We arrived at the edge of the Mekong Delta...
On our way to the city we passed rice paddies and rubber tree plantations....
Saigon is a large city of contrasts...
It is motorbike central, thousands of them everywhere carrying as much as they can hold......
The city center is very pretty with large parks and beautiful modern buildings. It also holds places that many of us who lived during the Vietnam War will remember....
This is the former American Embassy Building where image of the local people scaling the fence were broadcast around the world....
The old building in front of the blue skyscraper is the former CIA building where the last helicopter evacuating the city took off and was captured by news crews....
This is the Rex Hotel where senior American military leaders would stay when in Saigon....
However now the city center, is a modern mixture of pretty buildings and parks and everywhere is the image of Ho Chi Minh.
This is the City Hall with Ho Chi Minh statue...
This is the post office and requisite picture......
This is the Opera House....
And interestingly this the Catholic Cathedral as well. (That would be a statue of the Madonna instead of Ho for a change!)
Like everywhere else, this is a city of contrasts. Although it has it's high rises and beautiful city center, most of the city where the people live looks more like this.....
We visited another Buddhist Temple with incredible detail.....
This lady was selling incense outside.
Like I said before, the Vietnamese are eager that their guests have a good time and provided fabulous entertainment for our lunch.
These beautiful dancers were absolutely stunning.....
And then they were followed by musicians playing local instruments....
After lunch we were off to the lacquer factory where there was some absolutely stunning artwork but can you imagine squatting all day and sanding this stuff!! I swear I think they have the strongest knees in the world because everywhere people were squatting and having conversations....
Next came the history museum (not air conditioned) and held the relics of Vietnam's earlier civilizations, icons and artifacts of their gods......
We completed our day with a truly unique experience, a Vietnamese water puppet show which is something I have never seen.
There were swans and dragons, dancing ladies and acrobat poppets. It was unique, special and great way to end our trip to Vietnam.
We were all surprised at how much we had enjoyed our Vietnam experience!
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