Day 134 and more

DAY 134 and more

DAYS 134 and 135, Sunday and Monday, May 28 and 29

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

It’s polite to say Ho Chi Minh City, particularly when in mixed company. When the locals are with friends (whom they trust) they use the two-syllable version.

We took two tours in Saigon. On Sunday the ship’s tour took us to see how all the statuary we see in all the modern shrines and temples is made. But since it was Sunday, that was all closed. We had a nice cup of coffee in a stylish, modern café called Coffee Coffee. It was interesting, as they rented the upstairs to people who needed a place to hold a business meeting or just to work. Although the coffee tasted good, and I got mine with a bit of condensed milk on the bottom, it was made on an espresso machine. Otherwise their offerings were what you’d expect at a Starbucks, like the Wifi. I was able to log on and confirm that my American Express Card was not used to make an unauthorized purchase.

We went to a local Chinese temple (It was about like the ones we saw in Hoi An, except a lot bigger.) and had an incense spiral lit with our names on it.

The best things about this tour: Mary found some more lotus flowers for our room. Thank goodness the bus was air conditioned, because the weather was stifling hot. I got good news about my credit cards. I guess because of our previous experiences we’ve become harder to impress.

The next day we booked a local street-food tour. I was looking forward to this. It was grueling, as the weather was hot, and it was a walking tour. But we tasted some delicious, unique things, and we bought a kilo of really nice Vietnamese coffee (beans).

I kept seeing people driving their scooters bundled up in hoodies, wearing gloves. (Did I mention it was HOT?!?) I asked our guide Henry about this: People want to keep their skin as white as possible. His girlfriend complains because his skin is a little tan; she thinks it makes him look like a farmer. In this heat, I expected to see these mummified folks dropping like flies from heat exhaustion, but I guess they have a tolerance, and their own priorities. So the thing that most impressed me, and that I could draw, was this woman buying meat from a street vendor, dressed warmer than I was when we were in Antarctica.

Nha Trang

To round out my coverage of Vietnam we skip a few days (I’ll get to Bangkok and Sihanoukville in a bit.) to Monday, June 5, day 142 of our trip.

Our ship’s tour of historic Nha Trang took us to two religious sites, a very old Hindu temple and a somewhat newer Buddhist monastery, and the big central market. On returning to the ship we hopped on the shuttle bus to suss out a bowl of pho (Couldn’t leave Vietnam without tasting some pho!) We did end up having a decent bowl of it, but couldn’t find a street-side place, so we ordered it in the five-star hotel where the shuttle bus dropped us off. Two bowls of pho and a couple of beers there set us back all of $14.

At the central market we found some interesting snacks to bring back to the ship: some crackers with peanuts on top, some with sweetened coconut; some dried fruit and vegetable chips. At the Buddhist monastery most of our fellow travelers were enchanted by the local monkeys. I thought the statuary was interesting, as it was painted by an interesting and attractive gold paint instead of foil. Most interesting was the tower of one of the smaller buildings. It was patterned after one of the towers of Bayan, the famous Angkor temple, and sported the four faces of Jayavarman VII, mysterious smile, cracks and all.

The Hindu temple was intriguing. Being extremely old, it wasn’t surprising that the shape of the buildings echoed those of Angkor’s Hindu temples, but I was somewhat surprised to see a bas relief of an apsara, a dancing girl found on Angkor’s buildings. I expected something more Indian in style. And then this was echoed in two recently made, terra cotta apsaras. I guess this should not have been a surprise, as symbols change with distance and time.