Exploring Ho Chi Minh City!

We spent our first day in Ho Chi Minh City wandering around the city itself and seeing the sights...

We started out at Ben Thanh market - checking out the lacquer wear and counterfeit clothing... It was pretty overwhelming with most vendors doing a pretty sad hard sell - "Mister, Mrs, Please help me, Please buy something!"
After picking up a couple of 'genuine' shirts for Lehi, we continued on the streets of Ho Chi Minh - we set out for Reunification Palace but were told that it was closed by a friendly coconut vendor - who liked Lehi's beard so much he gave Lehi one for 'free' and then opened a second for me at a cost of 15,000VND (about SGD1.20) ... I'm still not sure if Lehi's was really free, but we liked him so much we don't care...
Since Reunification Palace was closed until 1pm, we took the 'long way around' past City Hall (and the statue of Uncle Ho), the Opera House and Notre Dame Cathedral.

The heat started to get a bit much so we took a break in the historic Post and Telegraph Centre.

It was amazing inside - gorgeous and nice and cool - particularly inside the antique phone boxes.

After cooling off and the temperature dropping thanks to some rain, we continued on to Reunification Palace. It was built by the First President of South Vietnam and was originally called Independence Palace. It was the site where the North Vietnamese broke through the gates and officially took power in 1975. We took a tour here and saw some of the rooms, and particularly liked the basement which is set up as a bomb shelter.

From here we continued to the War Remnants Museum (which used to be called the Museum of American War Crimes). At first, it was interesting, and maybe even fun, to see the tanks, planes, guns and artillery kept in the museum grounds...

... but once you start looking at the photographic displays and the reconstructions, your mood changes dramatically.
We finished our day with a bowl of Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) from Pho 24.

And decided to book a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels for our next day...