Friday in Saigon

Today we made several short trips out into the area around our hotel to visit a few landmarks. We began the morning with another trip to the playground. After the boys got through playing, we caught a cab over to the Diamond Plaza. This is a tall building with an upscale shopping center on the bottom five floors. We had to make several trips here in 2007 to meet with our Consulate contact as we were trying to get through the process of bringing Jett home. The US government has office space in several of the higher floors in the building. We ate lunch at Pizza Hut and then headed outside. The building is located across the street from the Saigon Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Diamond Plaza

HCMC Post Office

Post Office Interior

Front of Notre Dame

Rear of Notre Dame

This afternoon we made a trip to the War Remnants Museum. It is a museum of pictures and artifacts from the Vietnam War. The boys had passed by it and wanted to go there because there are all kinds of planes, tanks, and helicopters. We had gone here the last time we came to HCMC and I really didn't have it on my to-do list this time. As one might imagine, it is a rather lopsided depiction of the events of the war. The war is referred to throughout the museum as "The War of American Aggression". Once you overlook that aspect, there are tons of interesting things to see. There is a large section that is devoted to "Agent Orange" contamination and its effects on the Vietnamese people and American soldiers. The effects of the chemical are well documented and thousands of US soldiers are still being diagnosed with illnesses related to the chemical. This section is pretty gruesome and it contains jars with deformed fetuses and all kinds of pictures of deformities that have arisen in the population over the last 35 years. We didn't let the boys see any of those parts. We will save that for a later trip. The boys were fascinated with the mock prison that is on the sight. It depicts the prisons on Con Son Island that the South Vietnamese government used to imprison communist sympathizers. There are some spooky looking models and an actual guillotine used as late as 1960.

We ate supper tonight at a restaurant that is right down the street from our hotel called Barbecue Garden. The tables have a small gas grill in the center of them. Once you order your food, (we had a beef combination plate) they bring it out to you raw. You then grill it in the middle of the table. It was really good and cheap too. I think we might make another trip back before we leave.

Tomorrow morning we are taking a trip out to Cu Chi. This is an area where the Viet Cong had an extensive underground tunnel network from which they staged attacks on the US and ARVN. We will be going to the area where the tunnels were located and touring some of the operation. This is probably the last trip out of the city that we will make and it was the boy's choice of what to do for tomorrow.

Trip to the Zoo and the Sky Tower

Today we took a trip to the Saigon Zoo with the boys. My mother went with us. Several people have been concerned about her and the fact that she has not shown up in the blog posts since she fell. She is doing fine, but she definitely hurt something in her knee or leg. She has been staying around the hotel alot to give it a chance to get better. Today she made the trip with us, but she has to move at her own pace which is a little slower and with a limp. I think she's fine, but she probably will need a few weeks to completely recover.

The boys really enjoyed the zoo and there were alot of interesting animals. The zoo is found inside of the Saigon Botanical Gardens and it is really a beautiful area. Once again J.R. and James had to pose for pictures. They are really a big hit, especially with the teenage girls. It is beginning to grate on J.R. a little bit, so I told him today that if he was a little older he would be excited about all that girl attention. He replied that he just wasn't that old yet.

After we left the zoo, my mother went back to the hotel and we went to the Bitexco Financial Tower in downtown Saigon. The tower is the tallest building in Saigon and it has a Skydeck area on the 49th floor for tourists to view the city. The boys really enjoyed the trip and the view was awesome. The building has a very interesting shape and about three quarters of the way up it has a huge circular deck that sticks out from the building. I thought this was the area we were going to look out from, but it is actually a helicopter landing pad. The viewing area is behind glass and there are several pairs of binoculars that are mounted for viewing. It really gives you a good view of the size of the city. It is huge, and it seems to stretch on as far as the eye can see.

We ate supper on the rooftop restaurant at the Rex Hotel. The Rex was famous during the Vietnam War because of the American troops and war correspondents who stayed there. Daily press briefings were given at the hotel by the military. Soldiers and journalists frequented the rooftop area to get away from the uncertainty of the streets of Saigon. Tonight the Fordham's paid a visit, but not to escape the war.

It's hard to believe how much this city has changed in the 35 years since the war has ended.  The people's perception of us as a country is very positive. We passed the US Embassy on the way to the zoo today. The entire compound is heavily fortified and Vietnamese soldiers stand guard outside the walls on the sidewalks with AK-47's. Hundreds of Vietnamese people line the streets in this area waiting to get inside to apply for student visa's or travel visa's I guess. I'm not really sure why all of them are there, but the last time we came the area was the same. American citizens can walk right into the place and bypass all the lines simply by showing their passports. Last time we were here we had to go there for some paperwork. The armed soldiers on the outside really set an uneasy tone. I guess it is a constant reminder that no matter how nice and welcoming the people are, this is not America.

Day 6 Beach Trip to Vung Tau

I didn't really have anything to post yesterday, because we really didn't do anything. Everyone was worn out from the trip to Tay Ninh, so we just stayed around the hotel and took the boys back to the park again. Thank goodness this time we didn't have quite as much drama as our last trip.



A Junk on the Saigon River

The boys have been dying to go to the beach, so we decided to make the trip today. Ho Chi Minh City is about 50 km from the coast. Since it sits on the Saigon River, the beach can actually be reached by boat. There are several companies that offer hydrofoil service hourly between Ho Chi Minh City and the nearest beach which is in the city of Vung Tau. These hydrofoils are long tube boats with seats inside situated like an airplane. The boats plane off in the water and they can travel very fast. It takes about an hour and a half to reach Vung Tau.

Once we reached the city, we got a taxi to take us to the beach area. I told him that we wanted to go to the beach and that is exactly where he took us. He dropped us off at an area where Vietnamese locals visited instead of the tourist area. I am not opposed to hanging out with the locals, but let's just say that there was quite a language barrier. The beach was super crowded and there were areas of shelter and chairs for rent. We could not communicate with the people well enough to figure out where to go or what to pay, so we just walked out and found ourselves a sandy place to park our things.



We quickly became a sort of tourist attraction. I bet James posed for over a dozen pictures (I told you he is well liked here). Everybody wants to touch him. When we walked to the park yesterday, a young Vietnamese guy came out and started stroking his arms and hair. He just kept touching him and saying "Very good." All I could say was that we think so too. Several groups of young people came by and wanted to just watch the boys and stare at them. It feels strange sometimes, but I know that they are just curious. Blonde hair is somewhat of an oddity here.

















Statue of Jesus on the Mountain

Vung Tau is a beautiful area with several small mountains along the coastline. Atop the main mountain in the city area stands a huge statue of Jesus looking out towards the sea with his arms spread wide. There are a lot of ships passing through the area on their way to the port in Saigon. After the boys finished swimming we went inside a bath house in the beach area and paid 10,000 dong (50 cents) each so that the boys could wash off.  After everyone got cleaned up we headed back to the dock to catch the hydrofoil back to Saigon. At the dock we ate at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are several of them in Ho Chi Minh City, but their menu has a few different items on it. James had a shrimp burger and I had strips with rice (as you might have guessed) and gravy instead of the mashed potatoes we ussually have in the US. We ate and caught the boat back to the city. As soon as we boarded, the bottom fell out. It rained heavily on us most of the way back to Saigon. We finished off the day with supper at an Italian restaurant and everyone came back to the room and crashed. The room is filled with the buzz of "little boy snores" now as I type. I guess they're all just recharging for their next big adventure. I think I'll join them.

Public Beach Showers

Day 4 Tay Ninh and Nui Ba Den

We got up early this morning and drove about 2 ½ hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City to the city of Tay Ninh. The city is situated close to the Cambodian border. We wound through the streets of Saigon until we reached the outskirts of the city. There we drove on a 4 lane highway through the countryside all the way to our destination. The drive was very interesting as we passed by miles and miles of rice paddies and rural homes. All along the roadside cows were tethered so that they could graze in the ditches and grassy areas. Many of the rice paddies that were not being cultivated were filled with grazing water buffaloes. We passed several carts being pulled by teams of oxen. I was really surprised at the size of some of the oxen. Most of them would have weighed 2000 pounds or better. The trailers that they were pulling were made from the rear ends of large, medium duty trucks. The cart alone was a major load.

We reached the city of Tay Ninh about 11:00 and we made our way directly to the Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is a very unique religion that was begun right here in the city of Tay Ninh. The religion holds very strange beliefs that mix Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Christianity. They believe that Jesus descended from God along with Buddha and Victor Hugo. They also hold approximately 70 saints which include Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Their temple complex and worship ceremony is something to see. It is very colorful. The practitioners of the faith worship four times a day at 6 am, 12 pm, 6 pm, and 12 am. We were there for the 12 pm service and we got to watch the event.

Anyone who enters the temple must remove their shoes at the sidewalk just as the practitioners do. Visitors are welcome and the people inside the temple showed us around and explained some things to us. The center area is off limits to visitors and they are not allowed to step into the area which is identified with different color tiles. Men must enter the temple from the right hand side and women from the left. We walked around the inside and then waited for the service to begin. During the service, visitors had to watch from the overhead balcony area.

After we left the Cao Dai Temple, we drove about 10 km out of Tay Ninh to an ancient, dead volcano known as Nui Ba Den or The Black Virgin Mountain. The mountain can be seen for miles around as it ominously rises from the rest of the flat rice growing land that surrounds it.  The mountain holds religious significance for followers of both Cao Daism and Buddhism. Atop the mountain there are a couple of Buddhist temples and a number of monks who live there. The area is also now home to a theme park of sorts that has a sky bucket lift that goes up the mountain and a large alpine slide that comes down it. The whole place is old and ramshackle and I had no doubt that it was not on the to-do list for many Westerners. I did not see a single non-Vietnamese person there. DeanAnne was reluctant to get on the sky buckets, but I moved ahead and took the boys right on up. When we got to the top we saw many Vietnamese people who had come to pray and burn incense in the temples. We took a few pictures, and while we were there, we saw some monkeys. It was definitely a unique experience and the view was beautiful. You could look out over the delta area from the top and see for miles. American forces used the mountain as a radio relay outpost and the area was the scene of some intense fighting as the Ho Chi Minh Trail ended just a few kilometers away from the mountain. Viet Cong soldiers used many of the caves in the mountain to stash supplies and ammunition. Just seeing the place is enough to confirm that the mountain would have been a coveted piece of territory.

We drove back to Saigon from Nui Ba Den and the traffic was terrible. I took some pictures just to show how crazy it was. I think we are going to stick around the hotel area tomorrow and give the boys a chance to recover. They were exhausted by all of the day’s riding.  

I also wanted to share a picture of the toilets at Nui Ba Den with everybody. You better make sure you go before you walk up the mountain. If you fall because your legs are weak, there's no telling where you might end up. At least the women don't have to worry about the men leaving the seat up.