ASIA TRAVEL BLOG

Mentioning HCMC, people immediately think of well-known sightseeing spots in the city center such as Ben Thanh Market, Notre Dame Cathedral, the HCMC Post Office or Reunification Palace. These are fine places to visit but why not escape the city’s boisterous atmosphere for a while to enjoy a boat trip on the Saigon River to see the city from a different perspective.

Boat tours on the Saigon River have existed for a long time. But taking a junk tour, tourists experience all the spirit of Saigon from the river to the sky. A junk tour on the river is a completely fresh feeling. Just a few steps down into the junk offers another version of the city but without so much noise and less crowded. The water and wind and boundless sky are peaceful.

It’s easy enough to take a junk tour and tourists may even ask the junk owner to go to their favorite spots. Going around on the river, we see Nha Rong Wharf where Ho Chi Minh left to save the country and the Thu Thiem Ferry where people are on their way to or from work. Sitting on the junk, wind off the river blows a cool gust through our hair like it wants to play with us.

The price for a junk tour is not expensive, just VND80,000 for an hour. If tourists go in a group the price is cheaper because each junk holds ten persons.

SGT

Reunification Palace

Reunification Palace (Vietnamese: Dinh Thống Nhất) formerly known as Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập) built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, is a historic landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was designed by architect Ngo Viet Thu as the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the site of the official handover of power during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. It was then known as Independence Palace, and an NVA tank crashed through its gates, as recorded by Neil Davis.

Designed as the home of former president Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S.-backed leader of Vietnam until his assassination in 1962, this building is most notable for its symbolic role in the fall of Saigon in April 1975, when its gates were breached by North Vietnamese tanks and the victor’s flag hung on the balcony; the very tanks that crashed through the gates are enshrined in the entryway and photos and accounts of their drivers are on display. Built on the site of the French governor general’s home, called the Norodom Palace, the current modern building, designed when “modern” meant “sterile,” was completed in 1966 — it looks something like an old elementary school to our eye now, but modern-design fans love it. Like the Bao Dai Palace in Dalat, the Reunification Palace is a series of rather empty rooms that are nevertheless interesting because they specialize in period kitsch and haven’t been gussied up too much. Tour private quarters, dining rooms, entertainment lounges, and the president’s office that feel like everybody just up and left one day — they did — and a tour is almost eerie really. Most interesting is the war command room, with its huge maps and old communications equipment, as well as the basement labyrinth. There is an ongoing screening in a series of rooms in the basement — mercifully cool and a good rest while touring — of mostly propaganda about the war years (plays in French, English, Japanese, and Chinese in separate screening rooms).

The Conference Hall in the main room is still used for important national events. The carpeting you’ll see on your visit is a shabby piece of cheap cloth used for display and protection purposes only. For special events, like the recent APEC summit and the signing of the WTO accord, the display rug is whisked away and the “for guests only” carpet, a plush, bright red piece with gold accents, is unveiled.

The building covered an area of 12 hectares, including a palace with the façade of 80 meters in width, a guest-chamber capable of accommodating 800 persons, with surrounding gardens covered by green trees and grasses. Most of the building materials were inported from France. Owing to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the construction got behind schedule. Not until 1873 was this palace completed. The palace was named Norodom Palace after the then king of Cambodia (King Norodom (1834-1904). The avenue in front of the palace bore the same name. From 1871 to 1887, the palace was for the use of the French Governor of Cochinchina (Gouverneur de la Cochinchine); therefore, it was referred to as Governor’s Palace. From 1887 to 1945, all Governors-General of French Indochina used this palace as their residence and office. The office of the Cochinchinese Governors was relocated to a nearby villa.

The Banquet Chamber in the Independence Hall