13122016
The night didn't go entirely well, as i mentioned yesterday there were vendors on the dock outside the ship, selling mostly tourist trash, but also beer, and water. And our fears were realized, albeit to a limited extent. The ice water the beer had been chilling in wasn't clean, and it upset our stomachs over night. Both of us had a minor fever and aches, neither of us had any violent episodes, just mild discomfort while sleeping. We will be more careful of street beers in the the future.
Last excursion in Vietnam, bus tour through Ho Chi Minh City (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saigon). The boat is docked in Phu My, again in a commercial port, the bus took about 80 minutes to get into the city to our first stop. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and very animated. Our first stop was the President’s Palace, now called the Unification Palace or some such (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Palace).
This building was built by the US in the 1960s, to help prop up the South Vietnamese Government, this is also the the iconic building that the North Vietnamese Army captured by rolling Soviet and Chinese made tanks through the gate (actual tanks pictured below, they weren't fully de-milled, i am pretty sure with fresh fuel and some grease they could roll). And the footage of NVA soldiers waving the flag on a porch took place here as well (picture of location and FROM location below)
The compound had been the seat of the South Vietnamese Government with reception and banquet halls, offices and map rooms.
It also had an underground bunker complex.
it appears the Communist Government maintained much of the compound as it was when they captured it, and it has been beautifully maintained.
There was was sign that told the story of a true patriot that infiltrated the South Vietnamese Air Force and then revealed his allegiance to the liberation movement by actually bombing the Presidential Palace while on mission to bomb the the NVA across the border.
The tourguide hurried us along, but lectured through the whole thing, certainly providing insight that we wouldn't have gotten on our own.
We then went to a Lacquer and Wood handicraft shop. This was the part of the excursion that i think the tour companies in Vietnam are required to push to tourists. Vietnam is famous, actually much of Southeast Asia is famous for wood products, with all the Jungles they have ample supply of very high quality wood, and a history of working with wood. All this culminates in pretty nice pieces of art. Ultimately Laura and I were more entertained by the shop cat than the presentation.
We were then whisked off to lunch at a fancy hotel. It was a large buffet, many of the tours from our boat converged here for the lunch. While it was a buffet, which immediately brings to mind less than stellar food, it was satisfactory. Nothing was particularly interesting, but everything we ate was more than “ok” the pork short ribs were particularly tasty.
Over the course of lunch we made friends with an older Romanian couple; that settled in Los Angeles in the 1970s. They were very interesting, they have the passion and enthusiasm of a “Latin” peoples, but have a pinch of Russian in their language. They, like many of the other people on the boat were very entertained by our youth.
After lunch we were scheduled to go to the tallest building in the city, and do some upscale shopping. However the weather was shit, the rain has followed us south, and to my surprise all the other people on the bus elected to skip that part all together and get some more bus touring in. The guide drove us around downtown, pointing out statues and monuments and major buildings. We stopped for a moment at the Central Post Office (wikilink) and Notre Dame Cathedral (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_Cathedral_Basilica_of_Saigon).
The post office was big, and obviously a post office, had some touristy junk shops too. We peeked in, and then went back across the street to the Cathedral. As you can see in the pictures it is pretty boring, which in itself is noteworthy. i have never seen a Catholic Cathedral so bland.
It was built by the French, in 1880. I presume the wars and communist government have not been kind to the place, but it was almost completely bare inside.
We then got back on the bus to go to the Historical Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Vietnamese_History) or shop in the immediate area. We followed the guide through the museum. We only got a cursory walk through as we are forever short on time on these tours. The guide started us in Stone Age times, apparently Vietnam was one of the first places settled by modern humans with artifacts dating back 300,000 years. The guide then walked us into the Bronze Age, and then the Chinese domination, and then the Mongol Domination, and then the Chams, and paid particular attention to the Hindu art left by the Cham peoples.
We were then brought back to the bus for our 90 minute drive back to the boat.
This tour didn't feel nearly as forced as the last one, there was really only the one “gift shop” that we were obligated to visit, though this one had a bit more technical explanation as to what goes into all these lacquered products. It helps that all the people on the boat were down to skip the bullshit and wander about museums.
Once back on the boat we ate at the special barbecue around the pool. It was Asian themed, I had a stir fried noodle thing, Laura had the various meats, and we both had a bunch of the steam buns.
We then hit up the trivia in the bar, this has been a regular thing for us, we have met cool people, and i have found my near endless supply of random knowledge to be useful.
We played scrabble, another regular activity for us on the boat. And then hit the evening happy hour, drinking some mojitos. After the drinks, we went back to our cabin for sleeps, ready for our next lazy sea day.
No comments:
Post a Comment