September 21, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
We dodged the rain (mostly successfully) to walk through the Reunification Palace and went to the Saigon Central Post Office to buy and send a few postcards.
Having had so much food for dinner the night before, we were glad that breakfast was a buffet so we could eat a little less pretty easily. After that, it was time to strategize the day’s plans.
We knew it would be pretty wet so we were hoping it would be like the day before with periods of light or no precipitation. The morning plan was to visit the Reunification Palace and then go to the Ben Thanh Market for lunch. The former seemed to discourage backpacks (lockers were supposed to be available) and the latter is popular with tourists so we wanted to be careful with belongings. Being perhaps overly cautious, we decided to leave our bags in the room and return for them after lunch.
Reunification Palace
We were not expecting as many people as we saw when walking up to the Reunification Palace. It wasn’t clear to us where we should get tickets since we saw one sign that indicated they were at a separate building, but we didn’t see any crowds anywhere except the main building. We asked a security guard who went in front of other people and brokered the transaction for us. Tickets in hand, we started to form a strategy for going through the building. It seemed to make the most sense to start on the main floor so that’s what we did.
When you first see the Reunification Palace, the first thing that strikes you is the modern architecture. The current building replaced the former palace which was bombed. The various rooms are set up as they would have been in the 1970s leading up to the fall of Saigon.
On the first floor are meeting rooms which are glass all around, including several glass doors. It’s easy to imagine the doors being open during meetings to allow the breeze to help keep the room cool.
In the middle of the first floor is a grand set of open, red-carpeted stairs, but they weren’t open to the public. We also saw the president’s private living quarters, which included an elaborate garden in the middle of an open courtyard.
On the upper floors were a game roomand a cinema. On the top floor were doors going out to a helipad. In the basement was a bunker with radio rooms, war rooms, and the kitchen. For the kitchen, it was interesting to see the huge burners designed to hold woks and a dedicated machine to wash rice.
As we went through the Palace, it was very striking to us how many people were touching artifacts. One woman was rubbing and tapping against a piece of art, trying to figure out if it was paint on wood. Another man was feeling the tires on a Jeep while a woman in his group pointed to the “Do not touch” sign. He continued to feel the hood.
Not long after we entered the Palace, the rain began to fall. It seemed to be pretty heavy, and every time we looked out, it wasn’t letting up. Instead of trying to wander over to the Ben Thahn Market and just ate at one of the restaurants on the palace grounds. It was raining enough that there were huge puddles on the roads we were trying to cross, but we managed to get to the restaurant without getting too wet.
After we finished eating, the rain looked to be pretty light, so we started back to the room. We were only somewhat damp by the time we got there.
Central Post Office
Bags on our back, we started out again to head to the Central Post Office. On the way we looked at the outside of the Notre Dame Cathedral, but since it’s being renovated, we had to be content with look from the outside.
The Central Post Office was built in the late 19th century and has a very impressive barrel-vaulted hall. There were several people in there, but it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it probably is during the summer. Inside were some vendors who were selling postcards. We picked a few out, wrote in them, bought postage, and dropped them into the mailbox. It’s been so long since either of us had sent a postcard, and we weren’t expecting to need three different stamps for each card. We needed to be creative on how we put on the stamps to not obscure too much space.
We were planning on going to a café but since it started raining a bit, we went next door to a place at the beginning of Book Street (which we didn’t go down). The place we first went in seemed to be takeaway only, but they directed us to another room where they served for sit-down customers. We ended up staying long enough that we looked for a place to eat, and found one a few blocks away.
My cousin who used to live in Vietnam said we should try a Vietnamese pancake, and that happened to be one of the day’s specials, so we ordered that. We asked the waiter how large it was (trying to decide if we should split it or order a second entrée) and he gave us a very definitive “big”. It was very crispy and filled with shrimp, mung beans, and other things, and was really tasty.
After dinner, we found our way back to the hotel. The night before, Melody called it an early night, and this time it was my turn to fall asleep early.
