Palace of Reconciliation

The Palace of Reconciliation in Ho Chi Minh City is the former seat of government of South Vietnam.

It was here in 1975 that fighting in the Vietnam/American war finally ceased when North Vietnamese tanks famously burst through the palace gates to end the war.

The palace gates are now fully restored:

It’s a peaceful place now with the palace fully restored to its former colonial splendour, but it was quite sobering to stand on the same balcony location that a brave photographer stood in 1975, watching tanks crashing through the gates to complete of the communist take over (or reunification) of the country:

The moment nearly 39 years ago when those same gates were attacked by the Liberation Army in 1975 to bring the Vietnam/American war to an end:

Some of the tanks that finally ended the war:

Some of the sumptuous rooms in the palace:

The internal gardens:

And rooftop helipad:

And as if to demonstrate the openness of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the 2009 Miss World Pageant was held in HCMC and the contestants visited the Palace of Reconciliation:

It had been a good introduction of Vietnamese colonial history but after walking around the palace for a couple of hours, this group of tourists took a well earned break on the palace steps before braving the HCMC traffic back to the hotel: