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!