January 17, 2007
Rest Day in Saigon: Museum of the American war
We have a list of things to do today.
After breakfast Patrick's mission is to find some recordable DVD's. He has taken many more pictures than expected in Cambodia and his stash of blank discs is running low, he heads to a part of town we've not yet visited. Rachel sets off in the opposite direction for the market to shop for some more souvenirs we can mail home from here. During our trip through the city so far we have not yet seen a store that carried computer stuff, but stores seem to be grouped around the city depending on what they sell so we've just not gone to the right place. After some walking Patrick finds an office supply store that sells DVD's. Patrick picks up 20 more blank DVD's. He then heads back to check the internet and wait to meet up with Rachel.
We have lunch, pack up our box and take a taxi to the post office. It's an expensive deal to mail stuff home, about VND 500,000 ($30UDS) this time, but it sure is nice to get rid of about 5kg of stuff, and of course to have the souvenirs at home. We then walk past the old Presidential Palace that still has the T41 tanks in the yard that broke down the gates when Saigon fell. Rachel remembers watching this when in College...she lived in a house with a Vietnamese student and watching this event with her, she said "I no longer have a country."
Just beyond that is the "war remnants museum" once called the "Chinese and American war crimes museum". Inside is a one sided depiction of the US war but the pictures and stories do document war crimes that happened here by the hands of Americans. War is not pretty, and it's always the innocent that suffer most. And the winners get to write the history.
In the evening we have some nice fajitas and empanadas in a Mexican Restaurant nearby, we pick up our laundry and exchange another book. We've decided to head out again tomorrow, there is more to see in Saigon but our visa time is limited to 31 days and there are many more places to see.
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