Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 247

From the South China Sea we entered the Saigon River to reach Ho Chi Min City. It’s amazing this river could accommodate such a large ship. The traffic on this river is intense. Small boats just take a chance and run directly in front of the ship. It took 3 1/2 hours to go up river and dock.... read more

As I lay mediatating in Tamil Nadu, I longed for cooler Himalayan climate - a breeze - or even for the electricity to come back on so my ceiling fan would move. It's hard for me to clear my mind here in India - thoughts rudely crowd my meditation. My senses are too open. I remembered my last yoga class. I miss the guidance of a class - someone else's brain doing the work of reminding me what pose is coming my way next. I had a great one in the States before we left which I dragged Rich to, and the other was in Saigon. Apart from that, I've been on my own. I saw a sign in a traveller cafe (Sinh Cafe on De Tham Street) for Saigonyoga.com. I looked it up and headed ... read more

Alarm was set for 7AM, but Felicia woke up early, so we got up. Had breakfast at the hotel (included) then headed out to do HCMC in a day. First stop was the Reunification Palace. We had an English speaking guide and ended up touring the facility with another American. Then on to the War Remnants Museum, which had a lot of history about the war, including information about the lasting effects of Agent Orange (replete with pickled malformed fetuses in jars). Had lunch at Bunto, “Where Everything is Bun.” Bun is a Vietnamese noodle bowl; it has raw veggies on the bottom, vermicelli rice noodles in the middle, grilled meat on top, and you put a nice sauce over everything. Stopped to see the General Post Office, which is a grand old building, and walked ... read more

Up early to get to Sinh Café for the Cao Dai Cathedral/Cu Chi Tunnel day tour. The Cao Dai religion is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. They are known for their very brightly colored temples and have worship every 12 hours starting at 6AM. The worshippers all wear white, except for some religious leaders, who wear red (Confucianism), yellow (Buddhism), or blue (Taoism). Had lunch and then went to Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels were used by the VC during the war to escape American bombs, and for guerrilla warfare tactics and hiding. We got to go down a short tunnel; it was very small, hot, and dark. Todd had to squat walk all the way through. After getting back to HCMC, we had dinner at Lemongrass, then drinks at Saigon Saigon ... read more

Today we did the obligatory trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Though packed with propoganda it was quite interesting and the traps that the locals made to use against the Americans were unashamedly brutal. Crawling through the tunnels was obviously the highlight, though in a way a little of an anti-climax. We did have one of the group freak out mid way which meant everyone else (us included) had to back up and out of the tunnels and then head back in again. It was pretty funny (ok not for them, but Corb as expected came out with some pretty funny comments). Our last evening in HCMC was very nice, walking by the park seeing all the locals out walking and playing shuttlecock hackey. We had a great dinner and more black sticky rice which made ... read more