Nov 7, Wed, Saigon

By tomandcherylinsarasotaNovember 8, 2018

At 7:30 am, we had a chance to meet the rest of the tour group. This included another six people from MIT, three from AIA, a rep from MIT, and our study leader from AIA. A bus tour of the city went through Chinatown and stopped at the Saigon Centre Post Office, a really grand building. The large photo of Ho Chi Minh at the end is made entirely of stamps. Outside the building was a sales promotion for a car (we think) with models in the traditional Vietnamese 2-piece outfit (ao dai) welcoming invitees. Across the street was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Then on to the Reunification Palace (used to be the Independence Palace) where the reunification talks were completed and the South Vietnamese president resigned and the treaties were signed. The major stop was the War Remnants Museum. One of the rooms was called “Requiem” and is based on a book of the same name, which is a collection of photographs from news journalists from the war. It had the same impact on me as the Hiroshima Memorial – a punch in the gut. That was true especially of the section on the effects of Agent Orange. In addition to “Requiem”, there was an addition room on Agent Orange that I wouldn’t enter. Other floors had old military equipment, communications devices, and old computer equipment. Lunch, then Tom and I headed back to the hotel, while the rest of the group took a 90-minute bus ride to the Cu Chi tunnels. Dinner was near the hotel at the Ly Club. We’re headed to the boat on the Mekong on Thursday so we expect to be without internet access for a week. After the election, we all need it.

Cheryl

One of the nearby high-rise buildings. Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam with 12,900,000 people over 809 square miles.

Hai is our local guide throughout Southern Vietnam

Saigon Centre Post Office. Still active, with beautiful restoration.

Inside post office with picture of Ho Chi Minh at end of arcade roof.

Picture of Uncle Ho made of postage stamps

Hostesses in ao dai dresses greeting people to car sales pitch in front of post office

Notre Dame Cathedral across from post office. There is a large Catholic population in Saigon due to the French occupation.

Remember the last helicopter leaving Saigon from the CIA compound? (Shown in Rory Kennedy’s documentary “The Last Days of Vietnam”)

This is the front of that same building.

This is the Independence/Reunification Palace

One of the meeting rooms.

In the bomb shelter below, Tom found one of his old terminals.

Double agent south Vietnamese pilot who bombed Independence Palace and was hailed as hero of the Viet Cong

Esther on left; Joyce on right; and me in the center with my dragon cane that Velma found for me at the post office. My hamstring problem from my return from Italy is making stairs a real problem. (I had to miss the two hills in Ha Long Bay)