So we left on February 26th, which, in terms of the season there, is supposed to be rather good for the south but cool and rainy going up north. In any case, that's what we'll discover there...
Saigon, modern city
We decided to do this trip by going from south to north, so we landed in Ho Chi Minh City.
Arriving early gave us time to take a short tour of the city still known as Saigon.
A fairly modern city, with green spaces and trees lining many streets. The most striking point is the traffic, an impressive number of 2 wheels clearly outweighing the few cars in comparison.
And this constant noise of horns, because here, we don't really stop at the crossroads (except at a red light, of course) but we rush headlong while honking, well, we rush, so to speak, because conversely, they don't drive very fast on average, but everyone crosses paths, including pedestrians crossing the roads.
Approached by motorbike taxis who were not going to let us go after seeing my hesitation, I ended up agreeing to follow them, I had no idea of the size of the city and walking didn't appeal to me even though we had just got off the plane... (after having taken the time to find a hotel on rue de Cao Bac and to buy our bus tickets for the rest of the trip with the Singh Tourist agency)
Ho Chi Minh Essentials
So we went to see the Reunification Palace, but not really being tempted to visit the inside, we left again, heading for the Xa Loi pagoda, closed, because it was lunchtime... We arrived at the wrong time... We went to see another pagoda, that of Giac Lam, while waiting for the war museum to open.
It's a multi-story pagoda, not particularly memorable but a very local atmosphere around it with street vendors, those offering to "free" birds for doing a good deed (like...)
And so we visited the museum, looking at all the pictures for a long time. When you come out of there, you really think that there is something wrong with man, poor humanity…
Seeing these atrocities, the unimaginable methods of torture, I cannot find words to describe what I feel at this moment... Strong in any case.
We ended on a lighter note by going to the Ben Thanh covered market. A typical Asian market.
Among the things I remember from this first day in Vietnam, is the fact of finding bread everywhere and the (electrical) wiring which is even worse than in Thailand (And it is already not a reference… Not to mention the traffic…)
In the evening, we sat on the terrace of a restaurant which had a great view of the street from our hotel, before returning to it, to settle into our little green room, the first of a long series (they like green).
