Goodbye Vietnam - Saigon / Vietnam Part III

Saigon, the real capital of Vietnam

Saigon or Ho-Chi-Min (HCM) City as it is officially called after the national hero Ho Chi Minh (please see my Hanoi entry in the blog) was much more worth the visit than Hanoi. Not only because of its pleasant weather - around 30 degree celsius - but only because of what is offers.

Yes, there are as many motorbikes as in Hanoi. Yes, Saigon couldn't really be considered as clean.

But: the atmosphere is quite relaxed there. Some compare it to the lively atmosphore of Singapur in the 70s.

Visiting the war remnant museum is worth it. A lot of photos show the cruelty of war - of course due to ideologic reasons mainly photos of crimes committed by the American and the French, but not of the crimes committed by the Vietnamese. This museum shows once more that war is no means to solve conflicts (in general, between politic parties / religions / ideologies / colour of skin, whatever).

The reunification palace used to be the governmental office of the Southern Vietnamese (capitalist, supported by the American in the war against the Northern Vietnames / communists; the communists won the war; now Vietnam still calls itself a communist country, but the econonmy seems quite capitalist). The architecture being ugly 1960s architecture, inside is the room where Southern Vietnames president General Minh announced to the Northern Vietnames that Southern Vietnam surrendered and that he was transferring the power to Northern Vietnam. The answer he got was: "There is no question of you transferring power. You cannot give up what you do not have."

This was my Vietnam trip.
To put it all in a nutshell: worth visiting, but from my impressions so far I prefer China.

Have a nice weekend!