Ho Chi Minh City; aka - Saigon

Our last stop before we returned to China was to fly southeast to the south of Vietnam.  We flew to Ho Chi Minh City which is the old Saigon.  We were there for the actual Chinese new year which is also known as the Spring Festival as that ushers in Spring for Asia.  Indeed that would be the case if you lived in Chengdu.  All of a sudden I no longer need a jacket unless out at night.

As you will see from the many pictures before.  Flowers and gardens are big in Saigon too.  The Vietnamese turn out in throngs to celebrate the new years.  One entire downtown boulevard through "Times Square - Saigon" was make into a pedestrian area.  About half of the street was covered with dirt, sand, ponds and flower gardens and decorations for the inhabitants to enjoy by strolling around the nights before and the night of the new year.  There are lots of fireworks too.

There was one sobering site we went to and that is Cu chi tunnel complex north of Saigon that was a big part of the war with Vietnam.  The tunnel complex was used by the north to infiltrate the south and to support the guerrilla warfare against the Americans and at the time, the south Vietnamese armies.  I start with the tunnel visit and then onto the festive parts.

This is a rubber plantation.  One of the reasons the French and other colonial powers wanted parts of southeast Asia for the strategic asset: rubber!  Rubber trees only like certain soil and weather combinations and Indonesia and southern Vietnam were historically the best places.  In the 60's and later the quality of synthetic rubbers improved to the point that natural rubber isn't a strategic asset needed to keep your war machine moving. 

Our Vietnamese tour guide demonstrating how to lower yourself into the tunnel opening holding the lid with debris on it to hide the entrance.

One of our group entering while holding the lid above his head.  I was too large for this style tunnel entrance.

There were many larger entrances with steps for hauling materials into the tunnels.  The tunnels were multi-level.  On weather.com there is a feature on the top 20 tunnels in the world.  The Cu Chi tunnel system is one and they have some pictures showing schematic cross sections of some of the complexes.

The soil is very stable and packs hard like concrete.  The lips around the entrance keep water from entering the tunnels when it rained hard.  They built artificial termite hills with holes in them as a means of depositing the soil and to disguise small air holes that helped with ventilation.

We dropped or shot a surprising amount of dud munitions at them that they then disassembled to get the explosives for use against us during the war.  The long tubes in the back are cluster bomb tubes that are filled with small munitions that you see the foreground.  Of course, disassembling a dud shell or bomb is one of the world's highest risk occupations!

The remnants of a US tank used during the war.  It was destroyed here.  Obviously it was scavenged for parts.

This is one style of booby traps designed to mame any soldiers that step into it.  There were a surprising variety of different trap designs! Of course this one doesn't have the camouflage.  We were all very careful to not wander off the trails!!

I was able to fire an AK-47 rifle and M-16.  I didn't fire in rapid bursts because I only wanted to hit the Vietnamese tour guides and not the American or European tourists that were with them.  Having this firing range at the tunnel site gave a very realistic sound effects echoing through this part of the jungle as you walked around the grounds....pretty eery!

 Okay, so lets go back to the city and happier things...

People are buried on their family farms (when they die).  That is so they can help in the next world and continue to enjoy their family.

This field has been harvested and is being left fallow for a couple of months before the next planting.  This grace site is complete with palm trees.  One of the nicest setups I saw...for a cemetery in a field that is.

The little girl standing on the seat had such a serious look as she watched us in the bus as the family of 5 passed on the motorcycle.  I love those large eyeglasses.

......and I think I'll take a nap.

In Saigon there were many gardens and we did go to the zoo and botanical gardens there.

Vietnam didn't purge religion to the extent that China did.  This catholic cathedral dated back to the  French.

Inside the cathedral

I've never seen a monkey that looked so odd....I'm sure he felt the same about me though.

Okay, so I like the flowers!

This little monkey was so cute but he about gave us a heart attack when he climbed through the bars and sat on the sign in front of the large cage.  All of his relatives were too large to fit though the bars but he was not.  He would go in and out as he pleased.  Hopefully he will be on the right side  of the bars when he is finally too large to squeeze through.

New Years' eve near TImes Square - Saigon.  These decorations on built in the middle of a blocked off boulevard.  The new year is the year of the snake which is what you see in the background.  The outgoing year is the year of the Dragon.

Adjacent to TImes Square.  Beautiful garden in front of the large government building.

Everyone, especially the women, dress up for New Years.  I wore my Norway t-shirt just for this occasion.

...and many decorations around this downtown area.  Many more decorations than in Chinese cities.

On new year's day there were groups of acrobats and dancers going around to businesses performing new years dances and rituals to bring the rich families and business good luck for the new year.  The dancing dragons are used every year and not because last year was the year of the dragon.  Two videos of the dancing/ceremonies and the collection of donations from the audience.  You pay money assuring your good fortunes for the new year.  Also, the businesses that they dance in front of are expected to donate to the cause ....or that would be in bad form and not bring their enterprise good fortune.

We had a dinner cruise on this boat.  It was just before sunset.

On the river looking back across part of the Mekong river delta to the city. The area we were at was just to the right of the tallest building in the picture.

While on the river we were passed by a hydrofoil.  I'm sure it is Russian built because it looked identical to the hydrofoil Marian and I rode on to cross the harbor to return to St Petersburg, Russia last year.

The sun set as we retured to the city's waterfront area.

Nice closeup of a water buffalo (below) Earlier in the day we went on a small boat trip through some of the channels in the Mekong river delta.  The happy Norwegian hopes that none of the bugs crawling in the mud and swimming in this water are splashes onto him.

 Here is a short video of the traffic jam when our little canoe trip started.  It also has Kirk and Karen Mosley who are fellow BYU sponsored teachers that live in Chengdu....just across the hall/stairs from us, now me.

They fed us at a village restaurant out in the Mekong delta.  We had Elephant fish.  An attendant made the Vietnamese equivalent of fish burritos with chunks of meat from the fish.

This is what the fish looked like after the meal.  It was one of the few fish we had on the trip or here that wasn't full of fish bones.  It tasted pretty good but I will still order salmon, red snapper, tuna, swordfish, talapia, white fish, cod, halibut, sea bass, carb or trout if they are on the menu instead of elephant fish....it wasn't that bad.  It was pretty good and I've certainly had worse over here.

Heading home to Chengdu after nearly a month on the road felt pretty good!