Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

This is the Saigon Post Office and is one of the most beautiful buildings in Saigon, and one of the key landmarks in Ho Chi Minh City.  We were able to buy postcards and get them mailed to the grandkids.  Outside of the building is a memorial park and shows and tells history of the fall of Saigon.  

Note Dame Cathedral is honored as one of world's 19 most majestic cathedrals and the only representative from Southeast Asia.  Unfortunately, it was under reconstruction and repair so we only saw it with the scaffolding and could not go into the interior.  I snatched a picture off the internet so you could see what it is supposed to look like.  it's really a shame we could not visit it.

A traditional Vietnamese lunch for the group - it ran so long that we missed part of the stops that we were supposed to see - missed the Opera House and the  Thein Hau temple.  

Independnce Palace, also known as the Reunification Palace.  This was really just a photo stop for the group, you were not able to get into the grounds.

Tao Dan Park is opposite of the Independence Palace.  We did a quick drive by so did not get any really good pictures - in the morning and afternoon, thousands of local residents come to the park to exercise.  Would have been fun to see.  This tour overall was pretty disappointing as we did not get to see most of what they promised us.  It was a 2.5-hour ride to the city from our port, and then 2.5 hours back.  They overpromised and underdelivered.  

Ben Thanh Market has nearly 1500 booths selling wholesale and retail goods.  Place was jammed with people, and I cannot believe we did not take pictures of the market - we took pictures galore of every other market...yikes.  Good news though - I got some jewelry - pearls and they are lovely.  

We the meandered down this street to our lunch, lots of little shops to check out.

Some of the local buildings as we drove through the city - It was quite clean, and had a very cosmopolitan feeling, but I really do not feel we got a good visit to the city.  Way to far from the port for a very short time in the area.  We just made it back to the port with maybe 20 minutes to spare.

Some sights on the long bus ride back to the port.

In the countryside, lots of rice paddies and was reminiscent of what I expected Vietnam to look like.

So, we made it back on time and got another beautiful sunset.

And our ship as we were leaving and heading to sea for a day, and then on to Singapore.

All in all, we can check Ho Chi Minh City off our list - not sure I want to head back there.