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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
We flew from Dalat to Ho Chi Minh City, which used to be called Saigon. We decided to stay at The Rex hotel. A very old hotel, which was used by American officers during the Vietnam War, also by the CIA. It has a great rooftop restaurant and bar, which is where we ended up on our first night. Kind of like a Vietnamese Vegas act with singer and bird cages all around and the revolving sequined crown. It has a couple of good pools so it was a good choice for the kids. They offer some serious discounts on their Website as well. We were able to get a room for all four of us with 2 queen sized beds for about $110US, which includes a good all you can eat breakfast buffet. A central location in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. The Rex is a 5 star hotel, but under renovation when we were there. There is an old wing and a new wing. Rooms in the new wing are double to triple the price. Ho Chi Minh City has a familiar feel to it after traveling through Vietnam for the past three weeks. It definitely is the most Western of any of the places we have been. A real city feel that has almost evolved separately from the rest of Vietnam. It is busy and there are many things to see and do. The old buildings in the central part of HCMC are really beautiful, especially the post office, city hall, the municipal theatre, and Notre Dame Cathedral.
We did a half day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. Great experience for the kids. You start out by sitting through a terrible propaganda film about the terrible Americans who came to Vietnam and killed women and children and destroyed all the beauty, but afterwards you get to wander through the actual tunnels. There are over 75 miles (120k) of tunnels. Amazing when you see how the people lived in them. After the tour, you can even pay to fire an original M16 rifle for about $1US a bullet. The tunnels were really small although they had kindly enlarged the entrances for the big fat tourists. It was very dark inside and although Max and India went everywhere they were allowed, Roy only went in for a little ways and Sarah chickened out altogether.
We opted not to go to the War History Museum or sometimes called the War Crimes Museum as we didn’t think it would be appropriate for our kids or even us. Apparently some very gory pictures from the war. We did go to the History Museum which was OK. Probably one of the dustiest museums I have been to, but still good.
We had some good food in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), one night we ate at Zan Z Bar restaurant, with its hip atmosphere. A good choice for Western food, especially steaks, as the meat comes from New Zealand and does taste like home. There were also some good Asian Fusion dishes, I had a memorable lobster tempura appetizer . We also had good Indian food at a Tandoor Restaurant. At night we typically would go for drinks and dessert at a rooftop bar, one of the best was Saigon Saigon Bar at the Caravelle. We also booked a private Mekong Delta tour with Exotissimo Travel.
from: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/borleefamily/1/1279029142/tpod.html
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