Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City – Exploring the City
For a massive multimillion megapolis central Ho Chi Minh is actually quite pleasing with broad avenues, many parks and green areas and historic architecture juxtaposing the ultra modern skyscrapers. The natural start of city exploration is the ornate City Hall with the statue of Ho Chi Minh aka Uncle Ho proudly showing Vietnam the way to communism. A few blocks up is the Saigon Central Post Office where you can load up on awesome Vietnamese stamps (which similar to North Korea have a lot of communist themes and imagery in them). Opposite the post office is the Norte Dame Cathedral of Saigon (closed for renovation). A little south from here is the Opera Theater, while north is the Independence Palace where the communist victory was proclaimed with the fall of Saigon. You can also walk to the river or admire the skyscraper from the wide Walking Street. And the city is beautiful at night!
