Also Happy Easter to everyone! Today marks our 9th week of this cruise.
A short
description of Saigon:
“Over three decades have
passed since the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon. Today, the name of
this bustling metropolis on the Mekong River is Ho Chi Minh City. Yet, the
essence of the city, a major trading center since the 18th century, remains
unchanged. The air is filled with the cries of street hawkers and honking
horns. Bicycles, motorbikes and automobiles fly down the boulevards at dizzying
speeds. And everywhere, friendly faces and warm greetings meet you.”
The port of Phu My (pronounced "Foo Me") is your gateway to Ho Chi Minh City. Seems everyone still refers to it as Saigon.
The port of Phu My (pronounced "Foo Me") is your gateway to Ho Chi Minh City. Seems everyone still refers to it as Saigon.
Here we are doing a private tour with a
guide called Zoom. www.Saigonprivatetour.com Today, we are joined
by Rick & Janie and Marianne.
Very
pretty sail in passing by the mountains and trees and jungle like shoreline.
Various types of boats were all around. We actually arrived early this morning,
so we got about a 15 minute head start on our day.
Zoom
was our guide and we had a driver as well. Zoom is the owner of the company and
I highly recommend him and any of his staff. In Ha Long Bay we had one of his
staff (Tran) and he was wonderful. Zoom kept us moving, but we never felt
rushed. We got to see everything we wanted to and were back to the ship in
plenty of time for sail away.
Since it was Sunday traffic was lighter than usual and the drive
from the port to the city was only 1.5 hours. It was a very pleasant drive
following the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City passing through a
landscape of small villages, rice paddy fields, and oil and rubber trees and
hundreds of motor scooters. We got on a car ferry to cross into town and the
scooter next to us had a lady with a basket of chickens. Then we noticed that
she had side baskets in the back full of chickens as well. After we got off the
ferry on the other side we saw many chickens and other fowls being sold by side
of the road. We preferred to think she was just taking them for a Sunday drive.
Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, our first stop was at
the Rex Hotel, the site of the U.S. military's weekly updates, home of the
infamous "Friday Night Follies." Absolutely beautiful hotel. We
headed to the rooftop bar where Zoom treated us to their famous iced coffee.
Janie and I don’t like coffee, but we were the first to finish them. It had
lots of sweetened condensed milk and tasted just like candy. We had time for
photo ops and there was a lovely square with beautiful trees and flowers across
the street. The Opera House was here as well.
Next we drove to China Town which was historically filled with brothels
and opium dens. Today it is filled with restaurants, temples, jade stores and
medicine shops. We
drove through Chinatown past the vast Binh Tay Market for a visit to Thien Hau
Temple, home to the sea goddess who travels on the clouds rescuing seafarers
from storms and shipwrecks.
We visited the history/war
remnants museum, which was very interesting. Always interesting that the
war can be viewed very differently depending on who is telling the story.
It was time for lunch and
Zoom treated us to noodle bowls at Pho 24 (pronounced Faa? Not really a
question, but the last A inflects at the end) We had thinly sliced beef and
noodles with various things to stir into the broth.Very tasty! We also had some
very wonderful spring rolls. Then it was time to shop! (we had 30 minutes) The Ben Thanh Market, a historic symbol of Saigon, full of
souvenirs and tempting cuisine made for nice photo ops.
Zoom
We had photo stops at
Notre Dame Cathedral (19th-century red brick construction of the
Roman-Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral, recalls the historic end of the Vietnam War
at Ho Chi Minh's stately Reunification Palace), the French Colonial Post Office,
Reunification Hall, City Hall, Independence
Palace and Ho
Chi Minh Park.
We drove past the Botanical and Zoological Gardens, Le Loi ave. and another street full of high
end stores. Saigon is quite a mix of old charm, slums and beautiful city. Your
senses are overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of this wonderful city.
Anything you can imagine can be carried on their motor scooters. Families of 4
fit easily.
We visited the National
History Museum of Vietnam. This French Colonial
building houses a collection of Vietnamese relics, from prehistoric artifacts
and carvings, to excavations of Han tombs, Buddhist statuary and everyday
items. Their collection traces
the cultural history of Vietnam with exhibits that feature stone and bronze
artifacts, Champa art, ceramics and traditional costumes.
At the National Museum Theater traditional Vietnamese
water puppet shows are performed which is a national art form. We giggled
ourselves silly as puppets were splashed around in the water. The puppeteers
were behind the curtain and the puppets were guided with attached sticks under
the water. Very enjoyable! The art has been dated back to 1121 for the purpose
of wishing the kings long life. For more than 800 years water puppet art has
been a cultural part of Vietnamese folk with 4 sacred animals called Dragon,
Turtle, Phoenix and Unicorn. After busy days of a crop season they came
together to watch performances that reflected their daily lives such as fox
catching a duck, plowing and transplanting rice, boat racing, fishing and
imaginary things such as fairy and dragon dances.
It was time for our drive back to the port. Very
enjoyable ride with lots of photo ops of people just going about their daily
lives.
We thanked Zoom profusely and said goodbye. He had been
taking photos all day and was going to make a DVD to give us but had some
issues with his equipment so he said he would mail them to us so we would have
them when we got back home.
We were back about 30 minutes before we needed to be. We
grabbed a quick snack and a cold drink before dinner. The shower felt good
after our steamy day.
Dinner tonight was quite special. They had a wonderful
Easter Feast. Everything sounded good and many of us ordered 2 appetizers to
try more things. Had wonderful twice baked goat cheese souffle with garlic
Sabayon, pate de foie gras with black truffle and warm toasted brioche, trio of
caviar on smoked sturgeon with sour cream, pumpkin and golden potato gnocchi with
white truffle cream for appetizers and for the main course we had Herb-roasted
pink rack of Easter lamb and cold water lobster thermidor. YUM!
The show tonight was a comedy magician/variety show by
Dain Cordean. We were tired and luckily he was funny and his show was good to
keep us awake!
One sea day before our next port of Bangkok.
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