Our hotel was well situated between the most popular tourist spots (a recurring occurrence that I once attributed to luck much to Kaia’s chagrin), and we joined a mass of foreign and Viet tourists (many in ceremonial or at least fancy garb for photos) at the independence palace. With tanks of the same type that breached the gates some 50 years ago, preserved decor above ground, and radio equipment in the bunker below it, the palace served both as artifact and as museum. 

Post palace, we tried to hit as many of the must-see buildings as we could: unfortunately Notre Dame’s famous facade was being restored and a stage (presumably for Tet festivities?) blocked the front of the opera house. The post office was pretty, with Bac (Uncle) Ho’s face looking out over the indoor market under the domed roof. 

We returned to the Tet display we had watched the opening of the previous night, and enjoyed lunch from the same apartment cafe before heading to the HCMC museum. I’m gonna be honest, we probably should’ve skipped it. It seemed a great museum, but we were too tired and information saturated for the day for most of it to hold our interest and stick. 

An evening walk stumbled us into a large Tet celebration in Tao Dan park. Lion dances, multiple stages with singing and dancing, and wildly impressive bonsai and floral arrangements filled the park as bats (likely confused by the unusually vivid nightlife) swooped overhead. We tried two dinner spots that ended up being closed (for Tet) before returning to Filthy Vegan in desperation (we really tried to go somewhere new!).