Viking offers free tours in every destination and today we took the tour that gave us the "lay of the land." We started at the Reunification Palace, built for $50 million by the U.S. for the government of Vietnam. Today it is a tourist spot with the Communist flag flying - red for the blood of the Vietnamese and a star for the Communists. Across from this building was a tall yellow structure where the CIA had its headquarters during the Vietnam War. It is auspicious because it is where the last American helicopter flew out from the top right black balcony at the end of our involvement there. We saw lots of people on motorbikes. It is the way the people get around since owning cars is out of reach for the average person with an income of only $4,000 annually. There were lots of businesses with signs in English and Vietnamese. How about Texas Chicken? McDonalds?
We visited a beautiful historic post office built by the French architect, Eiffel (of tower fame), during their occupation. The City Hall and Opera House were also beautiful buildings, French architecture, of course. There was even a Time Square, Saigon style with a beautiful roundabout nearby with a pretty Lily-pad sculpture. Afterwards, we visited a famous Chinese temple, that President Obama visited during one of his trips to this part of the world. There were many buildings with elaborate altars and you could pray there to a goddess for prosperity, for health, and to even to have a baby. We enjoyed our glimpse of Vietnam and were amazed by the look of prosperity.
1976 - Last American Left from Yellow CIA Building
Year of the Cat in Vietnam
City Hall
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment