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There was time for one more sunrise from the boat. It was nothing like before but ok. It was a nice tradition anyway to be up and watch the day break every morning. Then breakfast and getting packed up to go. Packing was a bit tricky since we won’t be getting to the hotel right away, so I tried to pack so that when leaving the carry-on bag on the bus I could still get to my camera and backpack if I wanted to (turned out I didn’t need either).
We’re headed into Saigon which I still have trouble calling Ho Chi Minh City as do many Vietnamese it would seem. Saigon, while I’m thinking about it means Tree (Sai) Cotton (Gon). But there aren’t any cotton trees around that we saw. Plenty of buildings though and a lot of them new. The right hand side of the river as we came into town had many new apartment buildings. They are quite expensive to live in according to our guide (expensive meaning needing to earn about 5K/month to live there). There were blocks of them where 4 or 5 or 6 big apartment buildings had been built, all the same. Presumably by the same builder. It makes for a fairly uninteresting skyline. At least for that part. But off in the distance was a very tall (82 stories) pointy building looking very out of place with all the other 20 story or so buildings around it. Kind of odd.
We passed all that and the harbor area with its huge cranes. The cranes looked like dragons or Marion thought Imperial walkers from Star Wars. We docked and got on board the bus and got our luggage loaded, then drove about 100 feet where we stopped to unload the luggage for inspection. We waited on the bus while this happened, but we could see through the glass doors as the process went on. Apparently there was a new guy working there who felt the need to show off to his bosses that he was doing his job. So he pulled out two bags from the line to open up. One of them was mine so I had to go in and unlock/unzip it for him. He poked through it a bit until he found my toiletries bag which he then needed me to open. What he seemed interested in were my vitamins (in a pill box). But, then all was well and I was free to go. When I got back on the bus the people asked me if everything was all right and I said “well, at least they didn’t find my cocaine”. This freaked out Marion fairly considerably, but I thought it was funny. I knew we were the only people on the bus. But, probably not the country to be making drug jokes in.
We took a brief spin around the area, stopping off at the hotel to drop off one of the passengers who was having stomach issues and wouldn’t be joining us for lunch. Then on to the National Museum. The museum is in an old French building which is quite pretty. The objects were fairly interesting, but the translation was a bit difficult to read and our guide was not particularly compelling in his explanations. In fact, yesterday, he lost the little pad that goes around his mic, so you can hear his breathing which sounds like static. It’s a bit annoying.
We were rushed through the museum, much like the coconut farm yesterday. Someone said it was closing and maybe that was why. Marion was very disappointed she couldn’t peruse all the objects which she wanted to do. For me it was yeah, fine, I’m good. The commentary wasn’t that compelling and the placards weren’t that interesting so sure, let’s move on.
We drove briefly again through town to the Vietnamese restaurant we were eating at. It’s called Propaganda, which is an interesting name for a restaurant in a communist country. We asked the guide where the name came from but he didn’t know. He kept promising to tell us “at the end of the banana season” an expression he had told us about yesterday that means never. Bananas only give fruit once, then they’re done. So the people plant a new tree as the old one is getting its fruit and after they harvest the old one they cut it down. So there is never an end to the banana season.
The walls are covered in very colorful ‘propaganda-style’ murals. The food was quite tasty and Marion and I both indulged in a fruit smoothie that were very good. And soursop ice cream for dessert!
Then back to the hotel where we could finally check in. The room is quite luxurious, on the 15th floor. The bathroom alone is practically bigger than the boat cabin. And regular Wi-Fi that works all the time (a nice change). Marion found she was still feeling like she was on the boat, but I settled onto the land pretty easily.
The guide gave us a brief tour around downtown on our way to drinks at the Rex hotel. We covered about a 5 block area but got a good feel. There’s a central street, that apparently used to be a canal the French covered over, that is now a pedestrian mall. So you can stand in the middle of town and look around without being run down by scooters. There were people dressed in costumes (panda, rabbit, dragon) posing for pictures like in Times Square. And speaking of Times Square, we passed the Times Square Hotel which is apparently 6 star. I thought the scale only went to five but I guess it’s so good it’s off the charts.
We walked by the Old Post Office which is a beautiful building as most of (at least the remaining) French architecture ones are. And it’s still the Post Office, which is nice (as well as a place for people to sell things). There was a government building that was the same yellow and white as the post office and similar architecture. You’re not supposed to take pictures of it. But, tempting fate, I did. As did a few others (Americans, nobody tells us what to do). Across from the Post Office is the Notre Dame church, which is a famous landmark but unfortunately under construction.
Off to the side of the Post Office the guide pointed out a building and said does anybody recognize that? Well it was very iconic. It was the rooftop where the ‘last chopper out of Saigon’ photo was taken. People think it was the American Embassy but it wasn’t. It was the offices of the US Agency for International Development (according to Google). Now there’s a big skyscraper behind it so the view isn’t quite the same. But there was no mistaking it.
There were clear indications of wealth – stores like Versace, Maserati, Louis Vitton, etc. It doesn’t jive with Communism as I understand it’s supposed to be. But I suppose it does with how I imagine it’s been implemented. Some more equal than others. If you’re wealthy and have friends in high places you can continue to be wealthy. If you’re wealthy and you don’t, well then you are an imperialist lackey dog and your wealth should be distributed to the masses. If you’re poor, well, you’re just poor. That never changes no matter what model is being used.
We had drinks at the Rex hotel which the rumor amongst our fellow travelers was that it was famous for being where the journalists hung out during the war, but we never got an explanation. I had a Saigon beer. It was pretty good. The downtown buildings are lit up at night. It’s not quite Hong Kong but it was very pretty.
Bob and Anne showed us a picture of their bed at the hotel. It’s huge. Probably two queens pushed together. Bob said he has to phone Anne on the other side!
Marion couldn’t do dinner so she walked back to the hotel. She was glommed onto by Joan and Deb. Mickey tried to as well but missed the bus. It’s three or four blocks but she can’t manage it on her own so Bros had to walk her back and miss the dinner. Then it turned out Joan and Deb forgot something and had to go back to the Rex. It was all very complicated.
Dinner was special this evening. It would be at a local family’s house, which sounded a bit weird but why not? Someone wants to have 12 people (not everyone made it) they don’t know over for dinner? The house was in the Saigon suburbs – about 45 minutes away. And this being dinner time it was rush hour. The traffic was incredible. The number of motor bikes is unreal and they ‘swarm’ filling any available space, cutting in front and around each other and cars. We had seen a lot of motor bikes but this was substantially more and we were driving through it in a full sized bus. It’s incredible there aren’t constant accidents.
We hit a big bottleneck about halfway there where 6 lanes went to 3. It’s probably what Ethernet packet traffic looks like. There’s no merging in the sense you’re thinking of. It looks more like what blood cells look like under a microscope. I got a great video of the flow.
We stopped on some side street, walked down an alley and were met at a gated fence by the couple. We walked through an entryway to a long table set for us in the middle of their living room. It’s just something this woman likes to do. She likes to cook and carve fruits and vegetables and practice her English, so she does this all the time. There were lots of pictures of previous dinners. She must have been doing it for years. Her husband clearly loves her because he pretty much greeted us, took the obligatory photo and then got out of the way. So definitely not his thing but he tolerates it.
She’s a former microbiologist. He’s a former mechanical engineer. Their daughter (who helped serve) does some kind of eco-engineering and their son (not there) was also a mechanical engineer. So clearly a very successful family.
We all sat down but then had to be reorganized. It wasn’t clear why at first but we ultimately figured out that she wanted all the vegetarians together to make serving easier. So we went through a Chinese (Vietnamese?) fire drill of sorts moving people around, especially as some were in the bathroom at the time. But we finally got it sorted out.
The food was fantastic and the presentation as well. Cucumber ‘flowers’ with carrot centers. Carrots carved into roses. She said it took 30 minutes per carrot. There were 3 per plate and 3 plates. So half a day carving carrots while making a 3 course meal for 12. Amazing. And of course, no one was willing to eat one because they looked so beautiful!
She showed us a book of pictures of some of her other creations. They were pretty amazing. It’s good to have a hobby I guess.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel… When we had first checked into the room it seemed a bit warm. But the A/C wasn’t on. I turned it on, but it didn’t seem to be generating much cool air. We had given it awhile and then I went off to dinner. Marion had to call down while I was gone and ask for maintenance. They came up and jiggled something in the ceiling and got it working again so we didn’t have to spend a warm night.
The drive back wasn’t quite as bad because it was later in the evening but there was still plenty of traffic. It was a pretty quiet ride since people were tired and full.
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