ATTRACTIONS - North District One

The following sights, in the northern streets of central District One, are easily seen by foot – perhaps walking up Dong Khoi to the post office, then left on Le Duan to Reunification Palace, then north on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia to Vo Van Tan (three blocks), and the War Remnants Museum (two blocks west). Or from the palace, go south to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum. There’s a couple good restaurants near the palace, particularly NGON.

REUNIFICATION PALACE
Considering it housed the leader of the South Vietnamese government during the war that brought communist-army tanks through its gates in 1975, the fact that the ‘Reunification Palace’ (and easily one of Saigon’s biggest and most prominent landmarks) has remained essentially unchanged since the in-bed-with-the-American-imperialist days is amazing. Walking through is like walking through Vietnam 1966 – original faded carpets, lacquer wall art, and burnt-orange curtains still hang in grand welcome rooms and offices, as seen on guided tours (in English) that leave every 10 or so minutes. You have to see it. Tours begin in the wide-open ground floor – nothing to stop the lizards from walking in – and go through each floor to the fourth-floor rooftop, where you can see helicopter landing. The tour ends in the basement, where’s there’s war planning rooms and a mercifully air-conditioned museum; it goes through the buildings history (go clockwise around) from an earlier building on location – an 1868 French residence and later on the Norodom Palace. In 1962, bombs dropped on the building in a failed effort to assassinate South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem (he’d get it, along with his brother, a year later); the present building was completed in 1966. Note the famous photo of the VC tank ‘crashing’ through the front gates on April 30, 1975 – the photo was actually restaged (you can see the gate is already knocked down).
106 Nguyen Du; adult/children 15,000/2000D (US$0.95/0.15); open 7.30-11am, 1-4pm daily

WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM
One of the world’s most compelling cases against war is here. Gone are the days when it was a dusty ‘Museum of American War Crimes’ with over-the-top propagandistic messages. But it’s still not likely a place that a French or American tourist will leave feeling very proud. The new complex – rebuilt in 2000 – has eight themed rooms, with some surprising inclusions, like an exhibit tributing international photographers (including US, French, Japanese ones) who died while documenting the wars against France and the USA. Outside is a recreation of a Con Dao island prison – where VC captured were taken during both wars – as well as a French guillotine, supposedly last used in 1960. Military tanks and artillery line the yard. In the main building are deformed babies in jars – victims of Agent Orange – and grisly war photos of decapitated VC soldiers. A video on agent orange was too heart-breaking for me to sit through – it shows at 9am, 10am, 11am, 2.30pm and 3.30pm daily.
Tel 08-939-2112; [email protected]; 28 Vo Van Tan, D3; admission 15,000D (US$0.95); open 7.30am to noon, 1.30 to 5pm

POST OFFICE
Whether you’re coming to mail a post card or not is beside the point – this ultra-grand French post office, finished in 1891, is one of Saigon’s great buildings. Inside the ornate peach-and-green interior a huge portrait of Ho overlooks the decidedly colonial-era setting. Note the recently renovated maps of Saigon et sus Environs (1892) and Sud Vietn Nam et Cambodge (1936) on either wall as you enter. Sending a post card or letter to the USA/UK/Australia is 9000/8000/7000D (US$0.55/0.50/0.45). Post cards available.
2 Coq Xu Paris Q1, open 7am to 9pm daily

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL
Don’t expect a Paris flashback from this rather disappointing red-brick cathedral built in 1883. It’s more of a landmark, with traffic honking by on all sides.
Dong Khoi & Han Thuyen Sts; visiting hours (supposedly) 8-10.30am, 3-4pm Mon-Fri, plus Sunday mass from 5.30am

HO CON RUA
One of more inspired traffic circles you’ll find in Vietnam, the towering, water-stained lily pad structure, with concrete walkways over a dirty fountain, of Ho Con Rua (Turtle Lake) is now, alas, quite turtle-free. At one point a giant turtle did stand here – stolen some say during the war, some say during communism. Some say South Vietnamese president Thieu had it built – for mystical, lucky reasons. Just a few years ago, you could buy live snakes along stands that rimmed now – these days it’s just cafes, but it’s an interesting place to see.
Pham Ngoc Thach & Vo Van Tan Sts, two blocks north of Notre Dame

HO CHI MINH CITY MUSEUM
Tour groups shuffle through regularly, but this museum – housed in a lovely, though gray, 19th century French colonial building, with ornate details inside – is easily amongst Saigon’s best attractions. Themed rooms cover various themes of the city’s past – traditional crafts, war relics, traditional Chinese-style Hoa weddings, photos of peace protests in Saigon in 1970. Most have English subtitles, but there’s no explanation why one revolutionary display has fully dressed adult mannequin standing about three feet. Don’t skip the outside collection of military hardware – the F-5 jet aparently bombed the Independence Palace in 1975.
Tel 08-829-9741; 65 Ly Tu Trong D1; admission 15,000D (US$0.95); open 8am-5pm daily

US EMBASSY SITE
Five or six blocks east of Reunification Palace on Le Duan St, the old US embassy – where crowds stormed in late April 1975 to get on a helicopter out of the city – was demolished in 1998, and is now the walled site of the US consulate. Not much too see here, but you can try to imagine the scene.
4 Le Duan, between Mac Dinh Chi & Hai Ba Trung Sts

HISTORY MUSEUM
At the end end of Le Duan St – inside the city zoo (skip it) – the ‘Museum of Vietnamese History’ occupies a great old 1929 French-built place, with Asian-style tiered tower and sunken courtyards Inside a bust of Ho Chi Minh greets you, and exhibits with English subtitles uncovers Vietnam’s past (from mammoth tusks to water puppets). Don’t miss the Tran Hung Dao bits, which show how he mounted wood spikes in the nearby river to pierce Chinese warships in the 13th century – when the tide dropped the Chinese were stuck, and slaughtered. Said one museum attendant: ‘I love Tran Hung Dao for what he did… A great moment in our history, telling the Chinese they couldn’t conquer us. When they got stuck, he sent flamed arrows and they died from fire.’ The museum hosts a water-puppet show at 9am, 10am, 11am, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm (it’s $2 extra).
Tel 08-825-8784; corner of Le Duan & Nguyen Binh Kiem Sts; admission 15,000D (US$0.95), plus 8000D (US$0.50) for the zoo; open 8-11am, 1.30-4.30pm Tue-Sun, zoo open 7am-8pm daily

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