Saigon Misses

Now that we've gone through the things we liked in Saigon, let's talk about what left us underwhelmed.

First on the agenda is the Central Post Office.  It was built during the French rule and designed by Gustave Eiffel.  Now it's mostly a tourist attraction for the architecture, so it was worth stopping by. It certainly is pretty, but we mostly just walked in, looked around, took some goofy pictures, visited the gift shop and left.  It was far from life changing.

On to another less-than-impressive destination.  We also visited the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Art.  It's housed in a beautiful French colonial building, but the collection doesn't live up to the environs.  Much like in Cambodia, curatorial efforts just aren't a priority it seems.  While some of the pieces were certainly impressive and lovely, there was little if any information explaining the art or artists.  As a former museum employee, Neil was most offended by the exposure of the pieces to the elements.  Because the building doesn't have air conditioning, most windows were wide open, and the art wasn't protected from the air or sunlight, which can easily lead to deterioration.

Yes, that is tape on the top of the teapot

In the secondary building holding a smaller collection, there was some definite evidence of a party the night before.  The employees at the help desk looked like they were passed out, and there were actually trash and beer bottles sitting in one of the galleries.  Neither of us are opposed to a good museum party, but maybe straighten up a bit before visitors show up the next day.  I guess not every museum can be the Louvre (or even Saint Louis University Museum of Art).

They didn't even save any for us

Overall, I did enjoy Saigon (possibly because I willed myself to), but it certainly wasn't my favorite city of all time.  Because it is very westernized, we had very little trouble communicating or finding easily recognizable food.  On the other hand, the city just doesn't have much authentic culture, in our opinion.   Usually a city of this size would have a good number of must-visit locations.  There should be a tourist trail of attractions.  The best we saw was the backpackers district, which is full of cheap bars instead of monuments.  This isn't exactly what we were looking for.

We covered all of the tour book highlights in about two afternoons without much effort.  After that, we mostly spent our time walking around without any focus (which isn't a bad thing) and eating (which also isn't terrible).  I guess Saigon just didn't hold our attention very well.  Maybe we were spoiled by busy to-do lists in Cambodia, but we just didn't have the same connection with Saigon. Oh well.   At least the food was good!

Can't get enough Banh Mi

Pho: Breakfast of Champions

Weird, vegetable roll thingy.  It only looks like a donut