Our second day in Ho Chi Minh City – we had the day off to explore the town. My work calls didn’t begin until after dinner and so we had a chance to sleep in for the first time this trip, get a leisurely breakfast and then head out on foot.
With temps in the low 90s and the humidity high, we wilted quickly, sweating through the few remaining clean clothes we have in our suitcases. The weather held, though – due to the remaining dregs of last weeks Typhoon we were supposed to get non-stop rain during our time here, but you can see from the photos that nature chose a different path.

This group will have lots of street scenes and it light on destinations.

Big market for a lot of low cost items. Brenda found some sort of lacquered four-piece wall art that she’s bringing home.

Don’t think these women didn’t pounce on Brenda anytime she walked down the aisle.

Ho Chi Minh’s People’s Committee City Hall – The building was opened in 1909 by the French Indochina governors-general to celebrate 50 years of French presense in Saigon.

War Remnants Museum – a VERY interesting place to visit and very depressing. They say that history is told by the victors. Here, the victors are the People’s Army of Vietname (aka North Vietnamese) and they do not pull any punches about the atrocities committed by the French and then the U.S. in the last 100 years. Outside of the building are some old US weapons and transport that were captured during the War.

This display shows the infamous “Tiger Cages”, guillotines and other torture devices used by the French and South Vietnamese “rebels” on the patriotic liberators from the North.

They had separate rooms to show what US supplied Agent Orange did to the citizens, what torture did, what the mass burning of villages did; all the beheadings and maimings and starvation and exposure did – with blown up photographs and displays of the tools of the trade. Brenda gave up and sat down in the lobby to wait for me to finish the tour. Of course, the message was all one sided; one can imagine that the same was being done all around.

On to more walks about town.

This was lunch for us – Brenda wanted a photo to share with Phuong that we were eathing authentic, local Ox-Tail and Chicken Phở soup.

The place now is just the US Consulate – the Capital of unified Vietnam is now up in Hanoi. Note the flag.

This is the rooftop where in 1975 the last helicopters took away the final contingent of Americans, marines and Graham Martin, the final Ambassador to SV. Note the small, beige building on top and see the famous photo below.