We spent about one week in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, in the south of Vietnam. There are two names for the city because the country is still, in the peoples minds, seperated north and south. The north of Vietnam (the side that won the war and are in power) call the city Ho Chi Minh, after the ruler of Vietnam pre-war. The south of Vietnam (who the Americans fought for) call it Saigon, the original name for the city before the war.
Saigon was a very large and busy city, there were people driving around everywhere on motorbikes, (we had to be very careful when crossing the street, Polly especially). There were many tasty things to eat, like Vietnamese Pho, which is a traditional soup dish in Vietnam, and many fried crickets and fried cockroaches for Polly!!
Polly at the war museum, Saigon, vietnam

Visitng the war museum in Saigon, we saw many relics leftover from the Vietnamese-American war. This was one of the mounted guns on a helicopter.

in front of the museum

Just before entering the museum, one of the large fighter planes that were outside. There were many different machines from the war such as tanks, helicopters, and different styles of airplanes on display.

Polly & Incense

We went to visit an old Chinese style temple that was full of burning incense. They had many of these pots all over filled with incense sticks, as well as very large coiled incense hanging from the ceiling.

Polly & Ho Chi Minh

Inside the reunification palace, this used to be a palace for the President before the war. The palace was very large, with 5 floors, and everything from a massive kitchen, guest rooms, and a disco and helicopter landing pad on the roof. This statue is of Ho Chi Minh, and was located in the main conference hall.

Presidential office

This was the President's main office, it was very large with a nice view of the courtyard outside. (We weren't allowed to go near the desk but Polly got special froggy privileges). There also a secret hidden door that led to the bomb shelter in the basement.

Meeting room

This is the yellow meeting room, one of the many meeting rooms on the 2nd floor. There was more then 10 different rooms all used for meetings, and all of them were different colours, and used for different types of meetings.

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5 Responses to “Polly in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam”

  1. This is very informative, and the pictures are great!

  2. Me again. Fried crickets sound delicious, but I’m thinking that the cockroaches are an acquired taste. There’s just something about the way they run when the lights are turned on that give me the heebie jeebies!

  3. Wow! Polly got to sit at the president’s desk! I have to admit that she’s very photogenic and hard to resist. I’ve never been to Asia, and your articles really bring it much closer to home.

  4. The incense sticks picture is really nice-I love the colors! I remember going into some incense rooms when I was in China and I thought it was a very interesting thing to see, but sometimes the smell was overwhelming. Instead of sticks, we saw giant incense coils that hung from the ceiling. Fantastic post!

  5. I liked the war museum and I thought the war gun mounted in the helicopter was interesting.