Vietnam 33: Reunification Palace

One way I know I am almost at my hotel--home--when I ride in from Tan Son Nhat Airport at midnight happens when I see the Reunification Palace on my right as my taxi goes down Nam Ky Khoi Nghia. Reunification Palace was the home of the President of South Vietnam during the American War.

There is a roof with a helicopter, of course, and in the basement  is a command bunker featuring original maps and an old General Electric (American-made) radio. There's a conference room, a banquet room, a kitchen big enough to feed a crowd.  More than one room of gifts to the various occupants. Time has stood still, as they say, with all its year-appropriate Naugahyde, although the building is still used for, say, meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.

Before tourists are allowed on the organized tour, they must watch a fifteen minute grainy black and white video on the history of the building.

And the view outside from the fourth floor could be of Paris.