On my first day in Vietnam, I arranged through my hotel for a guide to take me around on a little motorbike tour of Saigon (also called Ho Chi Minh City). Here are some of the buildings and sites that I saw.
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| The Reunification Palace. The guard wouldn't let us in since it was about to close, so I took this picture through the fence. |
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| Notre Dame Cathedral. You can definitely see the French influence in the architecture (as well as the name!). |
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| Another view of Notre Dame. |
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| A little room inside the cathedral. |
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| Inside Notre Dame Cathedral. The fence was to separate tourist wanting to take pictures from worshippers there to pray or attend a service. |
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| Another little room inside the cathedral. |
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| The Saigon Post Office, right across from the cathedral, is another famous building in Ho Chi Minh. |
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| As you can see, it really is a functioning post office. It was quite busy inside. |
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| This is the Saigon Opera House. My friend and I were thinking of going to see a show there, but it didn't quite work out. (Plus it was really expensive!) |
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| A fountain right by the opera house. |
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| A random neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh. |
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| Downtown area. The skyscraper you see has a helicopter landing pad. |
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| Ho Chi Minh traffic. Notice all the motorbikes. We were told that Ho Chi Minh has ten million people - and six million motorbikes! |
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| A barge on one of the many canals. |
Click here to read my post about arrival in Ho Chi Minh and our hotel, the Golden Dragon.
... or the one about my boat tour of the Mekong Delta
... or the Cu Chi Tunnels (from the Vietnam War)