Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - March 19, 2012

Vietnam may mean many different things to people in the USA.  Yes, the Vietnam War (known as the “American War” locally) was ugly for our soldiers and the people of Vietnam.  I am happy to report that the signs of war were few where we traveled along the road from the port of Phu My, to Ho Chi Minh City (which most of the former South Vietnamese still call Saigon).  I looked out the window of the bus for signs of bunkers along the rivers and for bomb indentations in the earth that were shown during a documentary on TV.  I only saw one bomb indentation.  Most everything else out the window was an incredible number of people running their small businesses along the roadside, or walking along the road next to cows, or riding one of the gazillions of motor scooters going somewhere. 

Typical Scene from Phu My to Saigon

Two Wheel Chaos on Hwy 1

Rice Field

Our tour guide gave a synopsis of the country’s history and current geometrics (which we write down but didn’t check for accuracy )—

A population of 88 Million, with 75% under age of 27, 4 million motorcycles just in Saigon, still a Communist type country but that seems more a matter of convenience than belief, education not free or compulsory, at 18 years old all men must serve in the military unless they are in university, no telephones at home since everyone has a cell phone, Religions--Buddhist 90%, Christian 9 % and the rest is Hindu with only 50,000 Muslims, primarily a vegetarian country because of the type of Buddhism practiced.



Nice Shoes

He also said the women are covered top to bottom not out of modesty but rather because they don’t want to have any sun on their skin as the lighter you are the better it is; they view either lily white or very black as the beautiful colors.  We think some people are wearing masks not so much to stay “beautiful” but because riding on a motorcycle along busy smog-filled roads can’t be too good for respiratory systems.  Girls in high-heels with socks – very stylish!

Sun Protection?

As the bus drives us through the city, the tour guide points out the various buildings that the French built dating from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  Saigon was originally known as the “Paris of the Orient”.  The US Embassy no longer has the famous building that the embassy staff evacuated by helicopter in 1973.  Clinton had it torn down and rebuilt the embassy in Hanoi, along with a smaller complex in Saigon.  The French have their original embassy buildings that we can still see through the gates.   

Vietnam Spaghetti Wires

As we drive around Saigon, we get the impression that the very first piece of electrical wire ever strung in Saigon is still hanging there, and every time they build a new building or house, they string a new piece of wire all the way from the generating plant to the new structure.  All of the electrical wire, cable, telephone, etc are in huge bundles above the street level, but right at eye level from the bus.

Museum Statues



The tour bus takes us to a history museum that houses an excellent collection of artifacts illustrating the evolution of the cultures of Vietnam.  A traditional Vietnamese water puppet performance is held for us – what a remarkable performance by such skilled and dedicated puppeteers!

Water Puppets

Laquer ware designer

Next stop is a lacquer-ware factory.  The people crafting the products are sitting outside in a small alleyway, hunched down working on a new piece.  Inside the store is an amazing assortment of items to buy, all made by the workers sitting outside.   

One of the oldest Buddhist temples is tucked away between other buildings – we would never have found this historic temple on our own.  Amazing porcelain carvings and lots of incense offerings still being brought to this temple.

Carvings & Spirals of Incense

We stop at French buildings still in use - Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office and Presidential Palace (now called Reunification Hall) where the Vietnamese liberation tank crashed through its front gates on April 30, 1975 signaling the end of the Vietnam War.  There is a park here and many beautiful tall trees, most over 100 years old, which somehow survived all the many wars this land has experienced.


Musicians at Majestic Hotel



Enjoying Rex Hotel & Coffee

City Hall

The Majestic Hotel is our lunch stop, with music and dance performances provided while the crowd eats traditional food buffet style.  After lunch we make a stop at the Rex Hotel to go to the rooftop bar area for a coffee or beer.  This is where the US Army Officers hung out at during the Vietnam War.  We have our first taste of Vietnamese-grown robusto coffee served in the traditional Vietnamese way – with lots of condensed milk and tons of sugar.  Right near here is the beautiful wedding-cake-like historic building now the City Hall that once was the Hotel d’Ville.


River Scene in Saigon



Street in Saigon

Now off to the airport.  Just before we reach the airport, the tour guide points out that the gates of the US Army Base during the war are still standing.  The Ho Chi Minh City Airport structure on the outside looks old, perhaps dating back to “American War” days, but inside it is brand new with lots of duty free shops stuffed with designer goods, American and British liquor and French perfume.

 

US Army Base Gate

Our flight departs for Cambodia and we are left with only our impressions of Vietnam from this short visit – industrious people, amazing sights, culturally-rich, friendly country, expanding, growing and constantly changing.

Arrive Phu My, Vietnam - March 19, 2012

The ship is preparing to dock at the shipping container port of Phu My, Vietnam.  This is just up the Mekong River Delta into a side River – I think the Captain said the Saigon River but I am not positive.  As we came up the river this morning, the sun was coming up behind some clouds with the huge container cranes sticking up like huge birds.  Along the river were many fishing boats that appear to have people also living on them.  The ship had to blow its horn a couple of times to ‘alert’ these small boats to move out of the way….I can’t believe they were still sleeping?!!

Our ship is docking at the pier next to the cruise ship Diamond Princess.  This is the first time we have seen this ship in our travels.

 

Today we will be touring Ho Chi Minh City and then boarding a flight to Siem Reap where we will stay at a hotel near Angkor Wat.  We are there a day and then return on a flight to Bangkok.  We will tour the city of Bangkok on Wednesday and then back to our home the Queen Elizabeth for the sail away.

Interesting Fishing boat

Cranes at sunrise

Lots of boats to move around

Moving out of the way

Almost Chan May, Vietnam - March 17, 2012

Front of ship looking for Chan May



Pilot Boat helping?



Really - its says Chan May on the boat

After a day at sea, everyone was excited to be arriving for the maiden call in Chan May, Vietnam.  Unfortunately, we have a unique experience on this cruise – a port abort.  The fog is so thick that even the pilot boat agrees with the Captain, after three hours of waiting for the fog to lift and two abandoned attempts to enter the port, it’s time for the Queen Elizabeth to set sail to sea again.  A bit of a disappointment for everyone because the tours to the city of Hue were going to be very interesting. Our safety is preferable, so back asea.  The crew is doing a great job of setting up various activities that weren’t even planned for today.  Port presentations, movies, line dancing, cha-cha dance class, watercolor painting and shopping.  As soon as the ship is 15 miles offshore, there is no fog.  Lots of people are enjoying the sun and the pools.  For us, it turns in to a ‘free’ day to read and relax. 

The ship will be at sea again tomorrow (Sunday) on its way to Phu My, Vietnam.  Let’s hope that the weather will cooperate at this next port.  The clock’s time has gone back another hour – we are now 12 hours ahead of East Coast, USA. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! 

Hong Kong March 14-15 - Pictures

Big Bronze Buddha

Building w/Feng Shui opening

Canton Railway Clock Tower

High Rise Condos Everywhere

Steve in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Skyline #1

Hong Kong Skyline #2

Tai O Fishing boats

Woman cleaning fish to sell

Strange Woman

Po Lin Monastery



Fishing Village of Tai O

Young Chinese Tourists

Gifts offered to Big Buddha

Monastery Temple

Temple Street Market

Harbor City Mall Entrance

Shopping line into Hermes

Temple Street Apartment

View from Victoria Peak

Vendors at Victoria Peak

Suspension Bridge to Lantau

On the way to Lantau Island



Child with Micky Ears Hat

Hong Kong March 14 - 15

(Pictures to be posted later in a separate entry)

WOW – where to begin?!  Hong Kong has always been one of those amazing culturally diverse places to visit and historically important to understand.  What we saw in this city was so much change since the 1990’s, it made our heads spin.  The skyline is beyond any city in the world except perhaps Shanghai (which we haven’t seen).  You have amazing architectural feats on both sides of Victoria Harbor, with office towers climbing to heights of up to 118 stories and condo buildings not much shorter than that.  High-rise buildings constructed into the sides of Mt. Victoria that now tower to the point that at its peak, you are nearly parallel with their rooftops.  A laser “symphony of light” show is held every night on Victoria Harbor to music acknowledging the city and its tallest buildings.  Where do we start telling about Hong Kong…..maybe at the harbor?

Twenty years ago, Victoria Harbor was a place where ferries, fishing boats, barges, freighters, cruise ships and sampans were so prevalent that you almost would think you could have run across it jumping from deck to deck of moving ships.  Now, the harbor is being filled in and high-rise structures – a cultural center, a harbor shopping center, condo buildings and more – and roadways are built upon the reclaimed land.  And in the future, already recently reclaimed land will be used for the terminus of a high speed rail system and for more buildings.  The harbor is now much smaller with less boat traffic and fewer people taking the ferries.  The ferries are all high-speed now and look fairly modern.  All the freighters are moved further away from the main city water front, towards the west end of Kowloon where there is a massive container port.  The harbor piers have been rebuilt with clubs and shopping malls.  Our captain mentioned today that the Queen Elizabeth, on entering and leaving Victoria Harbor, had to negotiate areas that were less than two “cable lengths” (720 feet/cable) in width, difficult areas to “push a stick through” unless it has modern steering devices that are all functioning properly.

The shopping – several modern malls right at the piers where are ship docks, called Harbor City.  Ocean Terminal, Ocean Centre and Gateway Arcade are all interconnected.  Four levels of every kind of store you can imagine, as well as restaurants and snack places.  Each store has more people working the floor than you can count – all under the age of 30.  There is every designer store you can imagine and they are so popular with the mainland Chinese tourists there is a long queue at opening, and at select stores like Chanel, throughout the day.  We are told that they had to establish the queues, complete with a tough-looking bouncer, to screen out the true shoppers from the girls who just want to see a designer item and take their picture.  To go in the store you have to be a serious shopper.  Apparently, the mainland Chinese come to Hong Kong to shop because there are no taxes and because of the ubiquity of upscale merchandise.  They shop, load up suitcases and fly back to their homes.  Sounds a little like some people who go to New York or Chicago to shop.  However, we are talking about mostly designer stores – not the Stanley Market items.  The west will soon have conquered the Chinese with capitalism and designer goods.

Stanley Market – still there but seems smaller.  Some women on the ship did not feel the items and deals were as good as in the past.  There is a Ladies Market and Night Market on Hong Kong Island and the Temple Market in Kowloon available for shopping as well and for mastery of negotiation skills (realistically, if you buy something, you probably overpay no matter how much you negotiate!).  Some women claimed the Ladies Market was where the deals were this time.  We visited the Temple Market and found a few items.  It felt to a bit like something we could have done in a New York or San Francisco flea market.  It didn’t have the same feel as it used to have when the items from Hong Kong seemed more unique.  It was though a fun experience to walk through the Temple Market. 

Fashion – all the young people – everywhere!  Where are the seniors?  Very few in the main area of Hong Kong, and the ones that are there seem to stand around in amazement, just like us.  And the young people look like they could be walking down the street of New York City.  Jeans, Uggs, the layered look, leggings, leather boots – looking very similar to any young person, anywhere else.  When you get away from the Kowloon and Hong Kong Island into a fishing village, you do see a little of the older woman and men dressed in the more peasant look.  Poverty prohibits fashion statements. 

Lantau Island – what a difference a bridge, an airport and tourism can make.  Lantau is actually the larger of the islands off of peninsular Kowloon – bigger than Hong Kong Island.  It is mountainous and forested.  It mainly was the home of fishing villages, three monasteries and three prisons.  Since 1992 when Lynn last visited, they moved the Hong Kong airport to Lantau Island, built one of the largest double-decker suspension bridges in the world to connect Kowloon and Lantau Island, expanded the tourist facilities near Po Lin Monastery where the largest Bronze Buddha in the world is located, added and groomed trails in the mountains for weekend visitors who ‘get away’ from the city and finally, ushered in Disneyland Hong Kong, which is built on Lantau island.  In the principal fishing village, visited by Lynn two decades ago and again on this trip, the streets were improved and small connecting pathways were built over canals that you once had to cross via a boat you powered yourself via a hand-over-hand rope.  The Po Lin Monastery lunch, once a humble meal served by monks, is now a Chinese-style buffet meal provided to tables of ten tourists.  And the monastery is presently undergoing a renovation so huge that the sound of the cranes, drilling and jackhammers eclipsed the tolling of the large bell calling monks to prayer. Maybe they use a smartphone app these days to receive the temple call?

The Giant Bronze Buddha is easy to get to these days because there is a paved road to the top of the peak, or you can walk the 256 steps that replaced the “trudge” up the old unimproved mountain trail.  You can imagine our amazement at the sights and sounds of this holy place.  “Progress” and the shrinking world are subjects that become the focus of our discussions as we enjoy our Starbuck lattes – yes, Starbucks – at the base of poor Big Buddha.  We are deeply concerned that Siddhartha will sprout Mickey ears before our next visit.

Mt. Victoria – The Tram to the peak was undergoing massive maintenance, so our tour took us to the top via bus – a long and winding road weaving its way up.  So many more buildings have been built along the way – huge condominium buildings reaching to the sky, large mansions and, when we get to the top, an entire shopping center.  And yes, another Starbucks.  All where twenty years ago there were only a simple tram building and a lookout spot.

When we visited the last time, the Peninsula Hotel, where we then met a business associate for a drink one evening, was located right on Victoria Harbor – spectacular views looking across from Kowloon to Hong Kong.  We went back to re-live that moment in time.  It is still a very special hotel; however it no longer sits overlooking the harbor!  The Cultural Centre is built on reclaimed land directly along the waterfront in front of the Peninsula Hotel on Salisbury Street.  There is even an IMAX theatre and a statue of Bruce Lee!  The waterfront walkway is great for viewing the laser light show and thank goodness someone saved the iconic Canton Railway Clock Tower.

Other observations – people walking with masks over their nose and mouth (why?); signs on buses saying “This Bus Disinfected Every Day” (why?); very tall buildings with apartments that are only 300-500 sq. feet, with people still hanging their clothes out to dry; Hong Kong has to buy and haul in its water from China because it has no source for water except rainwater runoff and no desalination plants have been built (yet!); toilets in some places are still a hole in the ground (why?!).

We would still recommend Hong Kong as a destination since it’s extremely exciting, and for anyone looking to experience a little Chinese culture, it’s a comfortable and easy way to do so.  All the signs and restaurant menus are in English and everyone speaks English.  It is an incredible city with so many sights and sounds unique to anywhere else in the world.  But don’t expect the Hong Kong of yesteryear; that has simply disappeared.

Arrival Hong Kong - March 14 7:30 am

Hong Kong Older Skyline

The ship has just docked in Hong Kong in the Kowloon port.  The weather is foggy and grey so the pictures are not as crisp and clear.  Hong Kong on both sides of the harbor is built-up a tremendous amount since we were here.  There are still a few buildings that we recognize.  Here are a few pix.  We are off to take a tour today to Lantau Island and then tomorrow spend the day exploring.

Fishing boat in front of our ship!

Kowloon side

Hong Kong Newer skyline

Kowloon New Buildings

Ferry Terminal Kowloon

Diversity in living conditions