Since Ho Chi Minh City is 90 minutes away by bus, our tour started early. The first half was along a busy commercial street with little businesses one after the other - some nice, others not so nice. Our guide told us that many of the owners live at the back of the stores. The second half of the drive was on the freeway which was just completed a few years ago. As we drew near to the city the high rise apartments began. They are building thousands of apartments with investment money from all over the world. HCM has a population of almost 10 million already and it looks like that will just continue to grow. We stopped at a laquer factory to see how it's made and have a little shopping opportunity. Next was the Notre Dame Cathedral and post office building. From that square we could see the famous building rooftop where the last helicopters took out the people as Saigon fell. Then to a market that was an indoor maze where Michael bought 2 sarongs. We had a couple of hours of free time so we went to the Rex Hotel which was used by the journalists covering the war. They would sit at the rooftop bar and count the planes and choppers leaving and returning to see how many were lost each day. We ran into Peter and Carol so we joined them for a beer and a plate of fried rice for me. We also tried the Vietnamese coffee which is delicious but more expensive than Starbucks. We took advantage of the free WiFi to check emails, but no calls home due to the time difference. We had a bit of a walk around before meeting the bus for the return trip to the ship. As expected it was very hot and muggy so a quick shower felt very good before dinner.
The traffic in HCM is amazing. There are almost no stop lights or signs and everyone just seems to figure out how to get through intersections by weaving in and out. Scooters outnumber cars and trucks and they don't always stay in their lanes or even on the right side of the road in some cases. To cross on foot, you wait for a little break and then just start across. You don't look at the traffic or change your pace or direction - they will go around you. It's rather unnerving to say the least, but it works.
We were beat so we skipped the show tonight - some Japanese jugglers. Tomorrow is our second Vietnamese and port, Nha Trang.
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