One Full Day and a Morning in Saigon

Due to the fact that seeing the floating markets turned into a two day excursion, we were left with only one full day and a morning to see the city and sites therein of Saigon. To get the most out of our day, we woke early and went to visit the War Remnants Museum (Sven met us there). This museum is heavily propagandized against America and shows many of the atrocities committed by the US during the Vietnam War; including the My Lai massacre and the affects of Agent Orange.

Most of the exhibits are comprised of amazing, yet oft time heartbreaking photographs taken during the war. The first floor contained sections on the anti-war protests, rallies, and papers all created to get the US to leave the Vietnamese alone. The photos and stories came from around the world and many US military personnel themselves. The second floor focused on the My Lai massacre and the affects of Agent Orange, which are still being felt today, generations later. The third floor was dedicated to the courageous photo-journalists of the time; many of whom lost their own lives trying to bring to light the real cost of the war.

After visiting the museum, I felt ashamed to be an American. First coming from Cambodia and learning that my country supported the Khmer Rouge and the genocide committed there and then seeing that around the same time our soldiers were committing similar acts in Vietnam. All this because of a fear of Communism and someone high in the government willing to trade human lives for more power and money.

Wanting something a little more light hearted after the museum and before visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels in the afternoon, the three of us headed to Ben Thanh Market. This is the largest marketplace in the city and a big tourist attraction. Like many of the other central markets in this part of the world, most anything and everything can be found here. There are clothes, fresh fruits and meats, restaurants, electronics, and souvenirs galore. Just know that with the flocks of tourist that visit everyday, the locals here are a bit more aggressive with their selling and a lot more inflated with their prices. Bring your best haggling skills as the true cost of most items is about 50% of what you’re initially quoted.

We had a quick lunch of chicken pho in the center of the market, said goodbye to Sven (he had to go meet another friend) and headed out for our tour to see the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are an immense network of connecting tunnels located in the Cu Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City (but about an hour and a half drive outside the city center), and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong’s base of operations for the Tet Offense in 1968.

The tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches, and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces during the war.

Of the 75 miles of tunnels preserved by the Vietnamese government, small swatches are now available for tourists to wander through. Additionally, dioramas of how some of the bigger underground rooms looked where created and our guide told us a bit about why the tunnels were so hard to find, how they were booby trapped, and what creative ways the Viet Cong used to keep themselves undetected and safe. 

The tour was once again a little heavy handed on showing the American as the perpetrators and our guide was constantly framing his speeches to put the Americans in the worse light ever. He was trying to imply that the Viet Cong living in the tunnels were hapless villagers just trying to stay safe and the Americans were war criminals, attempting to hunt them to extinction. I understand there are always two sides to a story and that in this war the Americans weren’t good people, but I think as a tour leader, you should try to be a little less biased in your dissemination of information.

A Morning on the Back of a Motorbike

To maximize what we could see and do on our last morning in Saigon, we booked a private sightseeing and foodie motorbike tour with the Saigon Motorbike Tours company. At 7am we met our guides/drivers, Steven and Andy, outside our hotel. We buckled our helmets and took off into the chaos of morning traffic for four hours of exploration. 

Sitting on the motorbike turned out to be pretty intuitive and before long we were like everyone else in the city; balanced properly so that we could ride without a death grip on the bike and immune to the fact that there were other motorbikes and cars weaving in and out of the crowds just inches away from us.

Since we left so early in the morning, we were also able to visit a few of the more touristy locations before the rest of the tourists woke up. It was just us and the locals and the peaceful morning. Our tour took us to visit the Central Post Office (designed by a guy named Alfred Foulhoux, but often times erroneously credited as being the work of Gustavo Eiffel, of Parisian fame), the Saigon Norte Dame Cathedral (across the street from the museum) ( the largest Catholic Church in the country and created completely from materials imported from France), past the Reunification Palace (we didn’t stop or go in) (this was the home of the Southern Vietnam president during the Vietnam War and the site of the end of the War with the Fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975), to visit the flower market and the oldest apartment complex in the city (built by the Americans in 1968 and one of the most expensive places to live per size...about 70 square ft for $500 a month when the average apartment that size is normally $100/month; but people will pay for the location and status that comes from living there), to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda (a gorgeous Chinese inspired Taoist pagoda), and through Chinatown (which is so big that it encompasses three of the twenty-four districts in Ho Chi Minh City).

Along the route, Steven and Andy told us a little bit about the histories of the various places and we stopped in a few spots to grab local delicacies. We grabbed a chicken Banh Mi (they do exist) (traditional sandwich comprised of a baguette filled with meat, pickled carrots and radishes, peppers, sauce, and cilantro), some sticky rice and banana smothered in coconut milk sauce, drank coffee at the oldest coffee shop in the city (Cheoleo) (where we got a demonstration on how the coffee was made), and finished with a shrimp pancake (like a crepe but with a crunchy outside and filled with egg, bean sprouts, shrimp, and mung beans; all wrapped in lettuce, basil, and mint, and dipped in spicy fish sauce).

The motorbike tour was a great way to see a lot of the sites within the central part of Saigon, visit less touristy areas, and try traditional foods. Since it was a private tour, it was also customizable to a degree and our guides were aware of our dietary restrictions and thus able to find Sinick friendly variants of the local foods. 

At the end of the tour, we were able to convince Steven and Andy to give us a lift with our bags to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport. As we were driving there, we saw the giant yellow airport bus turn down the street in front of us. Em yelled to Steven, “chase that bus”, and so we did. Luckily, there was enough congestion on the road that we easily caught up, knocked on the door, and were let inside. It’s a good thing too, since we didn’t see the bus actually stop anywhere on the way to the airport so we may never have figured out how to hail it on our own from a bus stop on the street.