Thursday January 24, 2019

Saigon

Today we went for breakfast in the lobby of our little hotel.  Breakfast was good however the coffee seems to be limited to one cup each.   While we were eating our fruit, eggs, toast and cappuccino Linda noticed a rat running along the cement wall outside our hotel.  It was a healthy looking rat and high speed too.  You have to realize there are rats, and cockroaches in the tropics!  The only place that advertises a rat free world is Alberta, Canada. Believe what you want. As long as the rats don’t come any closer to our room, we’ll be ok.  Linda said the windows definitely stay closed now! I’m wearing running shoes today!  I’m sure the rat traps you see outside the doors at Costco are used to catch  kittens too.  We just don’t see our rats at home, they know better.  

We were lazy and slow moving this morning so it was just after 10 am when we finally got organized.  We got out to the street and we were hit up by the bicycle rickshaw guy to take a tour. We said no, he insisted! We said, we the two of us were too big to for the seat.   He offered for one of us to ride in the rickshaw and one of his friends scooter.  Nope, that wasn’t happening so he phoned another rickshaw who magically appeared.  We ended up going to War Remnants Museum here in Saigon by rickshaw. We paid  300,000  VND ($17.27 CAD) for the 10 minute ride.  It was pretty cool to be peddled around the busy streets at the same speed as the cars and motor scooters.  Anyhow, next time we’ll just walk, At the end of the day we did walk back to the hotel.  It was quite warm today, likely about 34C and bright sun. 

That's Linda riding on the bicycle rickshaw ahead, Gary is taking a picture from his rickshaw. No pictures allowed, apparently thieves will ride by on scooters and grab the phone right from your hand!
War Remnants Museum
F 5A Jet
UH - 1H Huey By April 1966 3303 of these helicopters were in use in Vietnam
Barbed wire cage to hold prisoners.

The War Museum is as advertised, communist propaganda. Its original name was Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes.  It was changed in the 1990s when USA and Vietnam normalized relations.  It’s a pretty biased tale of evil and all the blame falls on the USA. There are lots of USA aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, bombs, guns and other weapons on display at the museum.  One of the best exhibits was likely the photos taken by foreign and local photographers during the war.  Although many were heartbreaking the images depicted didn’t have any agenda or one-sided story to tell, they were simply trying to show the horror at the time.  Sadly many of the photographers were killed and over 17 are still missing to this day having been captured/killed in Cambodia.  

Baking cookies like my Mom makes only Mom's griddle is electric

After enough horror at the museum (it is very depressing) we walked to the Independence Palace which is interesting but nothing too exciting.  It’s also known as the Reunification Palace.  It’s nice the country is reunited, but the people of Vietnam have had a hard life between the French colonization and American war. Everyone had their hands in the cookie jar and as usual the lowly people suffered the most.

Independence Palace Grounds
Independence Palace Wide angle
Independence Palace
Beautiful Trees
Standing by this amazing huge tree on the grounds of Independence Palace

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a mini mart and bough 4 cans of beer for $2 and spent the rest of the $15 on cashews and peanut brittle.  Cashews are a mainstay here, albeit expensive. We’ll eat some of the local food but we’re pretty picky about where we dine.  Beer and cashes go well together in hot weather.  

We’re meeting a guy tonight that Gary worked with in 2005-2008 with BJ Services.  Andrew is passing through Saigon on his way to his next job,  after his latest hitch on an offshore rig in the South China Sea.  Gary contacted Andrew shortly after Christmas when Andrew posted on Facebook that he was travelling to Vietnam.  What are the odds you can pull off a meeting on the other side of the world with a month’s notice? It just happened.   We had a great supper and good visit.  Facebook made it possible. The irony of it all, we walked to TNT BBQ for supper and they were closed for a staff member’s wedding.  By some stroke of luck we found a pizza and ribs place nearby.  

 

It was a pleasant walk back to our hotel at 8:30 pm. The sidewalks  were crowded with football fans with a few big screen TVs on the street, people sitting on plastic chairs or their scooters watching and drinking.  Vietnam was playing Japan.

On our way back to the hotel we came across football fans collecting on the streets watching large TVs cheering for Vietnam vs Japan. People were sitting on plastic chairs and motor scooter watching and drinking.
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One Reply to “Thursday January 24, 2019”

  1. The traffic lots very threatening…you must have to be very careful…interesting about the cookies😀 AND the rats👎 Weather has warned up..suppose to get snow and very windy…not yet. Stoyands off to the clinic…He has to have a bone marrow test…Yikes! They have a set of keys so are free to come and go…take care…
    Love from Moma

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