This should be the city symbol for Ho Chi Minh City! Which line goes where? Which road goes where? Which way is up? Which way is out? Is it old or is it new? Should the man cross the road with his cart of chickens or wait until "all clear"? Big hint, "all clear" never happens!
Ho Chi Minh City is the heart and soul of Vietnam. It is alive with people, millins and millions of them. It is the largest city in Vietnam but not the capital, that goes to Hanoi, in the northern part of the country. It seems to be the cultural trendsetter for Vietnam. The streets are where everything happens here. People live in the street, work in the street, sell things in the street, drag carts through the streets, traffic is everywhere going nowhere. Jackhammers pound the pavement tearing out the old and trying to build new. The sea of motorcycles and scooters...as far as the eye could see in any direction at every intersection. Some on the road, some on the sidewalks, some scooting down alleys trying to "sneak" through the snarled up mess of traffic.
Our tour started at the former presidential palace. If you have ever been to White Sulphur Springs, WV, you probably toured the bunker that is under the hospital there on the grounds of The Greenbrier resort. This place had much the same look in it's basement. All areas were closed off pretty much except for us to see how the Vietnamese were able to have this secret "headquarters" deep underground. The bed shown in a phot is where the president would have slept if there had been a nuclear bomb dropped. See the rotary phones? The huge brains to their computers? Very 1950's decor for sure.
The tank outside was the tank that busted through the gates that led to the surrender of the South Vietnam to the North and to become Communist. The flag flying is that of the current Vietnam.
What is a visit to a lacquer workshop without a t-shirt? Charles and our trivia partner, Steve made sure they did not leave without one (or two). Two for $5.00!!
The man working on the lacquer tables was using his paint to make beautiful landscapes of Vietnam.
The gal with the eggshells. I thought what was in her bowl was trash left over from a boiled egg lunch! Seems this was what she was using to create her art that would become part of a painting in lacquer. She crushed the shells and used a pinpoint accuracy tool to push the shells into place.
The lady perched on the blue plastic stool had a smile on her face like she had the best job in town. She may have just been laughing at us but either way, it made for a great photo for us! How many folks do you know that could sit like this 8 hours a day 6 days a week? Actually, we never saw her stand up. She might be what we call in Alabama "stove up" and have to stay like that!! YIKES!!
The close up small vase. This man moved his hands over this vase hundreds of times just while we stood there to watch him. He made a very dull piece of wood turn into a piece of art. It was really amazing to see.
We had a wonderful tour that included a water puppet show, which Vietnam is famous. We saw a great show and then the sky opened! All the ponchos, umbrellas, nerd hats...were on the ship!! We were in a pickle. Of course next on our agenda was riding the "rik-shaws" that are powered by little old Vietnamese men on bicyles and you are in a wooden perch out in front. A bit scary considering there are no real traffic laws in Vietnam, its every bike, scooter, taxi, bus, for themselves! Nicky and Charles opted out as the rain was a steady drenching. Kathleen and I wanted the experience and got it. Not only did we get it. We risked life and limb. Cars swerving around our slow rides, buses backing up into me!!! You can see the tail-lights. motorcycles dodging us by inches, nobdy realizing that their country had purchased traffic lights and hooked them up and they were working....YIKES!! Every once in a while I would scream out to Kathleen and see if she was okay, but inbetween the noise of the vehicles, the thunder and lightning...I did not even know if she was near me!! My little old man kept hollering at me in Vietnamese and I finally realized he was pointing at another bike. It was Kathleen and I got a shot of her riding in the rain. It really wasn't rain, it was a flood!! When we got to our destination, I thought they were both giving me a "peace sign", turns out, $2.00 was the cost for risking our lives!! I was happy to pay them and say adios!
The extremely large lacquer vases will not fit in any of our luggage. If you want one of these, you will have to find it on ebay I guess! They were beautiful but not practical for us. If you worked for the local telephone company or power company or cable company, you would probably spend a lot of your calls untangling wires! This looks like one of those octopus nightmares that as children cause fires in your home! What a mess!!
If you need shoes, they are available at this local in town market in Ho Chi Minh. Every style slipper imaginable, in every color anyone could want. The food choices were not anything like you'd find in the local food courts of any mall you might be familiar with but fun to look at and play the game, "what do you think this is"? The big green thorny fruit is called Durian. Many people love it. Many people hate it. Some places like Singapore, won't let you bring it through customs. It seems that the smell this fruit gives off once it is cut open is much like an open sewer smell. We tried really hard to get someone to cut us one open so Nicky could sample it but had a hard time finding someone with a knife and had a hard time finding Nicky to try it!
Great day. Tour very interesting.
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