Tour at the Reunification Palace

I had the opportunity to visit one of the most important landmarks in Vietnam this week. The Reunification Palace, formerly known as the Independence Palace, is said to be important because of its historical value... it is the very place where Vietnam war ended on April 1975. The place is located at the center of the city @ 135 Nam Ky Khoi Nghiad Street, District 1. It is very near Saigon Notre Dame Basilica, in fact it is just a 5-minute walk from the cathedral. 

The palace opens from 7:30 am to 12 noon and 1:00 to 5pm from Monday to Sunday. Yes! It is open all the days of the week and open to both tourists and locals alike. Before you can get inside the place, an entrance ticket worth 30 thousand VND is a requirement. You can buy the ticket inside the souvenir shop at the left-most side of the main gate. FYI, you need to keep your ticket with you while you are inside the place because there are security personnel on bicycle who randomly checks if you really paid the entrance fee or not. The ticket is inclusive of guided tours in different languages such as English, French, Chinese or Japanese; a film viewing on  “Independence Palace – Witness to History” and an access to the garden. Truly, the money that you pay is really worth it because you actually get more than what you paid for.

From the outside of the main building, you can see the water fountain (in front of the palace), the F5E fighter plane, which bomb the palace in 1975 and the 843 and 390 tanks, which led the final assault to the palace gate in the same year (in the right-most side of the palace).

In the first floor you can see the meeting room, dining room (somewhat), social hall and the elegant stairway to the second floor. According to the tour guide, some of the rooms here are for rent to be used in special occasions such as meetings and banquets. Furthermore, the palace also has facilities for celebrations such as weddings and birthday parties. The stairway is just for viewing purpose only. You cannot use it to go to the other floors, instead you can take the elevator or the other stairs on the side. 

The former president's office, a room filled with maps, a small garden with some antique collections on the side, a beautiful room covered with laquer paint, the majestic carpet and an outside view from the veranda are only some of the interesting sights that you can find in the second floor.

In the next floor, you can see the theater room, the projector room (you can see this on your way to the 4th floor), the palace library and yet another collection of fine furnitures. 

Finally, you will have a glimpse of a piano, an open area with some bonsai plant on both opposite sides and a humongous helicopter in the last floor. 

There are only four floors in the palace excluding the basement, which I never bother to see. I was in the place for almost 3 hours and to tell you honestly I really enjoyed the different views that I saw there. Indeed, this tour was definitely fun-filled and educational.