Saigon-April 5 and 6

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City has been an interesting visit. We sailed through the Saigon River early in the morning of April 5 to get to the port. We had a narration from the Bridge describing what we were seeing. It is a busy river filled with barges of all sizes and shapes. We both were surprised to see the large number of oil tanks. There were also many, many small fishing boats with families living on board and a very regular hydrofoil that went down the river from Saigon in a fast sail. Our commentator said the hydrofoil was a Russian built but it used a US made air-conditioner. Many of the small boats had two eyes- black and red- painted on the front to keep away the evil spirits.

We arrived in port about 9:30 with dancers and music. Plus the usual Vietnamese security gate carefully controlling entry and exit was quickly set up.

We took a bus tour to see the Highlights of Saigon. Our guide was excellent. He said the things the Vietnamese could learn from the US are to stand in line, to be on time, and to always keep working to make things better. His English was excellent and his information clear. We visited the Reunification Palace where in 1975 the Southern forces officially surrendered to the Revolutionary forces. We found a big, empty building with large conference rooms and no furnishing. The building was wide-open to the air. In the basement was the emergency bedroom of the President of Vietnam. During the war he often slept there. The radio equipment was ancient. Actually the whole place looked like it must have looked in 1975. They are in the process of cleaning it all up for a November meeting of APEC.

We visited a beautiful pagoda built in 1744. We were both surprised to realize that Vietnam is a country about the same age as the US and has been occupied and controlled by China, the French, the Japanese and of course there was the “American War” time. We removed our shoes and went into the pagoda to hear beautiful chanting by a Buddhist monk.
We had several shopping/learning stops- one at an embroidery shop and one at a lacquer ware shop. Can’t get over the folks who work so hard and who get paid very little for their creative work.

In the evening we went to a folkloric show at the Rex Hotel, the former BOQ for the US military. We were on the rooftop with a nice breeze, cool wine and a musical and dance presentation. We saw several musical instruments that were totally new for us- one was made from rocks and looked and sounded like a marimba. Several were made from bamboo and had unique sounds.

Today we took a trip up the Mekong River Delta on small motorized boats and in canoes. All these boats were operated by someone else. We stopped and tasted lots of local food raised by the farmers in the delta. We ate some coconut candy, candied coconut and candied ginger. We tasted banana wine and jasmine tea with kumquat juice and honey. Our lunch was quite traditional- rice paper wrapped elephant-ear fish, roasted pork, vegetable soup with rice steamed prawns, sticky rice- many new taste sensations.

The many motor scooters raced up and down the streets and roads. Our guide today said there were 12,000 deaths a year in Vietnam from traffic accidents. Certainly can understand why that happens. People are working hard to better themselves. We saw some lovely, new house construction and we also saw some almost slum looking areas…so there is much room for a better life.

We did learn that most of the southern people prefer to call this city Saigon and the people from the north prefer calling it the official Ho Chi Minh City, as it was renamed after the American War.