Saigon, again part I..

Many people will remember the images of the Buddhist monk who immolated himself in Saigon in 1963, there's ample footage of it out there and his image was immortalised on, of all places, an album cover by the band "Rage Against the Machine" (see picture below), I guess as being a fine example of sticking it to the man! In Saigon there's a memorial sculpture to him at the spot where it happened (see picture above) The back story is fascinating, a story of corruption, state interference with freedom of conscience and ultimately the power of protest as a vector for change. While in the city of Hue we saw the car that he travelled in on that fateful day (picture here), seeing this shrine kind of squared the circle, it was a very sad and poignant story.

According to all the guide books there are a couple of major things for tourists to see and do in Saigon (and a million minor ones), these include the Cu Chi tunnels, the Mekong delta and various architectural points of interest like the Opera House, various museums, the post office and a cluster of French colonial buildings that served as Government installations over the years. Personally I added a couple to this list, the beer culture in Saigon is huge and not wanting to miss out on an important cultural experience I earmarked a couple of breweries and taprooms and added them to our list, not least of which was "The Heart of Darkness" (previously mentioned here).

A kind bar tender took this snap of our little gang after an evening visit  to the HoD taproom in the heart of Saigon, it was a cool spot, the vibe was great, people friendly and the beers absolutely banging, although I do confess, when it's 38C and 100% humid most cold drinks are good! (no, these beers were world class!)

Now onto more classic tourist trail things..

Plenty of military hardware that the Americans abandoned still on show in the city, the War Remnants Museum is well worth a visit, although I found it a little one sided (I guess the victors write history etc.) Generally though the exhibits are interesting and well organised, I particularly liked the photographs, many I'd never seen before and this was one of the first wars to be covered extensively by photo-journalists and perhaps one of the best (most honestly) recorded.

In the city itself there were many Communist weapons stashes, hidden away under cafes and houses in purpose built cellars almost undetectable, I hadn't realised that the Communists had infiltrated the South so comprehensively, for all their might the Americans really didn't stand a chance. In this picture we see my Wife emerging from one of the underground stores, the only entrance was in the doorway of a popular café just over the road from several Government buildings, many American soldiers and CIA men must have walked these tiles to get their espresso and pan au chocolate in the morning, completely oblivious to the fact that there were 1000 enemy AK47 rifles hidden just  a couple of metres beneath their feet.

There's a lot more to Saigon, see what came next in part II