History Museum, People Committee Building, HCMC, Vietnam

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These pictures are the last group that I took on our trip to Ho Chi Minh City.  Lonely Planet suggests a walking tour for people staying just one or two days in HCMC.  This walking tour covers the city centre, District 1 (or Saigon), and can be done in one, stimulus-filled day.  In fact, it is not possible to do this tour in only one day trip unless you are really too hurry and don't want to  spend time to contemplate turistic places such as museums, Churches, Pagodas, etc.  The following pitcures are part of this walking tour, suggested by Lonely planet and it took us the whole day.

The first place we visited was The Revolutionary Museum, the day we visited it there were a group of vietnamese actors and actresses filming a Soup Opera. The entrance fee is less than USD 1.00 The museum has an excellent collection of artefacts illustrting the evolution of the cultures of Vietnam, from Bronze Age Dong Son civilisation ( 13th century BC to 1st century AD) and the Oc-Eo (Funan) civilisation (1st to 6th centuries AD), to the Cham, Khmer and Vietnamese.  There are many valuable relics taken from Cambodia's Angkor Wat.  After this place we went to Zoo.  In our way to the Zoo I took some  pictures to High School students, street barber, a couple of ladies heaving their yummy lunch.  Before to make the Zoo we visited the catholic diocese. Inside this place, we found a really beatiful chapel and interesting catholic scultures.  We rested for a while at the zoo, that day was sunny and really hot.  However, it is quite common that during this time it rains, and rain is really heavy with thunders!!!  So, it is useful to have always a raincoat or an umbrella with you if you are planning to visit HCMC.

We had lunch at an Japanese Restaurant, the food was really good. This restaurant here in Bangkok is more expensive than in HCMC.  Later, we went to the People Committee Hall, where it is located one of the most famous Ho Chi Minh Statue.  The building was built between 1901 and 1908 and currently it is easily the most photographed building in Vietnam.  At night, the exterior is usually covered with thousands of geckos feasting on insects.