Vietnam Saigon - Day 5 (July 10, 2010)

Hội Trường Thống Nhất (Reunification Palace / 统一宫)   
[Note: Thong Nhat rhymes with 统一]

In 1868, it was built as the French governor's office in the South.

In 1945, after WW2, Vietnam gained independence but split into North and South.

South Vietnam renamed this place the Independence Palace, to be used as its President's Office.

On 30 April 1975, when the North Vietnamese army reached the outbound city limit of Saigon, the President of the South ("Big Minh") surrendered, saving the city from war ruins.

Soon, as a symbol of winning, 2 tanks rolled over one iron fence of the Independence Palace, as recorded in this photo, and arrested Big Minh (on board for less than 48 hours).

The place was then renamed the Reunification Palace.

Those 2 rolling-in tanks still stay in the front side apron of the palace.

(The 6-foot-tall Big Minh died in 2001, at age of 85.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_minh

Saigon moment

Our tour bus then passes by the former US Embassy compound. This historic photo recorded one of the helicopters taking away the last few batches of escapees (from this 'tower' in the embassy) to aircraft carrier, right before the liberation or fall of Saigon.

This landmark landing 'tower' was torn down soon by the liberators. Recently, the US Embassy returned, but to another site.

Miss Saigon, a Broadway musical which is banned in Vietnam, has a poster that amazed me, because the artist drew the 'copter with only a few pen strokes.

Hmmm... the story was borrowed from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly opera.



Miss Saigon outside US Embassy at Saigon

Fanny 
(an ice cream specialty shop in a downtown French villa)

Nice place, eh?

Even Fanny's plain water looks nice.

Hanoi Banana Boat for me.

Ice cream for the eyes.

Toa Nha UBND TP 
(city government office / 市人民委员会大楼)
 [Built 1908]

... with a statue of Uncle Ho.


You may not know that Uncle Ho was once one of the early instructors at 黄埔军校 (Whampoa Military Academy) in China.

Nha Hat Thanh Pho (Opera House / 歌剧院)
[Built 1900]

* designed by French architect Ferret Eugene, and shaped like Opera Garnier in Paris

* housing the House of Representatves (Lower House Assembly) of South Vietnam in 1956-1975

Trần Hưng Đạo (陳興道) is their national hero, who repelled two huge Mongolian invasions.

The other 2 icons on commercial shopping street need no introductions.

The lots for buildings are typically narrow, but deep to the back.

Not bad, eh?

The Bitexco Financial Tower (right photo).

(Hanoi's Landmark 72, to be completed in 2011, will be taller.)

CÀ PHÊ

You must have learnt enough of the Vietnamese language by now, and know that cà phê means café, which is French for coffee. Vietnamese coffee has 2 major brands: Trung Nguyen cà phê (中原咖啡) and Highlands cà phê (高原咖啡).

To throw away the rest of my million VND cash, I buy a cup of Trung Nguyen cà phê and some yummy Vietnamese snacks at an airport café.

And a small box of 3-in-1 Trung Nguyen cà phê hòa tan (instant coffee).

But Vietnamese coffee fans have a time-consuming way of coffee-brewing.

"Vietnamese-style coffee is another form of drip brew (滴灌酿造). In this form, hot water is allowed to drip though a metal mesh into a cup, and the resulting strong brew is poured into a glass containing sweetened condensed milk (炼奶) which may contain ice. Due to the high volume of coffee grounds required to make strong coffee in this fashion, the brewing process is quite slow. (It is also highly popular in Cambodia and Laos.)" - Wiki

Time to go home.

Taking off ...

off ...

... to Hong Kong.





It has been a very nice journey, hasn’t it?
I shall visit Vietnam again one day.






Salute to Winnie, our tourist guide from Hong Kong. It's her birthday today, working away from home. Happy birthday, Winnie!

Vietnam Saigon - Day 4 (July 9, 2010)

Chợ Lớn (Cholon/堤岸)   (literally, market big)
Chợ Lớn is the Chinatown district of Saigon. I have been longing to visit this place since I was little, when my father's mother and sisters went there frequently, and brought back lovely souvenirs and pleasing snacks. Happy childhood memories.

Here is the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce

where the businessmen from China's Guangzhou city (aka Canton) networked and made deals, and settled disagreements.

It is combined with Chùa Bà Thiên Hậu
(temple of heaven's queen/天后庙), frequented by Chinese fishermen to pray for Her blessings.

The stay at Chợ Lớn is too short to satisfy my curiosity about this place since childhood.



Mỹ Tho (美拖) (literally, 我的寿) is the next stop.

About 75 km to the south-west of HCM city, My Tho is in the Mekong River delta area, rich in fruits and fisheries.  (Note: there are no hills in the delta; thus, we see grave yards among the paddy fields.)

My goodness!

We arrive at the pier where pretty Jane March (ooh la la) and handsome Tony Leung (梁家辉) first met on a ferry, during the French colonial period, in 'The Lover' movie!

In the making of the movie, their love nest was located in the above-mentioned Chợ Lớn district.

From there, we take a short ferry trip  

to Coconut Island (Đảo Dừa / 椰岛),

where we witness the making of coconut bonbon.

and, try out various fruits in a Taisan Island (泰山岛) orchard,

while some Vietnamese folk songs are sung. 


That girl in yellow ao dai grows her hair down to her heels.  

But my concentration is disturbed by some stingy things hanging over my head.

Next, we try to get a feel of an under-cover guerrilla boat ride in the Mekong delta (芹椰紅樹林),

using nature to block detection from helicopters,

wearing mu tre, previously worn by many other comrades (gung-ho tourists).

On the return trip, we are served coconut juice in a coconut.

The seat in front of me is initially empty. Then, a young Viet lady drops in, in front of me. She is given a free ride.

When others start to praise her appearance, she says thanks in Chinese Cantonese, and that she learns the dialect from her husband from HK.

(Vietnam has married away quite a few good young brides.)

She then uses her blue silk neckerchief to strap her hat to her chin, as seen in the photo.

When the conversation withers, she extends the blue neckerchief upwards to cover her faces, and put on her sunglasses.

Very smart measures to protect her fair faces from the tropical ultra-violet rays,

though not as serious as some other female motorists on the hot sunny roads.

Back to HCM City.

Rush hour after work.

The War Museum is the next, and is a must.

Click here, for an overview from YouTube

A 'torture center'

Deformed children of parents who have been in touch with Agent Orange.  The parents initially thought the damage was to the womb. So they hoped the next child would be normal.

It turned out that the damage was on the parents, who then gave birth to series of deformed children.  (And it caused damages to those Americans who handled the Agent Orange, too.)

See the bomb holes caused by carpet bombing?
 
Click here, to watch a carpet bombing in Vietnam 
Click here, to watch a girl surviving napalm bombing
She lives, and later migrates to Toronto.

Briefly, napalm is jellied gasoline. When the bomb exploded, napalm splashed to all over the places and stuck there (e.g. human bodies and clothes), and continued the burning, causing a lot more damages than pure gasoline which tends to evaporate upwards. Click here, for a Wiki summary of napalm.

(L) The Mamas & The Papas singing California Dreamin'

 
(R) A clipping from The Apocalypse Now (1979 movie) 

Peace,please!!

Golden Dragon Water Puppet Show
Some of the water puppets.

The behind-the-screen and half-wet operators.

Half of the narrators and musicians.

Nhà thờ Đức Bà Sài Gòn
(House of Notre-Dame in Saigon/西贡圣母大教堂)

It started small in 1876, and got to the current design in 20 years.

Bưu Điện Thành Phố (Post Office/邮政局)

Built in1886, and designed by Gustave Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

(The timely surrender of South Vietnam saved these beautiful colonial buildings.)

Diamond Plaza is just next door.

The local tour guide allures us to its Food Court on 3/F, where we try the most delicious spring rolls in Vietnam, at the "Wrap & Roll" shop.

Dinner cruise on Saigon River - from the Tôn Đức Thắng pier

Entertainers circulate themselves among 3 decks of guests.

Note the ao dai in light green colour? So pretty.

Click here, to watch this band play and a fire hula dance





Phở 24
The last night at Saigon!  So, even with full stomach from the river cruise dinner, we walk across the street from the hotel to Pho 24, a chain restaurant for noodles.

* Pho is rice noodle in soup (河粉).
(Recall that they got rid of alphabet f?
They use ph, instead.)

* 24 means that they are open 24 hours a day, and that the soup is made with 24 ingredients. Quite yummy.

Easier to sleep tight with a full stomach. Cheers!