ITE HCMC 2012 - Day 2 - Wednesday 12 September 2012

Unification Palace

This morning I woke to the alarm and went down to the buffet breakfast served in the Legend Hotels restaurant. There was a delightful selection of Asian and Western dishes.

I then boarded the mini-bus with the other people in our group staying at our hotel for a tour of the city.  We first saw the Unification Palace which has had an interesting history.  In another post I will give a fuller history if this interesting Palace which was built reflecting Vietnamese, Western and French design ideas. . The Palace Guide showed us through the many official and private rooms decorated in 1960’s style reflecting the era when it was built.  The ground floor consisted of the Banquet Room with yellow carpets to help promote feelings of happiness, and the Cabinet Conference Rooms and ceremonial hall.

The first floor, housed the map room, Presidents room, National and International Reception rooms. It was interesting to see that The Presidents Chair was raised from the floor to symbolize power, and has dragon arms on it. Other rooms included the Advisors Reception room, and the Ambassadors  Reception room, which had a 14 panel lacquer work of art on one wall.

The 2nd floor houses the ladies reception room, movie theatre and gambling room. The third floor housed the presidents and guests living quarters. On the Fourth floor the dancing room was established.

The basement and Sub-Basement housed the war rooms - the map, radio communications, tele-printers rooms and kitchen.

War Remnants Museum

We then went to the War Remnants Museum which showed another perspective of the Vietnam War. I can not say that it was an enjoyable visit, as it was mere disturbing than anything else.  It just reinforced my view of how cruel human beings can be to each other and that love is more important than hate.

In the afternoon we were taken to the Saigon Exhibition and Conference Center (SECC) for lunch in the Upstairs Foyer, then a 4Code Presentation Seminar where a person from Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam gave an overview of tourism in their country. (Unfortunately the person from Laos was unable to be present.).

In the evening we attended the Opening Ceremony, Vietnam Night, Gala Dinner, & Tourism Alliance Awards Evening. This was held at the White Palace where we sat at round tables of 10 people and enjoyed an evening of speeches and entertainment of singers and dancers highlighting Vietnamese culture.

It was like a United Nations gathering with people from many countries around the world in attendance.  I sat at a table with people from Vietnam, Switzerland, Russia, Malaysia, and Germany. Apart from the official speeches there were performances of Vietnamese dancers and singers on stage for us to enjoy while we ate.

I ate everything on the menu which  consisted of -

APPERTISERS
Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Deep Fried Squid Ball Wrapped Egg
Marinated Lotus Stem Salad with Prawn and Pork

MAIN COURSES
Scrampi Currie
Braised “Thai” Style
Grilled Chicken
Steamed Sticky Rice with Coconut Sauce

White Palace

Deep-fried Crsipy Seabass
Fried Ruce with Seafood and Lotus Salad

DESSERTS
Grilled Casssava cake
Grilled Banana Cake
Green Leaf Cake

BEVERRAGES
Heineken Beer, Wine, Soft Drink, Mineral water

Then it was back to the hotel for a nights rest, as I passed over the late night function