We had a 6:30am wake up today, timed to be able to allow us to have a leisurely breakfast and make it to our excursion meeting time of 8:15am. While we ate, we could see that we were going to be spared the hot sun today, and, in fact, might get a rain shower (we didn’t). But the cloud cover gave us a nice break from the oppressively hot sun we’ve frequently experienced lately.
We had booked Princess excursion Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) On Your Own again for our visit today. We had enjoyed ourselves so much last time we were there that we thought we’d like to do it again and see a few new things. The drive from the port in Phu My is not as far as Bangkok is from Laem Chabang, and though it’s still at least 90 minutes each way, we actually left a little early and were being dropped off at the now-familiar Bitexco Building shortly after 10am.
Phu My, Vietnam
Where in the world are we?
Buddhist Temple near Phu My
Long load on a motorbike
Traditional cyclist
Common scene, store fronts with residences behind
We wanted to do another walk through of the Ben Thranh market, and see the parts of it we had missed last time, mostly the ‘wet market’, or produce and fish stalls. The fish stalls in particular sell out early, and there had been nothing much left to see when we went in the afternoon last time. Ben Thranh is tightly packed, not air conditioned and intensely humid. In addition, shoppers are constantly hounded to look at this stall, or that one. It’s all part of the experience, but it’s definitely a crazy time. We saw a press crushing sugar cane for sugar cane juice with lime, and just had to try that. It’s like a limeade, and tastes delicious in the heat.
We walked quickly through the fish stalls. Fish markets are always odorous, but Ben Thranh seems to take it to a whole other level, even though a lot of the fish is kept alive in tubs with air bubblers. Stall after stall offers Vietnamese coffees, teas and candies, and some are lunch counters, with locals lined up to get the food they know is good.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Back of Notre Dame Cathedral
Undergoing a renovation for several years.
Opera House
Street vendor
Cooking and selling, street-side
My fourth pho so far, about US $2.50
Squeezing sugar cane juice
Served with a little lime juice. Yum!
Seems like a lot of work for not much food
Mobile produce department
From Ben Thranh we walked back to the Bitexco Building. We know exactly where the free, clean Western bathrooms with toilet paper and hand washing sinks AND soap are, and used them, then went up to the food court on the 4th floor. It is clean and air conditioned with several food vendors offering enough variety to keep us both happy. G had a chicken sandwich and fries and I had another bowl of pho. I load mine up with bean sprouts and Thai basil and lime juice but no hot peppers. It’s delish!
After lunch (and updating our iPhone apps using the fairly fast WiFi in the food court), we walked back outside and arranged for rides in cyclos, the Vietnamese bicycles with a seat in front of the handlebars to carry one person. These guys are notorious for taking advantage of tourists, and we carefully spelled and everyone agreed to what we were going to see and how much we would pay. We rode through the area with French colonial buildings including the opera house and the port office and Notre Dame Cathedral, which resembles Notre Dame in Paris. It is undergoing a several year renovation and visitors can’t go inside.
Finally we saw what is called Reunification Palace, the home of the American Embassy during the Vietnam War (which they call the American War). This is the site of the famous rooftop helicopter evacuation during the Fall of Saigon. We stood in front of it and wondered what was gained from that whole war (and the same could be said of two recent wars, too).
Traditional cyclo rides to finish the day
The American Embassy famous for the helicopter pic when the Americans pulled out.
Now Reunification Palace
The American Embassy prior to that
The cyclos took us back to the Bitexco Building, and, sure enough, tried to claim that the price they quoted was for each of us, not both of us. I paid them what we had agreed to and walked away, starting to cross a major street. They took up their case with G, who told them he had no money and they had already been paid, so they came back to me while I was in the middle of the street with motorbikes zipping around me. Without stopping (which can be deadly…the trick to crossing is to keep an even pace and let the motorbikes avoid you), I turned around and started walking backward, yelling at them the entire time. I think they thought I was crazy, and finally gave up. And G just shook his head. He knows I’m crazy, and tough as nails when it comes to that kind of thing.
At 3pm we were boarding the bus for the trip back to the port. It was a quiet bus on the return trip; these days simply wipe people out. We were back on the ship shortly before 5pm, with enough time to shower before dinner. There is simply nothing better than feeling clean again after a day in HCMC.
We ate dinner in near silence…and so did the couple next to us, and the couple next to them, and the group of four next to them. We move clocks ahead an hour overnight; I think this will be a very quiet ship tomorrow morning, the first of two sea days in a row.
The show in the Princess Theater was a Rod Stewart tribute act by Dave Patten. I’m not a huge fan, but it was a new show for us so naturally we went. It was actually quite good, and many people apparently are huge fans and the audience was very engaged. There was a second show in Explorers Lounge by piano entertainer Joey Yates, but we barely made it through the Rod Stewart tribute show, so that was never in the cards.
The cities don’t get much smaller from this point on, but they do get closer to the port and the weather is going to start to cool as we head north. In fact, by the time we reach Nagasaki, we could be facing our coldest temps of the season. I’m not saying we’ll like it, but this ship has been hot since it arrived in Singapore, and it will be nice to move our cabin thermostat off the lowest temperature setting where it’s stayed for the last four weeks.
