We were sad to leave the Hôi An Hotel – so idilic. Many threatened to return for a couple of weeks holiday in Hôi An.
From there we drove past China Beach to Dà Nãng which is a modern city of 1 million people with a few skyscrapers, wide streets and generally gives one the impression that it’s a more affluent city. We crossed over The Dragon Bridge over the Ham River which is the longest bridge in Viet Nam. Then to the Cham Museum. The Cham were Hindus from India that ruled the area from about 1,000 BC, as previously mentioned they were based in My Son, but many of the better artifacts and sculptures from there are in the Cham museum. It abound with statues of the deities Vishnu etc. a truly amazing place, but those of us who have not been to India were a little bit lost.
After getting to the airport and going though the necessary steps yo gain access to board the aircraft, we were greeted with an interesting dilemma – Flight 116 left from Gate 5 to Ho Chi Minh City at 12:15, but the next entry on the board stated flight 116 to Ho Chi Minh City left at gate 7 at 12:30. We were supposed to be taking flight 116 to Ho Chi Minh City!!!! An interesting dilemma!
Things eventually got sorted and we took Flight 116 from gate 7!
Upon arrival in Sài Gòn (as it is written locally) and both names seem to be used interchangeably we were greeted with the sign Kinh Chaw – Hello!
Saigon is a major metropolis of 8+ million people, very modern with a lot of skyscrapers, affluence all over with it’s Versacci, Armani, Gucci etc shops and high end Malls, Multimillion dollar homes and the U.S. shops – Burger King, Kentucky Fried chicken, Popeye Chicken, Starbucks! Were it not for the signs being in Vietnamese (and English) – one could be in any major Western Large City.
Saigon is the land of the mangrove swamp whose name was Changed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. The French stayed from early 1800’s until 1956 in Saigon (Sài Gòn).
Vietnam was divided into two along the 17th parallel with North Vietnam having it’s capital in Hanoi and South Vietnam on Saigon. Ho Chi Minh wanted to unite north and south and after the king went to exile to France in 1949 an Election was held between Ho Chi Minh (red ballot) and King (blue ballot). Ho Chi Minh won and was installed as head of the United Vietnam. The French left in 1946. After the elections, about 100 000 were guillotined by south Viet Nam. Ngo Dinh Diem was born in Hue in 1901 and became the first president of South Vietnam in 1956 and was assassinated in 1963. From 1966-1975 Nguyen Van Thieu ruled as the second president of south Vietnam.
Our first stop in Saigon was the Presidential Palace which had been the palace of the French Governor, then called the Independent palace. It was bombed in 1962 and partially destroyed and then rebuilt through 1966 with Bomb shelter and many rooms. We had our “Group Photo” in front of the palace and then visited all the rooms.
Next we went to Notre Dam Roman Catholic Cathedral, built by the French on the style of but smaller than it’s sister in Paris. On one side of the cathedral square we visited the Post Office built by Gustav Eifel in the 1890’s (of Eifel Tower fame).
Finally to the Hotel for a quick freshen up and out to dinner to one of the best 9 course typical Vietnamese dinners that we have had.
Odds and ends mentioned by LUC :-
1698 start of Saigon under Vietnam
Komei people – used to belong to Cambodia
LUC the guide was born 1974 and called his wife “The Dragon” and his son the “Water Buffalo”.
Roger & Anne Travels 