Independence Palace

 

After visiting the War Remnants Museum, I walked to the Museum of Vietnamese History but it was closed due to lunch.  So I walked around a bit more and walked to the Independence Palace (aka Reunification Palace) as soon as lunch was over.  This Palace is a landmark in HCMC and its most visited museum.  Admission was 30,000 dong ($1.43).  This Palace is really a restored four floor time-warp back to the 60s/70s left largely untouched from the day before Saigon fell to the North (construction started in 1962 and finished in 1966).  Formerly South Vietnam's Presidential Palace and also the workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, the war ended on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tank #843 bulldozed through the gate (see 1st pic below – followed by the other pics of the ‘gate crashing’).  A replica of that tank is now parked on the lawn outside.  Tank #848 (pic below) was also part of the attacking formation that crashed through the gates on April 30th.  The pic of the helicopter on the roof is that of the U.S. CIA evacuating the day before on the 29th.  April 30th is celebrated as a public holiday in Vietnam as Liberation Day or Reunification Day. Workers get the day off.

This museum was cool as though a lot of rooms were kind of empty; they are nevertheless interesting as they haven’t been ‘gussied’ up too much.  You can view private quarters, dining rooms, entertainment lounges, and the President’s Office in which it feels like everyone just got up and left one day (they did!).  It definitely had a 60s/70s feel to it.  I thought the staircase had that feel as well as the ‘office’ pic below and the ‘casual/lounge’ room with the circular sofa in the middle of the room.  That room, with the flooring and the back wall, I thought definitely had a 70s ‘Brady-Bunch’ feel to it.

You could also go to the rooftop which included an outdoor ‘ballroom’ dancing area.  Pics below:

The basement may have been the best part with its creepy, dingy labyrinth.  There are war rooms with vintage 60s/70s phones, radios, huge maps, and other office equipment – left largely intact as it was found when the North took over.  The basement also houses the kitchen, old vehicles as well as a photo gallery.  Also in the basement was a hallway with rooms showing a propaganda film (each screening room showing the film in a different language) recounting how the South Vietnamese supporters and American imperialists succumbed to Ho Chi Minh's indomitable revolutionary forces.  The film was about 45 minutes long and I watched the whole thing for two reasons: 1) it was actually pretty interesting as it also spoke about the architecture of the building and 2) the A/C!  It was blasting and it was in the high 80s outside and extremely hot and humid.  It was nice to sit for a while and take a break.

There was also a nice outdoor café on the grounds right outside one of the basement exits.  See pic below.  After watching the film, I grabbed a can of 333 beer at the café and decided where to go to next – actually, as a side note, I decided to walk back to Cho Ben Thanh Market as I read that a popular gift many foreigners buy are ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ shirts with the slogan on them popularized from the movie if you know what I’m talking about.  Many vendors were selling all different types of these shirts and I bought an olive green one which is pretty cool.

 

But going back to the Palace, there was just something strange about the place – from its simple, modern simplicity to its emptiness.  That this building was the home of the South Vietnamese government and that 58,272 (according to Wikipedia – 12/2011) Americans died trying ‘save this building’ was unsettling…