Ho Chi Minh - First impressions

Just had my first real walk around Saigon. Things are certainly cleaner and better organised here (I don't mean the traffic - that's exactly the same but more of it as this is a much bigger city) but it's certainly less smelly and considerably more westernised.

You are not hassled half as much for Tuk-tuks or Moto (or Xe Om as they are called here) - or perhaps I am just getting used to it. It seems that most people speak English and if not, French, so it's much easier to be understood. It’s also cheaper here than Cambodia as far as I can tell with my appalling maths, but certainly for food and water so far.

I had a good long walk up to the post office, which is a wholly different experience than back home - i.e. they are efficient and move quicker than snails pace, and pack your item for you (after examining it thoroughly first of course!)

On the way I saw a large impressive building with a big statue of Ho Chi Minh, in front. Lots of people were taking photos of it, but i asked three of them what it was, and none of them knew!!

I saw their version of Notre Dame Cathedral (built by the French colonialists. It's brick though and is lacking any flying buttresses but the resemblance is definitely there!

Then I went to the Reunification Palace. because it was just about to rain and it was only 60p to get in,

However, I didn't really glean much about it as any information was in Vietnamese, but from what I can tell this was the former presidential palace and has been kept exactly the same since the Communist Tanks came bursting though the gates in 1975 and has some really groovy furniture and deco.

That's about it really. Shame it wasn’t really possible to photograph it as you weren’t allowed into any of the rooms you could just look in through doorways with the 40 other people all trying to do the same thing.

Walked back through a perfectly manicured little park in the centre of town. - got time for a bit of a freshen up before I meet all my fellow travellers in our little tour group for a meeting about the trip, and hopefully a bit of a get-to-know-you drinkie or two!