A modern bustling city…somehow not what we imagined but Saigon has some very expensive shopping as well as everyday people shopping. The price on that LG TV practically floored me until I remember that it was in Vietnamese dong! (It is actually $1,812.88) The city’s traffic is crazy, like Hanoi, but maybe a bit crazier. When at an intersection a red light, the scooters will line up along the sidewalk next to the road when the road lane get too full and they don’t want to wait that long; gosh forbid you wait an extra 30 seconds. I also find the “riding suits” some of these women wear hysterical and stifling. We thought the masks were for pollution but we were told that it is to keep their skin out of the sunlight to keep it as white as possible. So these women, between the sun and the grime suit up from head to toe over their nice clothes. I have no idea how some of them can breathe!

We visited the post office,

Notre Dame Cathedral, both displaying their French influence with elegance,

and the Presidential Palace which is now a museum and has not been used since the end of the Vietnam War. The room on the bottom middle was designed by the architect as a meditation room but the president turned it into a party room with a dance floor!

We have decided to skip all the war related places, the War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnels, etc. Most of the Vietnamese have put the Vietnam War (they call it the American War or War of American Aggression) behind and many have pointed out the good things that the USA has done for their country. We are not hiding our heads in the sand; we are fully aware of the atrocities of the Vietnam War, on both sides, but we prefer to not relive it.

We ventured into the Ben Thanh market which is a crazy place. The aisles are so small and everything is piled so high, we decided not to walk down the “china” aisle! Some of the sellers can get aggressive. We were barely inside the market and already 3 or 4 sellers had grabbed my arm and tried to pull me to their booth. By the time the next person tried, I jumped down their throat “do not touch me!” Unfortunately, we have found that nothing but being direct and very clear gets through. We had a fabulous lunch at a little lunch counter. I saw some green things on kebabs and pointed to them and they were really good. Turns out they are cooked beef wrapped inside wild betel leaves….yummmers! (seriously!)

One of the crazy things we did not expect to find was all the Christmas decorations on Saigon, especially half way through November!!

We walked a million miles trying to find this travel agent we wanted to talk to only to find out after half of the neighborhood trying to help us,

they had moved their office and so we went instead to Pasteur Street Brewing (which Buzz had their beer in Sa Pa) and had a nice conversation with a Canadian couple. The beer is just OK. Buzz is looking forward to getting back to the land of good beer! We then ventured off again to find the new office of the travel agent and grabbed some dinner and made it back to the hotel before a torrential rain started…good timing!

We have experienced some prejudice in Viet Nam but not surprisingly because we are American. The Vietnamese, overall, are grateful to the Americans for all the improvements in roads and buildings that the Americans made. They really hold no hard feelings from the Viet Nam War. But they are prejudice against “fat people”. I have experienced snickering and dirty looks from the folks in the big cities yet the people in the smaller towns are sweet and kind. Many of the dirty looks have come from Chinese tourists. We experienced an extremely bad episode at the Presidential Palace and then again at breakfast at our hotel and all from Chinese tourists. I hope that most of you feel that Buzz and I are not prejudiced people but we have both developed bad feelings about the Chinese on this trip. We have seen such rude and obnoxious behavior on their part. One night at a restaurant in Hoi An, 2 Chinese tourists were standing outside the restaurant we were eating in, talking so loudly, that the owner of the restaurant came out and told them to shut up. I know I cannot lump all Chinese tourists in this category but many of them are so obnoxious. We have had Chinese tourists bowl us over trying to get into an elevator as we were trying to get out!  One morning at our hotel, we heard a group of them going to breakfast and we waited a sufficient time before going because we wanted to avoid their rude behavior! So all of this is to say that we are happy to leave Saigon and the big city behind to head out into the countryside where things are calmer and there are less Chinese tourists.