FOR five whole days, my son Jandy and I, together with companions Violet Imperial (executive director of Nature Awareness and Conservation Club Inc.) and Rosanna “Osang” Kho (CEO of Kho Travel and Tours), went on a three-city tour of Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) and Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap). Taking the late-evening Cebu Pacific Air flight to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon), we arrived there at 1:30 am. From the airport, we took a taxi to the 81-room, three-star Elios Hotel, awarded with a Certificate of Excellence, based on ratings by hotel guests, by Tripadvisor in 2013. Staying there for two nights, it was to be our base for exploring, on foot, the prominent landmarks at the nearby French Quarter.
Our first stop was the two-story People’s Committee Building, one of the most photographed buildings in Vietnam. Formerly the Hôtel de Ville de Saïgon, it was designed in the French colonial style by French Arch. P. Gardes and was modeled after the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Paris. Built from 1901 to 1908, it is noted for its beautiful gardens and ornate façade, and is often referred to as the “Gingerbread House” due to the impressive exterior’s cream and white facade and ornate features. It has a main hall, rectangular wings and a central clock tower. Standing on a small, lovely park in front of the building is the iconic bronze statue of revolutionary leader and National Hero Ho Chi Minh.
The nearby iconic, stately and elegant 1,800-seat Saigon Opera House, another example of French colonial architecture in Vietnam, was completed on January 1, 1900. Its applied ornaments, balustrades, cartouches and roof are particularly French, while the large central arch, Ionic columns, coffered ceiling and the caryatids (though less modestly clothed than Greek examples) are Greco-Roman motifs.
A further walk is the Neo-Romanesque-style and French-inspired Notre Dame Cathedral, a modest replica of its namesake in Paris completed on April 11, 1880. All its original building materials were imported from France and the bricks of its exterior walls, which has retained their bright red color even today, came from Marseille in France. When we arrived, its front gates and heavy timber side doors were locked and, just like the Saigon Opera House and People’s Committee Building, we never got to see its interior.
Across the cathedral is the Neo-Classical-style Saigon Central Post Office. One of the most recognizable landmarks in the city, this fine example of French colonial architecture is a mixture of Gothic, Renaissance and French influences. This big, airy, spacious and still functioning post office building was designed and constructed, between 1886 and 1891, by the famous French civil engineer and Arch. Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame). On the upper part of both walls flanking the main entrance, are two large 18th century maps.
No visit to Ho Chi Minh City is complete without a visit to the infamous Cu Chi Tunnels and, during our walking tour of the French Quarter, we visited the Saigon Tourist Office and booked a half-day afternoon guided tour. After lunch at the Propaganda Café, we promptly returned to the tourist office by 1 pm, where we were to be picked up by our tour bus. This 75-mile (121-kilometer) long tunnel system was, during the Vietnam War, a safe haven for thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, and is now a war memorial park. We were to visit Ben Dinh, one of two tunnel display sites (the other is Ben Duoc) and the site where most group tours go. Our 40-km trip to Ben Dinh took us 1.5 hours. Upon arrival, we first attended an introductory black-and-white video presentation. Next was a fascinating tour, along a well-defined walking track, of a small, hidden tunnel entrance just beneath our feet; tiny little chimneys in the ground that dispersed smoke from underground kitchens, displays of different types of booby traps using punji sticks; tiny ventilation shafts and underground conference rooms. Along the way, we walked past huge bomb craters, evidence of the heavy B-52 bombing during the war. We also climbed up what remained of a US Army M-41 tank destroyed by a delay mine in 1970.
The highlight of our tour was our tough crawl through a 100-meter long section of the “touristed” tunnels, which have been enlarged and widened so that the larger Western tourists can now fit through.
We opted not to play real war games by firing a variety of authentic Vietnam-era assault weapons at a nearby shooting range.