Goooooooood Morning Vietnam! We arrived in the port of Phu My (foo me) and drove 42 kilometers into Saigon. Surprisingly, everyone we talked to still calls it Saigon. Also, you notice that they don’t call it the Viet Nam War. They call it the American War. That kind of makes sense if you think about, especially since it was almost on the heels of the Vietnamese/ French War. For them, all their wars were Vietnam Wars. Saigon is the largest City in Vietnam. The trip into Saigon was an experience. Unlike our previous ports, there is no conglomeration of high rise office buildings and condos giving you that almost universal skyscraper image that we have observed in most of the previous ports in the East. In the last few years they have built a few high rises. One hotel paid $2,500 a sq. meter for their land downtown. At that price you know it is probably going be a high rise.. But the vast majority of Saigon is still small little open air, closet size stalls, selling everything you can think of and a few things that would never come to mind. We asked about these outdoor “coffee houses” along the road that had nothing but a roof, a small coffee/food counter and maybe 15 hammocks strung between posts. He said the hammocks are used for prostitution and mainly frequented by truck drivers to relieve their tension on the road. Kind of strange, but after 2 ½ hours in Saigon traffic, I can see where they might get plenty of business. The country looks incredibly poor to me although the guide says most people are “thriving” now. He reported that from 1975-1985 the majority of the people here were on the brink of starvation. Things have gotten progressively better since then. I am not sure how he defines “thriving” as things still look pretty grim to me.(Although I have to say it appears that about everyone can afford a motor scooter.) OMG, the motor scooters and the traffic! You have to see it to believe it. I saw 5 people on one motor scooter and 4 to a scooter isn’t unusual. Three, with a child or baby squeezed in between zigzagging between busses and trucks, was the norm. Also, the loads people can pile on these scooters is incredible. There are 40 million scooters in Vietnam and it felt like at least half of them were buzzing around on the streets of Saigon today. I must have taken 153 pictures of people on scooters. Many of the women wore masks for the pollution, others were selling things off the back of the scooter. Some used their scooters like a pickup truck. I would tell myself that I would not take another picture of a scooter, no matter what. About then a scooter would pass with a 3 year old casually hanging on to mom bouncing along on the back of the scooter. There was no special seat or strap as child just tried to hang on as mom barreled along side our bus, down dirt paths, veering on and off the paved road. We arrived at our first stop in Saigon, undamaged and without running over anyone. It was the National History Museum. There was an assortment of Vietnamese artifacts some dating back centuries. Then they held a water puppets show. I know, I rolled my eyes too – but as it turned out it was very colorful and cleverly done. What made it the most fun were the little Vietnamese kids that were captivated. They squealed, pointed and clapped every time the dragon would attack the duck or the puppets would swim in formation. Then on to Thien Hau Temple in Chinatown. It was an ornate Buddhist temple, heavy on the incenses. Incense was burning everywhere including the entire ceiling was covered with burning incense coils. Very intricate carvings, ornate ceramics and remarkable architecture all made it worth the stop. Next, we visited the Minh Phuong Lacquer Factory. Interesting process. You could tell the difference between these and the $5 knock offs on the street. I broke down and finally bought something, for me or a Christmas present, I don’t know yet. There was no shopping at street markets on this tour, which was unfortunate, as this is the cheapest I have seen things thus far. Jim ended up getting “Ralph Lauren Polo” shirts 3 for $10. The Polo players are probably riding the wrong direction or swinging a golf club if you look too closely. At that price they are disposable and will put off doing laundry a few days. They had “Prada” sunglasses for two bucks. I can only imagine how much fun Courtney and I could have had haggling for knock offs at the open market. We saw Notre Dame Cathedral and Ho Chi Minh Park. I went into the French Colonial Post Office to mailed Hannah a postcard. The exchange rate is about 21,000 Dong to the dollar so I gave her a dollar for the card. She gave me change, I bought two stamps, she gave more bills – when all was said and done, from my dollar bill I still had 1,000 Dong left. I was tempted to change a $20 bill just to have some 100,000 bills in my wallet- for $50, I could have been a millionaire! Next stop, Reunification City Hall, the old Presidential Palace. Down in the basement was the war room with all the old equipment still in place. We had a buffet lunch at the Hotel Majestic. Quite nice. We also went to the Rex Hotel, famous for it’s bar, where weekly military updates on the war were given, and the infamous “Friday Night Follies”. I actually thought the Majestic was more attractive. I was just as fascinated with the country and people on the 2 ½ hour return trip to the ship. We watched people working the rice fields, store keepers hawking their wares and of course the dance of the deadly scooters. Somehow, 40+ years ago watching the Vietnam War unfold nightly on TV it never occurred to me that one day I would be strolling the streets of Saigon taking snapshot of motor scooters and buying Polo knock offs. Life is strange.
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