During our Southeast Asia cruise, we visited Ho Chi Minh City – formerly known (and still often referred to by the locals) as Saigon, the capital of the former South Vietnam.
We visited Independence Palace, the former presidential residence and office. We were amazed that after South Vietnam surrendered to the north, the North Vietnamese didn’t ransack or destroy the palace, but left it intact. The furniture and the rotary-dial telephones on the desks remain as they were in 1975.
We visited the History Museum and Reunification Hall, which contained artifacts of all sorts from throughout Vietnam’s history.
For the obligatory shopping stop, we visited a store that sold lacquered art. After a quick explanation of the lacquering process, we were free to roam about the store. Since we travel light, we have no room for souvenirs, nor are we inclined to fill our house with more stuff, but there was some nice art and lacquered objects. This selection was certainly preferable to the cheap, junky stuff usually proffered to tourists.
Finally, our tour took us into Chinatown and to a temple where people lit incense to honor their ancestors.
The nicest part of our excursion was our tour guide, Loc. He was a charming, handsome man in his 30s (we guessed) who happened to be gay. He was delighted to have the opportunity to lead a tour of gay men, which was probably the first and last time he would get to do so. He spoke at length about what it was like to grow up gay in South Vietnam, and how much more accepting their society is today, although LGBT+ people have no legal protections there.
As our tour bus approached the cruise terminal, he sang the Carpenters song “When I Think of Love” for us a cappella. He had a lovely singing voice, and his heartfelt rendition was beautiful. He was a total sweetheart.
This was so interesting! My memories of the Vietnam War (I was in college!) definitely did not include such interesting places and things. Even the shopping looked cool! So envious of your amazing travels this time.
I remember living through the Vietnam War era, too. It was enlightening to learn the very different perspective the Vietnamese people had of the war and of the United States. While it will always be part of their history, it was also wonderful to see how they have rebuilt, progressed, and moved on since then. Now, thanks to the normalizing of relations between the two nations under President Clinton and the efforts of Vietnam veterans such as Senators John McCain and John Kerry, the US and Vietnam are on very friendly terms.