03.08.2024 Ho Chi Minh City Day 1/4

Today we arrived in Vietnam. Diana has always wanted to visit and she really can’t explain why except for our involvement in the Vietnam war. It was the first conflict she was ever aware of. She remembers sitting in Sister Alfreda’s history class in 7th grade at St Lambert Catholic School talking about this far off land and what was happening. She also remembers Walter Cronkite on the CBS nightly news providing the news of how the war was going along with news clips and the count of those who died that day.
After breakfast we attended one more lecture with Russell Lee: "The Tale of the Two Vietnams." He shared with us
why Vietnam was divided into two countries and what happened when it was reunified.
Diana went up to 7 to watch our scenic cruising up the Saigon River. The fishing shacks etc were fascinating. The little boats called junks were neat.
We are docked at a huge container port about 1.5 hours from the city. The traffic is horrendous.
We didn’t arrive until 2 in the afternoon and we took the Viking included tour into Ho Chi Minh City. It is the best way to guarantee that we got into the city today. (Viking is also running a free shuttle service, first come first served)
Our first stop was the Temple. No pictures allowed inside as the pilgrims were praying and the Buddhist monks were chanting.
We then went to a lacquer shop as they is a big deal here in Vietnam.
Our next stop was a quick photo opportunity at the Reunification Palace. This where the North Vietnamese ran the tanks through the gate when Saigon fell.
When we stopped at the Opera House we left the tour to walk to our hotel, Silverland Ben Thanh. We are here for two nights off the ship.
We settled in to our quaint room and then went to dinner at a Gaucho restaurant. The steak was delicious.
We returned to our hotel and made a brief visit to our rooftop bar to take in the views. The scooters are crazy!
Tomorrow will be a full day so off to bed we go.Leia mais