Happy Thanksgiving - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

I'm sad that this is the first Thanksgiving I am not with family. It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving, but I knew that it was. We flew from Da'nang to Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning. Our guide, a native of Ho Chi Minh City, explained that the downtown area was called Saigon with the other parts being Ho Chi Minh City. We first went to the Reunification Palace. It had formerly been the palace of South Vietnam's President. In 1975, the North Vietnamese broke through the gate with tanks and at that point South Vietnam ceased to exist. Those same tanks were on display just outside of the building. The palace wasn't really that impressive. We saw several rooms including the President's living area, secret basement rooms and other rooms as well. We then saw the Notre Dame Cathedral, but it is only open on Sunday's for services so we weren't able to actually see the inside. Right next to that was the Post Office which was really pretty. It was built by the French, as were a lot of the buildings around this area of Ho Chi Minh City. We walked a few blocks to the market and looked around, but didn't buy anything. The market was crazy with everyone calling out to you and touching you. Asking to buy anything and everything. We at lunch at Pho 2000, a place President Clinton had visited right before he left office. Pictures of his visit covered the walls. Pretty funny, but the pho was really good. We then got back in the car and went to the Jade pagoda. Inside there was a combination of Buddhism and Taoism. There was a ton on incense burning in here and there were points I could hardly breath. I have never been a fan of incense. The last thing we visited before checking into our hotel was the War Remnants Museum. Yet another difficult museum to visit. It was tough. I don't even really want to remember the experience, so I'm not going to write much about it. Our hotel, the first three star of the trip, was actually pretty nice. I think it was because it was in the biggest city in Vietnam. We found our own way to the Ho Chi Minh museum, which was in a pretty French building, and then wandered around a little bit looking at shops. Here is a picture of the crazy power lines they have here.