guns |
 |
| Paul shot a M60 - boy, were they loud! |
 |
| I was excited to shoot a M16 |
 |
| I don't think I hit any of the targets |
 |
| Paul tried the M16 too |
 |
| Another tunnel entrance |
 |
| Villagers also made rubber shoes with old tires of the jeeps |
 |
| B52 Bomb Crater |
 |
| Here's the entrance to one of the tunnels - I went in but Paul stayed back |
 |
| This was a kitchen |
 |
| Here are all the different types of bombs that were used |
 |
| Then we headed back to Saigon |
Once back to Saigon, we walked around a bit more to see some other notable landmarks.
 |
| One being this stupid looking penguin trash can |
 |
| That Paul had to punch |
 |
| Which made the penguin puke |
 |
| We then walked by the Opera House |
 |
| We walked through Lam Son Park with interesting propaganda displays |
 |
| I liked this photo of Uncle Ho with the people |
 |
| The next park had a statue of Uncle Ho |
 |
| Uncle Ho statue sits in front of the People's Committee Building |
 |
| We then wandered to the Notre Dame Cathedral |
 |
| St. Mary statue in front of Notre Dame Cathedral |
 |
| The time was 2:55pm |
 |
| All the stained glass was destroyed in the war |
 |
| The Central Post Office designed by Gustav Eiffel was built between 1886-1891 |
 |
| It was 2:59pm |
 |
| Uncle Ho looks at his people inside the post office - it was 3:00pm |
 |
| A side view of Notre Dame Cathedral |
After an exciting day, we rested so that we could be ready for our night out on the town. We had heard that the discotheques were all the rage here in Saigon so, we got our jeans on (boy was it hot to wear jeans), cleaned up a little, and headed out for a nice Italian dinner and some dancing.
 |
| In the elevator headed to dinner - without the chick behind us |
 |
| We had pretty good Italian at Pomodoro |
 |
| We heard that Lush was the place to be |
 |
| We may have gotten there a little too early... |
 |
| We felt like we were in the fortress of solitude...we left after 1 drink |
We then headed to Apocalypse Now, an iconic club of Saigon...which was conveniently located right next to our hotel.
 |
| This guy (alone) bought this huge bottle of Belvedere vodka... |
 |
| ...Faux Sho! |
We were back in our hotel room before 10:30pm. I think we were supposed to start going out at 10:30pm...oh well! We're not the young whippersnappers we used to be.
