I met in the downstairs lobby of the hotel for departure to the airport at 7am. We took a chartered Cathay Pacific flight to Ho Chi Minh City where we were met with scorching hot temperatures. After going through Customs we all split up to go to different hotels and I was brought to the Windsor Plaza Hotel (a modern and beautiful place).
After I got settled I headed out on the City Orientation that went to sites such as the Vietnam History Museum and the Reunification Palace. The Vietnam History Museum was in a park that had the city zoo and botanical gardens in it also. When we arrived there was a festival going on for the New Year. Inside the museum they had many artifacts that were just placed and didn’t really have any context. The highlight of the museum however was the Vietnamese Folk Water Puppetry. The stage is a pool of water and the puppeteers stand waist deep behind a curtain and maneuver the puppets to music.
The Reunification Palace was our next stop. This was the location of the South Vietnamese headquarters during the Vietnam War. It was quite large and extravagant. A quick background: The palace was originally built in 1868 and finished in 1871 by the French and named Notre Dame Palace (later given the name Independence Palace). The Palace was then destroyed in 1962 by a bomb and then rebuilt 1962-1966. The war ended on April 28th, 1975 with North Vietnamese troops running over the fence with two tanks (which are still located on the property).
- We went by the US Consulate which is the location of the former US Embassy where all the helicopters evacuated the last of the US diplomats to end the war. The last diplomat left at 5am and the war was over by 11am on April 28th 1975.
Random stuff:
- People in Vietnam cannot drive. Traffic laws seem to be optional to them and they even drive on the wrong side of the road at times.
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