Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Ho Chi Minh City, which is how Saigon was renamed after the reunification of Vietnam -yes, I prefer the old name-, is the big city, the metropolis of Vietnam. Not that Vietnam does not have big cities, as I would realize later, but HCMC is massive, fast-paced, and sprawled around.
Unlike Hanoi, Saigon feels like a modern city, not because it's been recently built (although there are a lot of new construction), but because the center was city planned so there are big avenues, boulevards and parks. Here we have to thank again the French for their heritage. It is definitely one of the big Asian capitals, fast, brash, with lots of high-rise and skyscrapers on the move,
We spent two days walking around the city, its majestic buildings, and eating great pho at the markets. I must say the food here is the closest to the one I had at the Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle. On the second day we visited the Botanical Gardens where there was one of the strangest zoos I've ever visited: next to the animals' sites there were fairground attractions with music blasting, however the animals seemed quite healthy and alive. I am against keeping animals in zoos for display though, even if they look healthy (I've visited unfortunately other city zoos, like the ones in Asuncion (Paraguay) and Georgetown (Guyana) and it was sad seeing the animals die). After lunch I went to the HCM Museum, which unfortunately was not the HCMC Museum, the one I was after. After a long day walking by the river we eventually had dinner at a fancy restaurant. What a better thing to do in Vietnam than eating!