March 5, 2024 Ho Chi Minh City 62 days left of 138

 GOOD MORNING Vietnam! I have been waiting this whole trip to say this. We arrived to Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon, but I am not going to let this stop me from taking creative license.

We made plans for Saigon Highlights & Pedal Cab Experience. This is a 6.5 hour excursion and we left at 3:30, so this will be a long day.

This is in the South China Sea as we are coming up to Vietnam in the distance. The ships are so low in the water. Some you can even see some water washing up onto the deck in the middle of the ship. The bilges are working overtime. You can also see the fishing nets.

This is a bridge they are building. There are two of them we can see from where the ship is docked. Both are at the same point in the build. No body better try to use them right now, as nothing jumps that far.

You will see several pictures of the traffic. We were told there are 7 million motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City, I would add and counting. You can see whole families on these scooters, and motorbikes. These can be purchased for $500 for a 50 cc scooter up to $10,00 for a Vespa. It looks like a well choreographed ballet. One thing we have been noticing is that the drivers are very considerate, but also aggressive. If there is space someone will fill it. That may or may not lead to 10 others also filling the space. LOL

On our drive into the city this is stores we passed. Notice the scooters parked outside. I don't know where you park if you have a car. This city so far is very neat and clean. You don't see a lot of construction. We passed half finished buildings, and were told that the building was started before Covid, the investor lost the building and everything stopped. They are waiting for another investor to come in and finish the building. Another apartment building was pointed out. We were told that a small 250 sq. ft. apartment would cost $150,000. to purchase. They have some kind of graduated interest rate that starts out at 8% and goes up from there. Our guide does not own his own home yet.

I caught this on our drive to the city.

Notice the two women working in this area. They are cutting back the vegetation, and sweeping up the debris.

The first picture is again an intersection. You can see them carrying most anything on their bikes. The lower picture is outside a bank. Notice the security guard. The person sitting on his bike has something hanging from his bike that he has purchased and is taking home. We were also told that you will see a man standing outside of shops, encouraging you to come in and shop, and he also watches you bike.

This is an old, currently not used building.

We stopped at a Lacquer Artist studio and shop. The main reason was a toilet stop, but the above picture shows the steps to make lacquer items. The items may be painted, or use shell parts to make a picture, and the bottom uses crushed duck egg shells to make the picture. A large piece can take up to 3 months to complete. The items were beautiful.

Mike's driver or peddler took our picture. Look at the difference in our rides. Mine looks in much better condition. 

Mike took this picture to show what it looked like from his vantage point. Notice the man in front of Mike. The Peddler is walking his bike. I don't know if this was to be more precise. Most all the peddlers got off their bike at this point.

Mike's selfie and his peddler

This is the back of Mike's ride. Notice instead of pedals, he is using blocks. At one point I noticed his left foot completely off his block. 

We were first on our ride, other than our guide who lead the way. We quickly were in the middle of the pack.

This was my driver.

HCMC City Hall is above, below is what it looked like riding up to it.

The Chinese New Year is still being celebrated here. In Vietnam they use two calendars, on the Lunar calendar  it is January, and you know it is March on our Gregorian calendar.

HCMC Museum is above

Notice the peddler's hand. That is his brake. They were either here or between their legs.

When the French were colonizing Vietnam they brought all the building supplies to build their Notre Dame Cathedral. Currently they are renovating the building and on the back side you only see scaffolding. We were told the bells were being sent to Belgian for repair, the work is being done by a Belgian company. Notice Mike is just ahead of me and in the corner of the picture.

First look at the young boy on the front of the scooter, without a helmet. It is rare to see the kids with helmets. Notice the Huey Helicopter and the airplane in the background, these are left from the Vietnam war.

Do you recognize the building? This is the iconic building in the picture of the last helicopter to leave Saigon. This building housed the American CIA.

Evening traffic the city that never sleeps.

Next stop a Buddha Temple. This is a Buddhist country and you can see people coming to pray and ask Buddha for favors. They light Incense sticks, hold them in front of Buddha to their foreheads, when they are done praying the incense sticks are placed in sand in front of Buddha. This helps the request to make its way up to Buddha. If their prayer is answered they return to thank Buddha, and leave an offering which was declared in their original prayer.

I love old carved doors.

This is the Buddha located inside the temple. It is hard to see, but the offerings to buddha can be money or food. This is the food and it is artfully placed in front of Buddha it contains vegetables, fruit, crackers, and canned goods including Coke, and other food items. The food is given to the monks.

These two trees are located just outside the temple. These are Pomelo trees they bring good fortune. The red ribbons are placed on the trees by people visiting the temple.

The birds are for purchase by grieving families and set free. This is to help the decease's spirit to leave the body. Any animal may be used, he said fish are also common.

Flowers are for sale to family and friends to take with them to the funeral.

This is the tower over the funeral celebration area. The eldest son wears special white garb to identify him at the service. There are many traditions surrounding the funeral and getting the body to its final resting place. To help the spirit find its way, every time you make a turn the eldest son has to repeat the full name, and age of the person, then description of what to do, ie turn left, turn right go around circle etc. They also buy fake American 100 dollar bills and leave them along the route. This gives a trail for the spirit to follow if it did not hear your instructions. One of the traditions I love is they celebrate the death with a funeral, but they also celebrate 100 days, and 1 year after the death. Grief is not something that everyone goes through at the same rate. I love that the support continues.

This is us leaving our dinner out at traditional Vietnamese Dinner. Mike survived eating off the ship. We are not the most adventurous travelers. The food was interesting and very different from anything we have eaten before. The salad had leaves, mint leaves, and other greens I did not recognize. We did recognize the rice LOL. Options for drinks was beer, mineral water, and soda. Since I don't drink beer or mineral water, my only option was soda. I was resigned that it would be Coke, as I really don't even like that, but lesser of two evils. Oops! they brought me soda water. Ugh. Oh well there is always the water we left on the bus. Just another part of the adventure of traveling in another country.

Our guide and his family tried to be part of the boat people fleeing Vietnam when he was 4 years old 38 years ago. They made it less than 24 hours before the engine died, and they were rescued by the Vietnam Coast Guard. They were taken to prison, he was kept for 2 weeks, his Mom for 3 months, and his Dad for 6 months. They made one more attempt, but something happened and they made a run for it. Someone in the middle of a rice paddy fed them, gave them new clothes and a place to sleep for the night. Her husband came home and was Military police. He gave them some money and told them to leave and he never saw them. His father died before our guide could take him to America to visit. He still has plans to bring his Mom to America. His English was perfect. This is the first guide who didn't have an accent.

We arrived home, safe and sound, after 10 pm. That is late for us, so we were off to bed shortly. We did cancel our excursion tomorrow as it is time on the bus and seeing the same sites we have already seen.