Saigon

Another great morning in Hot An, we woke up early had breakfast buffet at the hotel. Most of the hotels have pretty interesting breakfast buffets the western portion and the local cuisine portion- which features the noodle soup, fried rice etc . Before we knew it our bus was there and we were back on the bus towards Danang. Our driver on the way to the airport drove past all of these brand new luxury hotels going up in Danang. Apparently this is the new hotspot for tourists and there’s all huge brand names and hotels going up along the beach. This is a huge beach town and apparently the sea is good for swimming all year round but especially in summer from May to August because of the mild waves, and the water temperature. Other activities here are fishing, water-skiing, diving and yachting, there are a ton of golf courses too. Most beaches are easily accessible including the famous beach used by American soldiers as a RR base, My Khe Beach. (China Beach). Da Nang is apparently known among Vietnamese for its speedy real estate and private property development. The beach side, is fully privatized, with major land used for constructing beach resorts and ocean villas. What this mean for tourists is a second-to-none beach holiday in Vietnam – in other words, Da Nang has recently emerged as a luxury destination. Resorts in Danang are listed among the world’s most beautiful, offering private beach, world class service and artistically designed villas and rooms. A few names are Furama Resort, Fusion Maia and Vinpearl Luxury. Many have come and recommended others to follow. Who knew?!
A speedy ride and we were at the Danang international airport quite a small airport but busy nonetheless, we checked in for our flight and were sitting in a departure lounge lickety-split. Vietnam airlines is quite an easy airline to fly with, everything has been really smooth so far. Up in the air for a short one hour flight and we were landing through the fog of Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as most younger people seem to call it. We were greeted by our guide with water bottles in hand and onto the air condition bus because the temperature here is drastically warmer than when we were up in the north or even in central Vietnam. Our first stop on our bus tour of Saigon was the palace known as independence palace or reunification palace and we were only able to have a look at it from the gate- this was the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
Then a quick hop on over to the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon. Established by French colonists who initially named it Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Saïgon, the cathedral was constructed between 1863 and 1880. It has two bell towers, reaching a height of 58 meters (190 feet). Not too much resemblance to the Paris version. Right across the street from this is the Saigon post office which is a beautiful big yellow building. The Central Post Office in Ho Chi Minh was constructed between 1886 and 1891 and once inside, the looping arches, intricately designed marble floors and antiquated telephone boxes all serve as a reminder of the importance the post office played in days before email and mobile phones. Although the architecture is distinctly French, the large portrait of Ho Chi Minh hanging high above everyone at the far end of the building reminds everyone we are definitely in Vietnam. The inside is quite impressive although very very busy we snapped some shots and then were on our way. Walking across the street again we walked up to the opera house- This Saigon Opera House was built in 1898 by the French architect – Eugene Ferret, following the “flamboyant” style of the French Third Republic. It was set to be two meters higher than the street surface with two door layers, in order to prevent traffic noise. Another gorgeous French style building they have a cirque de Soleil type show here called Ao. We thought it would be great to go tonight but turns out there were no tickets available – little bit of a bummer there. Hustling back on the bus and headed to the main market in town – Bến Thành Market this is a large marketplace in central Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam in District 1. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon and an important symbol of Hồ Chí Minh City, popular with tourists seeking local handicrafts, textiles, and souvenirs, as well as local cuisine. We had had quite enough of markets by this time so decided to just stop and have lunch as we were quite hungry. Our guide directed us to Pho 2000 across the road from the market, apparently a famous pho spot where Bill Clinton himself had the famous soup. We slurped up some delicious, uncheap pho and then we were greeted outside by our cyclo guides. It is quite funny to see eight of them lined up waiting for us we’re just quite the spectacle this little tour group of 8 of us. We began a cyclo tour of Saigon nothing much to see but just the general vibe was kind of cool. We ended our tour at the jade Emperor pagoda this is a Taoist pagoda, and still very active. They were a lot of people using the temple, so we felt a little intrusive but it was quite interesting to walk around. There were lots of little alters and rooms where people were making offerings and praying. After this whirlwind tour of Saigon, we were back on the bus and off to our hotel. Our hotel was not bad although unfortunately the girls were on a different floor to us. Every single hotel we stayed at so far has been great the girls have been in a room next to us or with the connecting door. We did a slight refresh in the room. Ceri, Carly and Julia actually took a dip in the pool- the location was a little weird because the pool was in the front of the hotel facing the busy Saigon streets. When we were all freshened up and ready to go we decided to hit the Bitexco Financial Tower the 68 storey skyscraper towering over the city with views of the city. Our hotel made us a reservation so when we got to the Saigon sky deck we were able to go straight up to the 49th floor. Indeed the views are quite impressive – the snake of the Saigon river and the entire city which seems to go on forever and ever. Little bit of smog in the air limited our visibility slightly but still quite an impressed view. We enjoyed some very expensive drinks took in the view and then decided to head out to a brewery nearby called Rogue brewery. Google maps showed it to be a short distance away and we were in the mood for some craft brews. We found the brew pub with no problems and their sky deck was open not a high up as the Bitexco financial tower perhaps – only two stories up. But we got to sit outside and enjoy this warm evening and to some really good American burgers which was quite nice to have. The beer wasn’t bad either. After dinner we took a walk down to the area called the Times Square of Saigon. This is an area that has been closed off and is a walking street with vendors and food and tons of people walking around. We also saw the café apartments which is kind of neat. It’s a group of apartments that have all been turned into little cafés mostly coffee shops. Lots of bright lights and neon, tons of people everywhere really good vibe in this area. At this point we decided to head to McDonald’s to try their ice cream. First time we’ve seen so many commercial brands here in Saigon -most of the other cities had very limited foreign chain stores. But McDonald’s here turns out that they serve all kinds of wonderful treats that we don’t have back home. After an ice cream snack we decided we were just too tired to carry-on, we all hopped into a cab and made our way back to the hotel. We were leaving early the next morning headed for the Mekong Delta that should be fun.