The Silk Road: November 2007

Wed Nov 14

Bus Trip to Saigon ( a three hour tour, a three hour tour- sung to the theme song of "Gilligan's Island"

Overnight our ship sailed further south along the coast to the port city of Vung Tau. Today's shore excursion was the one the I dreaded going on the most because of the time it would take for us to travel to Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) by bus. We face a half hour ride from the ship to the dock in the ship's life boats because the water was not deep enough to accommodate a boat that large. Then we faced a three hour bus ride to the city. That totaled 7 hours in transit there and back so we were in for a very long day.

This is a hydrofoil boat that I wish we could have taken to get to shore. I will mention an incident we had with one of these boats on our return trip to our ship later.

Vietnam is a country that is only about 10 degrees north in latitude from the equator so most of the time it is hot and humid and today was no exception. Our 100 mile bus ride took us thru the countryside and I was shocked by the very distressed living conditions of the people there. It reminded me of the shanty towns in South Africa only a little better. As our bus traveled along the road all you saw mile after mile were shacks were people lived or shops where merchant sold goods that can best be described as squalor. The structures were little more than hobbles squeezed side by side for a majority of the 100 miles on both sides of the road. Many of the shacks had junk and debris inside or outside them that it reminded me of 100 mile long strip mall junk yard. There was trash everywhere and the front of the shops there were no side walks only dirt which I sure became a quagmire during heavy rains. And everywhere people where riding motor scooters. Not all the buildings were shacks. Not very often, but occasionally, you would see a fairly nice 2 or 3 story houses that had a big fence around it and a gate in front. The odd thing was all these nice homes looked the same. These were probably homes of the more successful businessmen or women. I even saw one of these homes that had a nice pool. but these homes were mixed in with all the other shacks and businesses along the highway.

This is one of the very few nice homes I mentioned and they were all of this design.

Look at the older model roller in the fore ground. (Typical of the construction equipment I saw)

This is a bridge project underway that I noticed during or ride.

Local Concrete Plant (but are they QC/QA certified ?)

Along the highway were places with older model backhoes in the yard. I don't know if they were for rent or they were contractors but every few thousand feet would be one of these yards with idle backhoes and other construction equipment.

Sir, you have a very large head.

Have a Coke and a smile.

Vietnamese cyclists training as they go for the gold in Beijing 2008.

Another Concrete Plant

Concrete Pile driving operation.

Either we have some quality control issues or some very hard ground. Look at all the broken piles.

We arrived in Saigon and our first visit was to the "Ho Chi Min" museum which contained artifacts from ancient Vietnamese culture that we were not allowed to photograph. Our guide showed us the a display of the 54 different ethnic minorities throughout the country and then we saw a water puppet show. (The talk about the ethnic minorities was interesting but I could have lived without the puppet show. I thought is was very lame but appreciated the effort on the part of the performers). We didn't get a chance to walk around the museum on our own to look at the artifacts which I thought was odd.

Next we were off to the "Presidential Palace" where the fall of Saigon occurred. This is the location of the famous news video of thousands of desperate South Vietnamese trying to get aboard the last American helicopter as it took off just before the Viet Cong captured the palace

Presidential Palace

This room in the palace is where the surrender of South Vietnam to North Vietnam was negotiated.

This area we are in is the South Vietnamese President's underground bunker beneath the palace. The President would retreat down here during Viet Cong bombings of the city. Our tour guide warned us that it would be quite warm down here because there was no air conditioning. Warm is an understatement. I would describe it as sweltering heat. it was like being in an oven.

Original radio equipment for bunker

Stairway to emergency escape tunnel from bunker.

Russian made tanks outside palace. (I am assuming these are the original tanks that crashed thru the gates of the palace)

My room mate and cabin mate on the ship, Calvin Miles checks out the Ruski tank.

In Saigon there are a lot buildings built by the French during their time in Vietnam. The railroad station and a smaller version of the "Cathedral at Notre Dame" are two examples of many buildings with French architecture.

Railroad Station

Cathedral of Notre Dame

This woman has no fear while pushing her cart thru the middle of a busy intersection as traffic zooms by her on all sides.

While we were at this location a young Vietnamese boy who looked to be 10 or 11 years of age approached my mother and me and asked if we would like to by post cards for a dollar. I was surprised because he spoke perfect English without a hint of an accent. We declined. He then asked us if we were from America and where. I told him I was from Chicago. He said he spent the first 6 years of his life living with his uncle and going to school in Chicago. I asked him why he left and he suddenly ran off. I turned around and realized that a police officer had seen him and was coming to chase him off.

Just call us the Wedding Crashers.

I hope these two have a long and happy marriage.

Afterwards we had lunch at an upscale hotel and visited another Buddhist Temple and saw another Buddha idol. I think this one was bronze.

Hotel Lobby where we had lunch.

Our entertainment during lunch.
I took this picture as we were headed back to our ship. (somebody better call Com Ed)

Somebody once said "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" That's how I see America's involvement with the Vietnam war. Our intentions were honorable but circumstances were such that the objective could never be achieved. It was reported that 1/3 of U.S. troops were using opium and heroin which could be another reason for the failure in Vietnam. Don't know if this is true or not but during our tour in Saigon, someone told one of the people in our tour group who in turn told me that the United States government was prepared to use a nuclear bomb on China because the Chinese were supporting the Viet Cong by supplying weapons and technical advice, until they discovered the Chinese had nuclear weapons too. Then it was decided to scrap those plans. Doesn't sound too far fetched to me. One thing I do know is I'm grateful that it's one road I never had to travel and I feel for those that did, those that never returned, and all the innocent civilians who were killed.

On our way back to our ship our tour guide felt it necessary to give us a history of the Vietnam war. He didn't tell anyone anything we didn't already know so I didn't understand what he was trying to accomplish. Anyway he was to young to have lived through it. then he sang a ridiculous song where he repeated "Long Live Vietnam. Long Live Ho Chi Min" I had no problem with the long live Vietnam part. but the part about long live Ho Chi Min was weird. You have to remember that Vietnam is still a communist country that is trying to emulate China in that it is opening up the to the rest of the world ,but people still can't say anything bad about the government. My point is I think the bus was probably bugged because the government wants to monitor and instructs what tour guides tell people.

By the time we got back to the dock it was dark and we still had to get on life boats to take us back to the ship. As we were en route to our ship in the dark, suddenly the life boat made a quick u turn in the water and turned on its lights. At first no one could figure out what was going but shortly there after we saw one of the hydrofoil boats zoom nearby us. The driver had taken evasive action to prevent us from colliding with it.

In my opinion the cruise line should have eliminated these two days in Vietnam because there really wasn't that much to see and spent another day in Shanghai and another day in Hong Kong. There are much more things to see in those two cities and one day in each is not enough.
All I can say is Vietnam. Good Morning,Good Afternoon,Good Evening,Good Night, Good Bye and Good Riddence.

Tues Nov 13

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Again I was up early before we pulled into port to take pictures.

Warning!! The following is a Anti Vietnam war political opinion that was in part made with 20/20 hind site and the fact that I feel fortunate to have come to this country and the only shooting I had to do was with a camera instead of a gun. (skip if you wish)

As I was taking these pictures I was amazed at how a place were so much death and misery had occurred could be so beautiful and peaceful. 258,00 American and 3 million Vietnamese victims died during the Vietnam war and growing up during that time I was always aware that there was a chance that I could have been one of them. I call them victims because that's what they were. Victims of those in authority on both sides who made poor decisions like France,China. Russia , and the United States becoming involved in the internal affairs of a country because of monetary or political gains. For all the money spent and sacrificed lives, all we have to show for it is a memorial wall in D.C. Growing up I would hear politicians who were in favor of sending troops to and escalating the war in Vietnam. That the spread of communism threatened our way of life and those soldiers that died were dying for their country. As far as I was concerned the only soldiers dying for their country were South Vietnamese. It is also my opinion the South Vietnamese were less willing to fight than those in the North and relied on too heavily on the U.S. As we all know, North Vietnam eventually took over the south and nothing much happened after that. I think leaders at that time thought that they could accomplish the same thing in Vietnam that was accomplished in the Korean war by preventing communist to take over. Only this time the result was the opposite but nobody argues that the Koren war was a waste of lives and money. The more things change the more they stay the same. The reason I mention this is because of what happened during and at the end of our tour to Saigon (now called Ho Chi Min City)

I didn't expect to see this. I guess they still like America in the south part of the country. While I was in Vietnam I didn't see anybody wearing t-shirts with the Chinese or Russian flags.

Our first day in Vietnam was to the resort town of Nha Trang which is on the southern coast of the country. Most people I know would not consider Vietnam as a resort destination. I know I didn't until I visited there. But During our tour I did see some westerners there on vacation. Not a lot but some. Our tour guide told us that you can get a room in a fairly nice hotel overlooking the beach for $20.

I knew I should have brought my surfboard.

In Nha Trang we first visited Hon Chong Promotory which over looked the South China sea.

Hon Chong Promontory Visitor Center

Here we saw an older woman who was doing natural sand paintings inside glass and selling them as souvenirs.

The sand paintings are done but carefully adding layers of different colored natural sand which eventually creates a picture. I bought one which was done in a circular glass and has a picture on two sides.

From there we went to the Ponagar Cham Tower complex overlooking the Cho river. the complex was built by the Champa Kingdom centuries ago and is made of sun dried mud bricks.

Deity Goddess Uroja inside Cham Temple

Our next stop was a tour of the Buddhist shrine at Long Son Pagoda. At the top of over 100 stairs sits an enormous white Buddha built in 1965. This Buddha commemorates those monks who protested the the abuses of the Diem regime by setting themselves aflame.

That's not a swastika. The Nazis took this symbol and reversed it.

Please let go of my hand before you set yourself on fire Mr. Monk. (Actually he is not a monk. I asked.)

Climbed all those stairs in 90 degree heat and 85% humidity just to take this picture. I must be crazy.

Our next two, and final visits were to a local market and a silk embroidery workshop that does the ancient Vietnamese art of picture embroidery.

Inside this makeshift building is a maze of merchants selling their wares. There is so much merchandise and so many merchants crowed together I got lost and was a few minutes late getting back to the bus. The temperature inside was stifling and I don't see how anybody could spend all day in there. No air conditioning what so ever.