The last stop on our 16 day family trip through Vietnam was Hồ Chí Minh City (a.k.a. Saigon, Sài Gòn). Our two main stops during our time in the area were:
Even as residents of Bangkok, Hồ Chí Minh City felt very busy. The traffic was constant and dense.
The traffic made getting around a challenge. We spent hours in the car to get a few kilometers outside the city to visit the Củ Chi Tunnels.
Củ Chi Tunnels
There are a few places that people can visit the Củ Chi Tunnels. We went to Bến Dược which we understood to preserve more of the original form of the war era tunnels.
This was a stop that was worthwhile to make, but to call it a “good” stop could be misleading. While our kids enjoyed crawling through tunnels, we were given a glimpse of the horrors of war for both sides.
Saigon Opera House
We went straight from the Củ Chi Tunnels to the Saigon Opera House and wrapped up our day with a beautiful performance of the À Ố Show by Lune Productions.
Having just spent two weeks traveling from Hanoi to HCMC, I was impressed by how much of what I’d observed in Vietnam was artistically captured on the stage. The progression from playful harmonious village life to cacophonous urban life to broken spinning villages was powerful. My kids (10 & 11) loved it; there were a few sexually themed scenes that, while artfully executed, were not what I would typically expose my children to.
Cameras were not allowed, but you can see the official trailer for the production below:
Wrapping Up
Our last morning in Vietnam we walked to a few things near our hotel we wanted to see.
We walked to the Saigon Central Post Office (where we mailed a few postcards).
The post office was right next to the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon which—fortunately for itself, but unfortunately for our tourist pleasure—was undergoing rehabilitation.
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