My last post from Asia. Remember to click on a photograph to open it for a better view.
Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, the city of motorbikes.
The metropolitan Saigon area has a population of more than 9,000,000, depending on the source of your information. A cab driver told me there are 10,000,000 motorbikes here and most of them seem to be out on the road. They’re also parked all over the sidewalks and just about hanging from the trees. Cars are very expensive to buy and maintain, and so to ‘survive’ you need a motorbike. They come at you from all directions. Along the sidewalks, out of store-fronts, down alleyways, on the wrong side of the road, and in the wrong direction. Watch your ass baby. Honk, honk, honk!
Here’s a sample, a ‘mild’ one but it demonstrates the shuffle.
The Saigon Shuffle. It all resolves itself. No one swears, shouts or shakes their fist. They just keep moving and shuffle like a deck of cards in the dealer’s hands. Walking through the airport when I arrived, different people poked me in the back twice, wanting me to move ahead. It wasn’t meant in a rude way, it was just that they expected me to keep moving with the flow.
The sought after Vietnamese woman has jet black hair, red lips and white, white skin. Women go to great lengths to protect themselves from the sun. As a backdrop to this photograph, the temperature this day was in the mid 30’s with a high humidity and a blazing sun overhead. Maybe a good way to lose weight?
I didn’t get a shot of my favourite, the woman riding side-saddle behind her man, dressed elegantly in skirt and high heels, black hair flowing in the wind, not hanging on to anything, just sitting, legs crossed and gazing at the world rolling by her.
Everything happens on a motorbike here. I’ll bet that does too!
This guy looks like he might be on his way to Mom’s place.
No doubt this wedding couple has a pair of motorbikes parked at home. The bicycle ‘thing’ is a local tradition that goes on near the Saigon cathedral and central post office.
I escaped to Phu Quoc, an island in the Gulf of Thailand, for a week’s rest from the Saigon hustle. Those are my sandals beside the jellyfish. I didn’t see any tentacles, but you wouldn’t want to surface with one of these guys on the top of your head.
I sat on the beach with a can of Tiger and a cigar watching the sun slide into the Gulf, while this guy lay motionless. He was still there when I left after about a ½ hour. I think he was alive?
Mother and daughter on a hot, sultry afternoon.
Mom turns her back and once they’ve fixed their hair, the girls are heading for town looking for boys. BTW, I asked Mom’s permission to take this – international sign language.
The main town on Phu Quoc, Duong Dong, is a fishing village. If only I’d had a boat to get out for a close up of life on the water. And why didn’t I ……….. merde!
Vietnam is the largest pepper producing nation in the world and a good percentage of it is grown on this island. I toured a pepper farm where the farmer showed us his collection of snakes, many of them poisonous. His little dog catches and brings them home. “Good boy Rover!”
Row after row of pepper tree.
It’s time to pay for dinner and stroll home to my hotel. But I can’t pay. The entire restaurant staff – chef, sous-chef, waitress/cashier – are all chowing-down on their own product. The chef (guy in the middle) barbecues on the side of the road and does a sales pitch as you walk past in the dark. They got me this night.
Saigon is famous for its buildings constructed during the French colonial days. Everyone pays a visit to the post office at one time or another. Uncle Ho keeps a close eye on proceedings from the back wall.
This art gallery, right next door to my apartment, was a wealthy Chinese family’s home once upon a time.
Say, the Vietnamese currency is the Dong, yes the Dong. $1 US = 20,000 Dong (about). You carry 500,000 Dong notes around in your wallet, $25. The apartment I rented for a month was $US 800 or 16,000,000 Dong. I paid in cash! Three ATM visits and a wheel-barrow got the cash to the owner. Uncle Ho’s photograph is on every bill.
The Ho Chi Minh City people’s committee building sits behind Uncle Ho. There are sentries posted around the building who stop you from taking close-up photographs. I tried, but they waved me away with a friendly smile.
The Saigon Opera House has a huge stage that arches out into the audience, a balcony, private balcony stalls, fluted pillars and ornate, decorative carvings everywhere. I went to the ‘A O’ Show (not adults only) and had 1st class seats in the balcony looking out over the stage. The show depicts early rural peasant life in Vietnam. The ticket was worth every penny – modern dance, acrobatics, music, sound effects, lighting – talented young Vietnamese entertainers and just a real treat. An escape from the hurley burley outside!
Sales Saigon 101. I ordered a cold Tiger. He opened one and placed three more on ice in a bowl at my finger tips. I stayed for one, one can that is, not one bowl, and a Mini of course. Tiger, a great lager, I know because I sampled a few!
Breakfast at my favourite local coffee-house, eaten with chopsticks and a spoon – a delight!
Compare that to the ‘healthy’ breakfast I had when I arrived back in the west at a San Diego diner! Have to admit I enjoyed those home fries, fat sausages and rye bread toast after six months in Asia – love Asia though I did.
Vietnamese iced coffee in the park with the birds, on a hot Sunday morning!
These guys bring out their singing birds every Sunday morning and enjoy each others company. Passers-by, like me, stop for a drink and listen to the birds.
There were a couple of welcoming parks in my neighbourhood. Places to cool off, escape the motorbikes and watch the passing parade. Students and others walk up to you and want to chat, learn about you and practice their English, like these folks – the kids came 1st, then the gent on the right joined. This happened many times with different groups.
There were also the ‘ladies of the park’ that, through their heavy lipstick, asked if I wanted “boom, boom”. Hey, what’s boom, boom?
Look how this city is exploding, just since 1995 even!
Here’s our guide demonstrating entry to the huge network of tunnels that the PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam), the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, moved equipment and forces through.
A standard issue PAVN ‘tent’ – mosquitoes especially loved them.
The PAVN took Saigon on April 30, 1975. Today, April 30 is celebrated throughout the country as Reunification Day, the day that north and south were reunified and the country was freed from foreign control. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for 1,000 years, the French for 100 years, then the Japanese for 5 years, before going through the struggle of the ‘Vietnam’ War.
This photo by Hubert van Es, UPI, shows the evacuation of the CIA station in Saigon on April 29, 1975. You’d be a little anxious if you were at the end of the line.
These are the tanks that broke through the gates and onto the grounds of Independence Palace, where I took this photograph. If you walked up to any Vietnamese on the street and just whispered “390, 843” into their ear, they’d instantly know what you meant.
Below sits Ho Chi Minh, surveying his city. The HCMC people’s committee building is behind him, but all around are the symbols of modern capitalism. Names like Rolex, Gucci, Vuitton, Cartier and Chanel are everywhere. The store fronts on either side of him, through their displays, invite only the rich and famous to enter. In front of him rise the steel towers of the world’s largest corporations.
I wonder what he’d think?
And so, it’s the end of my six month Asia adventure – Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Arriving in Cambodia last November, now mid May, it’s time to head for Mexico amigos, for something completely different. Vamos!
Thank you and farewell to the welcoming, friendly and energetic people of Vietnam, and indeed thank you to all the wonderful people I met in the amazing countries I visited here in southeast Asia!
durhamgj east 