Vietnam/Cambodia Day 2: Saigon

Friday, February 6, 2026

After a wonderful buffet breakfast this morning, we started with a welcome and a briefing about Vietnam from Mike Tatarski, an ex-pat journalist who has lived in Vietnam for 15 years, giving us a top-level overview of Vietnam’s industry and economy and answering our questions, particularly about how Vietnam’s seemingly capitalist economy fits with its official Communist political system.

We then boarded buses to visit several local landmarks, including the Reunification Palace, Central Post Office, and Bitexco Tower. The Reunification Palace, formerly the Presidential Palace during the Vietnam War, was the site of the fall of Saigon in 1975. Its decor is a fine example of mid-century modern architecture and furnishings, as it was rebuilt in the 1960s following a bombing attack.

The Central Post Office looks like a train station with a large clock on the front. In addition to the usual postal counters, much of the inside contained various souvenir vendors for the large tourist trade (including ourselves). Kenna and I managed to pick up a few of the items we try to pick up when visiting a new place: A pin for Kenna’s hat, a flag for Jim, and a postcard for our daughter, Celeste.

We took the bus to the Bitexco Tower to see Saigon from its observation deck. The deck is approximately two-thirds of the way to the top, so it wasn’t absolutely the highest vantage point, but it was plenty high enough to get an excellent view of the city. One of the unique aspects of Bitexco Tower is the helipad that extends from the side of the tower just above the observation level. With wind currents and such, it seems like it would take extra skill for a helicopter pilot to land there.

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for a break and joined Dave and Jan for lunch at a nearby place serving banh mi sandwiches. The sandwiches were quite enjoyable, especially once Kenna and I removed the coriander (cilantro) from ours.

In the afternoon, we took the bus to the War Remnants Museum. This museum shows the Vietnam War (what they call the American War) from the Vietnamese point of view. The museum was quite crowded, making it difficult to see much during the limited time we had there, and many of the pictures shown were quite graphic. Fortunately, Kenna and I prepared for the trip by watching Ken Burns’ Vietnam documentary series, so we knew what to expect. We had seen much of this before so were able to speed through many of the rooms.

Later on, we were taken to a water puppet show. Water puppet shows are a Vietnamese tradition, depicting traditional cultural scenes. The stage for the show is a pool of milky white water, with the puppets appearing either from behind a curtain or sometimes popping out of the water. The many puppets are controlled by puppeteers behind the curtain who manipulate the puppets via long poles. The skill required to manipulate the puppets to tell a story and keep them from tangling with each other was remarkable.

In the evening, we had a group dinner at Xu, a nearby restaurant. The dinner was a tasting menu of several small dishes, which was a good introduction to Vietnamese cuisine. However, service was a little slow with our large group.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.