I need Ideas- Help! Vietnam awareness!?

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Active Travel Vietnam

Please read more Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) travel information

Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it is still known to many, is Vietnamâ€™s largest city with a growing population of around 7 million. This is a city on the go 24 hours a day, where everybody seems to be busy either buying, selling, studying, working or just enjoying themselves. Despite the fact that modern high-rise buildings have begun to dominate the skyline in recent years there are still many fine examples of French colonial architecture in Ho Chi Minh City such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Old Saigon Post Office and the former Hotel de Ville. A stroll down Dong Khoi Street, the Rue Catinat of Graham Greeneâ€™s â€˜The Quiet Americanâ€™, will reveal more colonial classics like the Continental, Grand and Majestic hotels as well as dozens of tempting boutiques and galleries.

Ho Chi Minh City is a real shopperâ€™s paradise with modern shopping centers and trendy boutiques rubbing shoulders with traditional street markets. The cityâ€™s best-known market is Ben Thanh Market where you can buy anything from fresh fruit and flowers to the latest imported electronics and cosmetics.

One of the most interesting places to visit in Ho Chi Minh City is the former Presidential Palace, now renamed the Reunification Hall. This building remains almost exactly as it was on the morning of 30th April 1975 when the Saigon regime surrendered to the victorious liberation forces and the country was reunified for the first time since 1945. For more war-related history the War Remnants Museum with its thought provoking display of weapons and photographs is also worth visiting.

Cholon, Ho Chi Minh Cityâ€™s Chinatown, is the frenetic commercial centre, where every building has a shop or workshop on the ground floor. Cholon also has the cityâ€™s largest market, Binh Tay Market, and some fine pagodas including Thien Hau Pagoda, with its huge incense coils suspended from the ceiling.
A visit to the 15 May School, where disadvantaged children have the opportunity to study subjects as diverse as Vietnamese, English, mechanics, sewing and circus performing is a very worthwhile option during a Ho Chi Minh City tour.

For wining and dining it is hard to beat Ho Chi Minh City. The city is crammed full of restaurants and bars ranging from simple pavement stalls where you can buy a bowl of noodles for a few cents to sophisticated restaurants serving fine European cuisine at a fraction of the price you would pay in Europe. Ho Chi Minh Cityâ€™s nightlife has become very cosmopolitan in recent years and there are literally hundreds of bars, pubs, night clubs and discotheques to pick from for a night on the town. Further afield, popular day trips from Ho Chi Minh City include the incredible Cu Chi Tunnels built by Vietnamese resistance fighters during the long years of struggle for independence and the bizarre Cao Dai Temple at Tay Ninh. More at: http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/city/saigon.html

Geoff H

On arrival book a travel to the Mekong Delta, to see the floating markets. Visit the war museums to understand a little bit more of what the citizens of this great country went through.
Also go to the Cu Che Tunnels, very interesting and what an eye opener, it will show what a resourceful race the people were during the American war

Julia B

I would suggest a different approach than studying the Vietnam War. If you go to HCMC, you will find that most Vietnamese people are over the war and there is little/ no sign of the war--this is partly because over half of the population were born after 1975. I suggest you choose to focus on a topic that matters in contemporary Vietnam, such as the balance between Communism and a free-market economy, tourism, or other forms of social and economic development.

kim n.

Well, to start, it's Ho Chi Minh City.
You can talk about the Vietnam War and tell them that you want to see how the city has changed since the war. Talk about all the battles that took place in the city and how the entire city was destroyed. Tell them you want to, as I said before, observe how the city has changed since then. That could probably do it, and I'm pretty sure you would be accepted to go to Vietnam.
I really hope you do because it is a beautiful country.

just chilling

yea

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