We are in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon today.
A little history lesson -- In 1976, after the fall of Saigon, which brought the end to the Vietnam War, the name of the city of Saigon was changed. It was changed from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City, to celebrate the reunification of Vietnam. South Vietnam still calls it Saigon and the Communist North call it Ho Chi Minh City.
I am going to use Saigon in reference to this city. It is just shorter and easier to type than Ho Chi Minh City.
The ship got to the Mekong River at 8:00 AM and we followed the river for at least 75 miles (could be more) before we got to our port. We arrived at 1:00 PM and we are in port overnight.
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| Passed these as we went up the Mekong River |
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| View from our balcony |
OK, so it is the country's largest city and the population of Saigon is 8.4 million. So, after 5-hours of travel on the Mekong River, we finally get to our port and this place is huge. Huge buildings everywhere.
Barry & I opted to stay on the boat today and have a quiet day. We have an excursion tomorrow morning and we'll see the sights of the city then. Mike and Wendy had a 6-hour excursion today, leaving at 1:00 PM. So we'll be seeing them much later.
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| Sunset over Saigon |
Tonight on the boat, we have "Grand Deck BBQ Under the Stars". The whole 10th Deck will be all "decked" out with lights, tables, flowers & crystal for dinner on the pool deck. There is a huge BBQ dinner and the band will be playing rock & roll hits from the Vietnam War era. This will be a blast.
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| Pool Deck all set for the BBQ |
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| The lights of Saigon in the background |
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| Beautiful sushi, tuna & smoked salmon |
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| Ice Sculpture in the center of the buffet |
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| Whole roasted pig with all the trimmings |
The four of us nibbled away at the buffet, with lovely chilled glasses of California Chardonney ( Wente), until we had to cry "uncle". The band was playing rock & roll from the 60's & 70's. It was terrific.
We headed up to Galileo Lounge and bumped into Mickey, Karen & Dave. Wendy & Karen hit it off immediately. We stayed up too late...we have an 8:00 AM excursion tomorrow.
OMG...it's a gorgeous country. I knew that the Mekong was a large river, but didn't know it could accommodate anything the size of a cruise ship... I like learning something new every day....have a wonderful excursion today. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures.
ReplyDeleteTake Care!