Monday, April 27th – HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON), VIETNAM

Monday, April 27th – HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON), VIETNAM

Some thoughts and info:

To buy a house in Vietnam, you first save enough to buy the land and then you save enough to build a house - it is mostly a cash transaction.. Some people borrow some money for not more than five years. Private houses are on about 40 square meters of land which costs about $7000.00 US per square meter. If you go out to the suburbs, you can buy the same land for about $2000.00 per square meter but you have a 45 minute motorcycle ride into the center of town. This is our guide's situation. These houses are very narrow and are built up sometimes for four or five floors. Most young couples live with the husband's family. In Thang's case, they live with his mother so they say that they have inherited the property from the family; otherwise they could not afford to build a house. On the ground floor they have a tailor shop for his wife, a place for their two motorcycles, a small restroom with a toilet, and a room for his grandmother. On the next level, his mother has a bedroom, living room, kitchen with stovetop, small refrigerator, sink, washing machine and tv. On the third floor, Thang and his wife live. Every floor has its own bathroom. On the top floor, they have a place to hang their laundry and a room for Thang's sister-in-law to live.. They have a small flower garden.

On our trip today, we saw some new houses going up in what we call “a gated community” and it sounds like this is the future here for those with money. The math teacher who makes $300.00 per month can add substantially to his income in this way: He charges a student $10.00 a month but has 100 students in a small space in his house.. He uses a microphone. He can earn $1000.00 per month in this way and he pays the local police a bribe so that he doesn't have to tell the government how many students he is teaching privately.

The cost of a Honda motorcycle is anywhere between $2000.00 and $7000.00 depending on how fancy you want it to be.. This is a most prized possesion. When they park their motorcycle on the street they have to pay someone to watch it. A Chinese motorcyle is cheaply made and might only cost $300.00 but it breaks down frequently and needs constant repairs. The blue color worker and the laborer buy these motorcycles. Today, on the way back from our day trip, it started to rain very hard. The cylists simply take out a plastic poncho and continue on their way. We saw many families – a mother, father and two small children between them riding in this way – one large poncho over the driver stretched all the way back to cover the rest of the family completely. It is truly an amazing thing to see. People here wear masks when they are riding, not only to keep away the gas fumes of the city but to keep their skin light. We have been told this everywhere we travel here. They keep their arms covered, cover their faces with large kercheif type masks, long pants and socks – even in the hottest weather.

On the other hand, in Saigon, there is also a layer of large wealth with very high end restaurants and shops where tourists and also rich Vietnamese shop. This is the land of “haves and have nots” as we have seen before in Russia and also throughout Thailand and Cambodia too.

We have been giving English pronunciation lessons to our guide and getting Vietnamese pronunciation lessons in return and we have learned to say thank you, good bye and the names of a few dishes to order in the restaurants. As bad as I am with finding my way at home and following directions, that is how bad Lenny is with trying to pronounce the Vietnamese words. We have been laughing a lot about it.

Our all day outing today took us to the Mekong Delta. On our way, we visited a well known Vietnamese Pagoda - The Cao Dai Pagoda. On the front, was what we think of as a swastika but it is actually a backwards swastika. In the Chinese culture, this symbol is a sign of happiness and peace. We have seen this before in Japan, but it is still unnerving to see it on a building. Our guide knew immediately what we were questioning and explained it right away.

We then arrived in the city of Metho and then went by boat into the Mekong Delta. Having been at the war museum the day before, we immediately felt a sadness as we imagined what our peers had to go through as soldiers stationed here during the war. We saw how the Viet Cong hid in the tall water coconut palms and made surprise attacks on our troops. Many of the local people were also killed here. Now the area is populated mostly with fishermen and their families.

Our boat took us to Unicorn Island where we were treated to a variety of local fruits that are grown there such as papaya, pineapple, saparillo, jack fruit (which we didn't like at all) and in true tourist trip fashion, we were entertained by some local musicians playing the old traditional Vietnamese instruments and two young women who sang for us. Lenny and I decided that none of them were going to make it on American Idol. We then were taken by sampan, a paddle boat for a trip through the narrow canals of the Mekong River and stopped to get a view of some cottage industries making coconut candy and rice wine. We also tasted some tea made with fresh honey right from the bee hives. An interesting lunch was served to us in a private little hut and we tasted some new dishes – all were very good. Once again, we knew that we had eaten way too much.

We returned to the hotel to rest and then took the hotel van to the night market. We ended our day with a bowl of seafood pho, vegtetarian curry and a shrimp spring roll. On the way back to the hotel, I told the driver that we had really enjoyed being in Saigon at which point he said: “Madame, since the war, Saigon has been called Ho Chi Minh City”! You never know here if you are talking to someone from the North or from the South. There is still a lot of sensitivity about THE WAR here as it is with us – we just call it The Vietnam War and they refer to it as The American War. Ho Chi Minh City was meant to remind us who won THE WAR!

It has been a wonderful time in Vietnam. Tomorrow, we leave for Phuket, Thailand where we will be for six days on the beach! We are ready to slow down a little and relax.