Ho Chi Minh City Tour

Well, my sister hasn't gotten me the pictures from Vung Tau yet, so in the meantime, I'll tell you what I did when I got back to Ho Chi Minh from there. We had to take the 6am hydrofoil so my mother and sister could catch their flight to the Con Dao Archipelago, so when I took a taxi at 7:30 to the hotel, I knew I wouldn't be able to check in right away. I figured they'd let me leave my bag in the lobby, though, so I could do whatever in the city. When I got to my Liberty 3 Hotel, I ended up getting upgraded to another Liberty Hotel, number 4, I think, a block away. Apparently the previous occupant of my room had a flight delay, and the rest of the hotel was booked. So I dropped my bag off and went to have breakfast and another amazing Vietnam coffee.



As I left the restaurant, a man on a cyclo convinced me to go on a city tour. A cyclo is a big tricycle with a seat in the front for one tourist, and the driver sits on a raised trike seat in the back. It's pretty funy. He took me to see so many things I can't fit them all in one entry. We started with the War Remnants Museum. I took a bunch of photos:

These are drawings of postwar peace and acceptance made by local children:

There was a display of sculptures regarding the Vietnam War:

There was a small building devoted to the Tiger Cages in the war, where "difficult" prisoners were taken to be tortured and interrogated. This is a model of one:

The guillotine in the Tiger Cage building:

The museum was kind of a rough start to the tour, but good to see. I felt pretty guilty.

Another stop on the tour was this pagoda. It was very dark, and there was a lot of incense. There were also turtles in a little pond outside. That's pretty much all I have to say about that:

I'll do the rest of the tour tomorrow.