Spent today on a walk around some of the key tourist sights. First off was the Reunification Palace. This was the home of the president of Vietnam (the South) during the Vietnam war (often referred to as the American War over here). It is apparently left in the same state it was when the NVA tanks burst through the gates and received the surrender in 1974; personally I think the cleaners sneaked in and gave it a quick once over. It was actually pretty interesting, their is a life size mock up of a Huey helicopter on the roof and numerous state rooms, a casino, a cinema, a disco/dance room on the roof and down below is a command bunker, with radio rooms, crypto rooms, map rooms, etc.
There is also a museum room which captures the glorios liberation of Vietnam by the NVA in a completely unbiased way - honest ;-) Apparently when Saigon fell in 1975, those big Chinese made tanks drove around handing out ice cream to everyone and the Vietcong (oops sorry I mean the glorious political thinkers) went round giving all the American sympathisers a pat on the back and a handshake ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunification_Palace
After this I went to the War Remnants Museum. I don't want to sound like I am putting down museums in Saigon, but I think this museums interpretation of the war is well shall I say slightly one sided :-D But ofcourse being a completely insensitive tourist, I managed to get some good snaps of all the military hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Remnants_Museum_(Ho_Chi_Minh_City)
This evening I went for an Indian meal at a place called Uvashi recommended by Lonely Planet, good meal. It rained, a lot and the streets flooded within minutes.
