September 5,

We awoke having both slept well. We are in Saigon! HCMC -much easier than writing it out, Ho Chi Minh City!!

We had our Javas and Jeff went to get us something for breakfast. He came back with some Beef Stew with a Baguette! It was better than what we had on Phu Quoc at Tiem An Mami. So good…YUMM! After we finished we readied and set out to explore.

We went to the Independence Palace, walking as it is not very far. We arrived, getting a combo ticket- 40,000 Dong entrance fee of the Palace and 25,000 Dong for Exhibit Admission. Total 65,000 Dong each ($2.60). In a nutshell, the Independence Palace was built in 1962-1966 on the foundations of Norodom Palace, a former residence of the French Colonial Governors General from 1871-1954. The Norodom Palace, renamed to Independence Palace in 1954, had been bombed in attempted coup in 1962 causing the construction of the present structure before us today. In 1975 North Vietnamese bombed the Independence Palace, but only damaged the Helipad and a staircase. In 1976 the Independence Palace was declared a National Site; in 1990 it was opened to the public; and in 2009 the Independence Palace became the Special National Site.

The building itself is in a symmetrical design, as was the former Norodom Palace, with grounds laying out symmetrically around it. The grounds were large and beautiful with a grand fountain in front. There were also a couple of “decoration” tanks. Inside the actual Palace we went from room to room with descriptive placards written in Vietnamese, English, and French. The first floor were huge rooms with grand tables, furniture, and large art pieces or paintings: Cabinet Room; State Banqueting Hall; Conference Hall; and National Security Council Chamber. The second, third and fourth stories had the “living spaces” of the Presidential and the Vice Presidential rooms: Reception Room and Reception Salon; Offices; Ambassador Chambers; Bedrooms; Library; First Lady's Reception; Cinema Room; Game Room and opening to the roof showing the place of the two bombs on the Helipad from 1975. Then lastly in the Independence Palace we went down into the Bunker- seeing the Command Centre rooms, Communications rooms with the line up of old telephones, radio equipment and many maps on walls all over. There was even an old Jeep down here. We exited through the Kitchen with it's huge equipment – mixers, wok type cooking pots… All crazy large!

We left the Independence Palace, walked the grounds to the Exhibit Hall – “From Norodom Palace to Independence Palace 1868-1966”. The exhibit is located in the “only surviving French-era building on the Palace grounds and is a recap of the nearly 100 years of the Independence Palace building site and how it changed from the French Norodom to South Vietnamese Headquarters to “liberation” & “Special National Site” status. There were also photographs and archival information of old Saigon life.

We exited the grounds now- museumed out. So we just went to a small store then back to our apartment at Saigon Pavilion, and chilled out. It is very oppressively humid here. As we had just at our place it started to rain, pretty hard, but straight down. Later we went up the pool – when we started up it wasn't raining, but just the elevator ride up it started pouring again. So I still did not see the pool. Anyway, rainy off and on today, but we were never really in it.

Around 1700 we went out for supper at the restaurant, Topping Beef. (We purposefully did not eat lunch, so we would be hungry.😋) We ordered a Combo Steak Meal, which was Australian Chilled Angus two cuts- one 300 gram (2/3 pound) Oyster Blade (or Flat Iron cut), and one 200 gram (just under 1/2 pound) Striploin; Green Mussels grilled with a Miso Mayo Corn Sauce; Grilled Veggies; and 3 dipping sauces- a Mushroom Cream, a Black Peppercorn Cream and a BBQ. We also had appetizer of Garlic Bread and a glass each of Jacobs Creek wine, a Cab. Shiraz. We were given a free Watermelon Mocktail/Juice. We enjoyed the meal immensely.

Finished we attempted to go to the “Notre Dame” Cathedral, but it was all enveloped in scaffolding, so we walked a bit and just went back to our place. It was a first great day in HCMC!