Adventures in Uncle Ho's City

I've spent two days seeing the sights in Ho Chi Minh City, including:

-The Re-Unification palace. A giant estate with a palace from the 1960's. A conservative and unimpressive exterior style but a generally tasteful interior. Highlights included the exhibit on the Tet offensive (the Vietcong had a mole inside palace), the President's war bedroom, and the private Swedish furnished movie theater.

-The War Remnants Museum. Lots of American military equipment and vehicles gleaming outside in the warm SE Asian sun. Pro-photographer (extensive exhibit on war photographers, which depicted them as the unsung heros), not so positive about American Imperialism, Lyndon Johnson, or former Senator Bob Kerrey (a whole wall devoted to the special forces massacre that he led). Most horrifying was the exhibit on chemical warfare.

-The Cathedral, which was called Notre Dame on a tourist flier. The inverse of the palace, aesthetically.

-Some Buddhist/Chinese-looking pagodas. Smokey, dark, quiet. Angkor Wat sets the bar pretty high for religious sites.

-Three Markets: one with mass-produced cheap goods for locals, one with extremely overpriced items for tourists, and one small commercial trading area. These markets were less interesting places than those in Cambodia. Vietnam is more commercial, accustomed to Tourists, and seems to have higher price levels (for all things).

-The Post Office. It's was a Post Office. There was a giant painting of Uncle Ho that was nice, but otherwise unimpressive.

I had my first woman driver in SE Asia, maybe ever. She spoke one word of English (okay) and was very amiable. She had a sun hat-helmet combo that was pretty clever.

A man named Mr. Zippo sold me some coins and showed me his enormous collection of SE Asian paper money. He told me that had been in the Southern Vietnamese Army, and gave me his business card.

I find old men to be the friendliest Vietnamese I meet. I sometimes stop and talk to Moto drivers who are trying to pick up customers.