Originally named Saigon, it was renamed HCMC in honor of communist leader in 1975 who lead the country to victory after the Vietnam War. Many locals still call it Saigon, particularly as a jab to the communist government.
Our plan in the morning was to pack our bags, check out of the hotel, and see a few sites before heading over to the airport and catching our flight. We walked over to the main post office as we heard it was impressive:
Many of the buildings have a French influence since the French occupied southern Vietnam for quite a few years.
Our next stop was the War Remnance Museum...a horrific, disturbing, eye-opening look at the atrocities of the Vietnam War. It left us both in shock and it's really a miracle the Vietnamese people don't hate Americans. Even though the war was before our time and people have moved on, there are still many reminders of what happened. We didn't take pictures, it wasn't appropriate, but read the link if you'd like more information.
And just as we were finished with the museum, we were greeted with this:
It just started pouring. And of course we didn't have our umbrellas! The massive downpour lasted well over 30 minutes and we couldn't do much but stand by the entrance and just watch the rain come down as huge puddles formed. We sucked it up and rain to the other buildings after about 40 minutes, but decided to cut our visit short when the rain finally let up a bit.
We headed over to Pho (pronounced "fuh") 2000 for our last meal in Vietnam. Pho is the traditional noodle soup served just about everywhere in Vietnam. Forgot to take a picture of our chicken Pho because we were too hungry, but here is one of the restaurant:
A huge bowl of chicken Pho costs about $2, can't beat that.
We cut our city tour short since we didn't want to get caught in the downpour again, headed back to our hotel to grab our bags, and took off for the airport.
6 comments:
Gotta love two-dollar pho!
My hometown! I'm such a city girl, the city of Saigon that is. My childhood, up until the age of 8, was freakin' awesome. I really hope everything will go according to plan and I get to take my husband and brother to visit my country. I myself haven't been back since I left at 8.
Thanks for pronouncing Pho correctly ;-) Although, I was expecting to be a lot cheaper than $2 there. It costs $4-$5 here in Little Saigon...
huh. i don't think i even knew the name had been changed from saigon.
so, is pho in vietnam any different from pho in, say, the valley?
Does it taste better at the source? Sucks you guys got stuck in the rain. Boo!
This is like culture overshock for me! I cam't believe the $2 pho - I hope you had 10.
i can only imagine how shocking that museum must have been. :/
lunch for $2? in!
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