Ho Chi Minh City Tour

There wasn't a meeting place for this tour.  The bus picked up each of the participants at our hotels.

I braced myself for our first stop - The War Remnants Museum.  I knew there would be things that would be hard to see and harder to try to make sense of.

The museum is divided into seven themes: 1) Historical Truths, 2) Requiem (a collection of photos from 134 journalists from eleven countries, who were killed in the war), 3) Photo collection from Japanese photographer, Nakamura Goro, 4) Imprisonment Conditions, 5) Aggressive War Crimes, 6) "DOVE" The Children's Education Room, 7) The World People in Support of Vietnam Resistance.

There are a few artifacts, mostly guns, and airplane parts, but mostly the museum is composed of room after room filled with pictures that told the story of how the war began, the ravages that occurred in it's wake, the people who suffered as a result, and the hope for peace in the future.

The following pictures on the way into the War Remnants Museum.
They are stationed in the entrance courtyard.

The pictures of the dead people lining the roads were tough, but seeing children who were deformed from Agent Orange exposure was the toughest.  To their credit, they also included, very prominently, pictures of GI's and their families who fell victim to this deadly gas, too.  The saddest of all though was a corner of the lobby with a gift shop manned by a staff wearing orange shirts, but you didn't need the shirts to see that they were physically deformed, in the worst way.  The items for sale were all made by them, as one of them proudly stated.

Before we sign up for wars, it should be mandatory for those charged with the task of sending young men and women to the battlefields, to spend time listening to those folks who have experienced war and it's aftermath.  It should also me mandatory that they sign up their loved ones first.  Maybe then we wouldn't be so quick to engage.

This picture and the one below are of guns used in the war.

This chart compares statistics of the US involvement in three wars.
World War II lasted 3 yrs, 8 mths; The Korean War lasted 3 yrs, 1 mth; and
The Vietnam War lasted 17 yrs, 2 mths.
It goes on to list the dead and wounded in each one.

This is a close up of the kind of tombs
I was trying to describe in yesterday's post.

This is the entrance to three very dark, haunting rooms
that depicts the conditions of prisoners of the war.

A prisoner bolted to the wall.

This is a barbed wire cage where 2-3 prisoners were kept.
There was not room enough to sit up.

This is a guillotine.

This following photograph is graphic, but it says it all.  The caption is quoted below.  I'm guessing this is a quote from an American serviceman.

The GI (on the right) and others are sitting next to beheaded men.

The above picture shows exactly what the brass wants you to do in Nam.  The reason for printing this picture is not to put down GI’s, but rather to illustrate the fact that the Army can really fuck over your mind if you let it.

It’s up to you, you can put in your time just trying to make it back in one piece, or you can become a psycho like the Lifer (E-6) in the picture who really digs this kind of shit.  It’s your choice.

As we were leaving, I noticed this bench that made up a sitting area outside, on the way out.

Sacramento caught my eye.
I'm not sure if this person is a sponsor of  a World at Peace (or a Vet?)
or the one listed below.

From the museum we went to church, and it seemed fitting.  We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral that was the meeting place of my first tour.

Me in front of the cathedral

A view inside the church

A couple taking pictures in front of the church and the post office.

Inside the post office

 

This is one of two beautiful maps on
either side of the wall as your enter the post office.
Although you can't tell it in this picture, the red doors are telephone booths.

On the opposite wall, the red doors house businesses.

This picture is fuzzy, but it shows people
actually doing business in the post office.

Next up, a temple in Chinatown.

These are incense cones.  The overwhelming scents from the incense
burning always reminds me of college when folks were smoking reefer and trying to mask the smell with incense.  

An altar maybe?

The top of this temple is so intricate, it's amazing.
I'm sorry I couldn't capture it.

After the temple, we headed to a market.  It was crowded with stuff and with people. Not my scene, at all.  Thankfully it was a quick trip.  There were three black women that I struck up a brief conversation with who I thought were from the US.  They were from an island off the coast of Africa.

Scooters parked outside the market

The entrance to the market

Our final stop was the Presidential Palace, that is strictly a tourist spot.  The president hasn't lived there since the unification of the country in 1975, but it was left as a museum to the presidency.  It was a beautiful building with impressive stuff inside, but by this time we were exhausted from all we had done and from the heat. There was no escaping the heat.

Outside of the Presidential Palace

This is a Russian tank on the grounds of the Presidential Palace.

This is a Chinese tank.  An interesting note was
how much smaller these were compared to the US tanks.

This is a bank of phones.
What you can't see is the red one that was to be used in times of crisis.

A sitting room for the president and his guests.

This sitting room was for the VP or the president's wife.
Can't remember which.

His personal theater.

The projection room for the theater.

This was built to be a meditation room, with panoramic views on all four sides,
but the last president to occupy the palace made it a dance hall.
You gotta love him!

His personal helicopter

A blast from the past, for sure!

The kitchen

His jeep

His Benz

At the close of the war, this car was one of the spoils for the victors.

Tomorrow I pack up.  I'm going to back to Abu Dhabi, and will be leaving for Singapore a few hours later.  Of course, it would have made so much more sense to go to Singapore from here, but getting Groupon to understand that would have taken a lifetime.

So, more soon.

Cheers.

Remarkable Achievement!

This kid was accepted to all eight of the Ivy League schools.

Amazing!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/kwasi-enin-ivy-league_n_5067211.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Mekong Delta

My apologies to all of you who received the email version of this post.  I thought I hit PREVIEW, but I clicked PUBLISH instead.  It reflects the many mistakes I usually catch when in the preview mode.  Sorry!

The Saigon Opera House was our meeting point today.  What a lovely building!

Saigon Opera House

Garden next to Opera House

Fountain in the same area

In the video clip below, I'm standing across the street from the Opera House, with my eye on the traffic.  I want you to see the scooters.  Also, although most are driving too fast for you to see, but check out the last guy's face mask.  Most folks riding the bikes are wearing some kind of mask.  The most prevalent ones were made of cloth, very much like a cloth diaper.  I'm guessing so many people wear these is because they have no other protection from the pollution.  Interestingly, I've seen many more face masks here, but the smog was far worse in China and India.

We were a larger group of ten today.  There was one guy I knew from my tour yesterday.  He and I were the only Americans.  Everyone else was from Australia, with one person from Japan.

I took tons of videos trying to catch a good shot of the tombs that are sprinkled throughout the countryside.  These were absolutely fascinating.  They were ornate.  Some looked like gazebos, some like altars, some were surrounded by a fence, and many had sitting areas.  Their colors varied from white, to pink and blue, gold, and green.  The thing that was remarkable was how randomly they appeared.  Most were deep in fields, but a few were next to the roads.  The ones that were next to streams looked especially peaceful.  Our guide told us people are not buried in cemeteries like we're used to.  Although there was one area we passed by yesterday that had a cluster of tombs.  The assumption is they were all from the same family, and they were buried on their land.  Somehow it's comforting to have the opportunity to be laid to rest where you lived.

The Mekong Delta is about 1.5 hours from Saigon.  It is a rural area, but since the onset of tourism in that began in earnest about fifteen years ago, there have been shops and things opened to accommodate the visitors.

When we arrived, we got on a kind of cruise boat that holds about 20-25 people.  Again, the was only ten of us, so it was very comfortable.  Our first stop - to check out coconut candy being made.  Let me say right here, if you're concerned about the cleanliness of food preparation, you should probably skip this part.  That's because the coconut is shaved by straddling a tool that you sit on, and then you shave the meat out onto a pretty grungy surface.  Sugar and the milk from the coconut is boiled on an open fire.  Then when it's just right, that mixture is cooled and rolled by hand.  No gloves.  Then, to make the candy with nuts, it's rolled again, folding the nuts inside.  Again, no gloves.  This is then cut into thick strips, and layer onto a mold where it is pressed to make long thin strips.  No gloves.  Those strips are cut into rectangle pieces and wrapped by someone else.  Yep.  Again, no gloves.  For those of us brave enough to taste some, we got a real treat.  It was delicious.

Young man tending to boiling coconut candy mix.

This lady is mashing the candy into a mold
where they are shaped and then cut into bite size pieces.

From here we left our boat behind and boarded two tuk-tuks.  They were makeshift yuk-tuks in that they were a motorcycle that had a flatbed attached, fitted with benches that held six adults each.  The roads, really paths, we were on could only accommodate a vehicle going in one direction.  We met kids on bikes and other scooters, that we passed, but we were kissing' close.  Quite frankly, it looked like we were going in circles, but after about 45 minutes, we arrived at our destination.  A hotel(?)/restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  We all sat together, minus our guide, and had a terrific meal.

Foliage along the path

Another view of the path

This fish was delicious.
We never to eat something that is staring
back you,  but we ignored the eyes and dug in.

After lunch, we walked another path that led to the water where we boarded three paddle boats, with four folks each.  I don't have any pictures from this brief journey because we were all holding on for dear life!

From here we met our original boat, and back to the shore we headed.  Thankfully, it was cooler in this area, especially when we were on the water.

On the ride back to Saigon, I asked our guide if many Americans visited, and if so, were they the older folks who were there during the war.  She said there were many American visitors, but almost all of them were younger.  I then asked if there was any animosity toward Americans (although I have definitely not experienced any) because of the ravages of war.  She said people understood that it wasn't the choice of the American or the Vietnamese citizens to go to war, but it happened, and we all live with the consequences of it.  A generous attitude, for sure.

The bus ride back was a quiet one.  I'm sure I can speak for us all and say it was a full, fun-filled adventure that tuckered us all out.

Two quick side notes -

First, one hundred US dollars  = 2,108,000 dongs

I've often wondered why countries do this - have their currency is crazy large denominations?

Secondly, when booking a hotel here, you must show a marriage license to bring someone into your room.  I'm sure there are places that ignore this, but it certainly had me looking sideways at all the old white guys on my flight over.

OK.

Just one more thing - I found out about why this place is called Saigon or Ho Chi Minh.  It's because the city is Saigon, and the greater area it encompasses it is called Ho Chi Minh.

Well, that's it for today.

Tomorrow I have a city tour, then the next day I depart.

Until then . . .

Good morning to you.

Good night to me.