Ho Chi Minh City

Before we left Vietnam we spent 5 days in Ho Chi Minh City - in the south of the country.  It was called Siagon until the end of the American War, when it was officially changed to HCMC, but the locals and tourists alike still call it Saigon. 
Saigon is one of the busiest cities in Asia - it has about 9 million people living in the city - and 5 - 6 million scooters.  Over 80% of the people are under 35 so it is a town growing quickly to catch up to the other powerful cities in Asia.  One of the most remarkable things about Saigon is the traffic.  This is the road near our hotel - at 5 pm each day there are 3 lanes of cars and 6 lanes of mopeds going in one direction - often there is even a lane of scooters on the sidewalk (no joke!).  Most big  intersections have lights but we did cross 8 lanes of traffic just like this without a light- you walk slowly, let the scooters go around you and get out of the way of cars and buses.  After we crossed the street Kenna and Cole cheered - 'we are still alive!!!'  None of us will ever complain about traffic at home again and I will never worry about the kids crossing the road by themselves!

Scooters are used to transport everything...this is the ice delivery men (there are actually 2 men on the bike as well as all the bags of ice).















Many scooters carry two people - but 3 or 4 people are not uncommon. You can hire a motorbike, like a taxi, to take you across the city quickly and cheaply.


















In Saigon we saw this guy on his own seat on his master's scooter...pretty amazing!















Many streets have lots of scooters parking on the sidewalk, with pedestrians walking along the edge of the road, but there are lots of scooter parking lots like this. 


















After you get over the traffic and the scooters the city is quite wonderful.  We went up 49 floors to the lookout on the Bixtec Tower to get a view of Saigon to see really how big it is.  There are lots of parks sprinkled throughout the city to provide some recreation space.  Early in the morning the parks are busy with Tai Chi classes, aerobics classes, runners and badminton players.                                                                
The parks are kept clean with a small army of groundskeepers.  Here the ladies are making brooms to sweep the paths to clean up the leaves and litter that can be found in the park.     





The city is also home to a number of old lovely buildings from when the French ruled the south of Vietnam.   This is the Majestic Hotel, built in the late 1800s.  It was used to house Japanese soldiers when they occupied Saigon in World War 2 and was not returned to its original state as a hotel until the 1980s.













This building was used by the French Administrators but has been maintained as the Civic Building for the People's Republic of Vietnam, and is not open to the public.  The statue of Ho Chi Minh with a child is a common image in Vietnam still - it can be found on bill boards, t-shirts, stamps and posters throughout the entire country.

This is the Main Post Office, built in the 1880s and still being used as a post office today. 

























You can still make phone calls from the Post Office to anywhere in the world.  I didn't see any tourists using them as everyone carries a cell phone now.  Kenna and Cole checked out the booths.





































We took a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is located 50 km outside of Saigon.  The Cu Chi villagers resisted the American soldiers throughout the entire war and were a significant contributor to their downfall.  The American base was built only a few kms from the Cu Chi village and the villagers built traps throughout the jungle to catch and kill the American soldiers as well as 250 km of tunnels throughout the area so they could launch surprise attacks on the American troops.  The Americans destroyed the village, so the villagers moved underground and continued to attack the US forces. 

Large rooms were built underground for kitchens, sleeping areas, and ammunition storage.  Tunnels were built to link these rooms and provide escape routes throughout the jungle.  The original tunnels were 50cm wide and only 70cm high, they have been enlarged for the tourists to access - but they were still really, really small as you can see.  We all climbed through the tunnels to see what it was like - stuffy, hot and you had to walk all hunched over.  Here I am at the entrance to one of the tunnels and the next picture is of Kenna and Cole in the tunnel.





















































We spent a day on a tour of the Mekong Delta.  It was about a 2 hour drive from Saigon.  The delta has extremely fertile soil so bananas, pineapple, coconut, rice and other produce is grown in this area.  The main river is very large, but there are many small tributaries that run throughout the area irrigating the farms.  We took a ride on a small boat down one of the tributaries.  We are all wearing conical hats.  These hats are still worn in the countryside and by many of the vendors in the city.  They are really great to wear - they are cool and keep out the sun as well as the rain off.  We found out that there is always 16 rings in each hat so they can also be used to measure rice! 










This area of the Mekong delta is thick with water coconut trees - these coconuts are used to feed the farm animals. 



































We also went to a small farm where they were making coconut candy.  The coconuts are picked when they are about 8 months old.  The coconut meat is squeezed and the milk is used to make the candy.  The milk is cooked over a fire until it thickens into a paste - when it cools it is cut up into candy squares.  It is really quite tasty and very, very chewy. 



At the farm there was some honey bees - they were extremely docile. Kenna was sneaking a sample of  honey right from the bees.








Just before we left they pulled out a surprise - a large python! Yuck!  Kenna and Cole liked it....