Vietnam, a disappointing return

 March 22, 2025

We had set our alarm for 5:30 because we had an early excursion which we were to meet on the pier at 7:20.   It was dark as I went out on our balcony but could make out some ships offloading their containers.  We proceeded up the Thi  Vai River to the port of Phu My.  This is the port that cruise ships use to tour Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, and beyond.  Saigon lies some 40 miles and about 45 minutes to the northwest.  As it got lighter, we could see tall buildings in the distance through what could only be described as smog.

Victor

Our first Pagoda siting

We managed to find our bus, one of more than 30 that were waiting on the pier.  Our guide “Victor” said we had 31 in our group. 
The bus was arguably the finest we had ridden on so far.  Complete with power hookups for our phones.

We travel through a section of town before breaking out into some rural areas complete with rice fields, some freshly growing, others brown from recent harvest. 

We passed impressive pagodas, tiered towers with multiple eaves built for religious purposes.  We would see many throughout the day.  Another striking feature was in contrast to other Asian cities and towns we visited was the amount of trash that could be seen everywhere.  But what I will remember most about bus ride was the amount of motor scooters that surrounded us at all times.  They are everywhere and all about the same size, 125 cc.  Below is a video.

https://photos.google.com/search/CgZWaWRlb3MiCBIGCgQqAggBKIzNrZXcMg%3D%3D/photo/AF1QipPYNQzUcZEtC0-1xItesQlpnDfODTvOxU-jw_Cq  

95% of all register vehicles in Vietnam are scooters or motorcycles.  You see as many as four people, mom, dad and a couple kids, but most often, there are two.  And, you see them with single drivers with cargo tied on the back of all types.  From cages of live chickens to furniture and everything in between.

Waiting at a stop light

Our tour is “Countryside and Cu Chi Tunnels”.   It is scheduled to last eight hours.  We are getting the countryside part as we travel toward Saigon.  It will take us well over two hours of drive-time to reach our destination.  We enter the city and the traffic is horrendous by Charles City standards.  I took some videos, I hope I can show them.

Video below:

 https://photos.google.com/u/0/photo/AF1QipNLspuJabZP66TBb4PqhbWMEIi8EzeQ4GerqB4z

There are individual shops one after the other, all through the city.  They generally sell just one type of item like brooms, clothes, phones, appliances, or furniture, none of them very big and undoubtedly family run. 

There are many little restaurants, with or without seating.  And stands selling BBQ chicken and other indescribables, soft drinks or snacks of some sort.

They should call this the "City of 2, 3 and 4 letter words!  As we view the signage, very seldom is there a word over 4 letters!  Occasionally you might see one, but it seems this is like their spoken language as well, very short and staccato-like.

When we get toward the center of Saigon, we cross the Saigon River.  It originates in SE Cambodia and flows southeasterly for about 140 miles before emptying into the South China Sea.  It was damned up in 1985 for irrigation purposes.  It is the main water source for Saigon’s 9.3 million inhabitants (larger than NYC’s 8.5 million!).  We start to see some skyscrapers and business buildings.  One exceptionally tall building is Landmark 81.  It stands 461 meters and features luxury apartments, shopping centers, restaurants, and an observation deck.  It is the second tallest building in Southeast Asia.

Landmark 81 on the left

We also go by Tan Sun Nhat International Airport.  This airport was originally built by the French in the 1930’s, near the village of Tan Son Nhat which was, at the time, far outside of the city limits.  It was occupied by the Japanese during WW2 which used it for a transport base.  After the war, the French reclaimed it and became the Army’s headquarters in 1956.  The U.S. continually upgraded and expanded it and by 1968, it was one of the busiest airports in the world.  It was one of the last dominos to drop before the fall of Saigon in 1975.  It has reached it’s capacity and a new airport, Long Thanh International Airport, is under construction 40 km outside Ho Chi Minh City which will accommodate up to 100 million visitors annually to this area.

 

Artist working with shells

It takes us well over an hour to get through the city and to our first stop for restroom and stretch break.  It is at a place where handicapped people make artistic items for sale.  Most of them pictures or plates with designs incorporating egg and oyster shell pieces (tiny pieces for the most part). 

We are encouraged to support them and Sue, and I do by purchasing a dish that has both types of shell incorporated in a nighttime scene.  It cost VND (Vietnam Dong) $1,100,000!  FYI, US$1 = VND$25,605.  They need to do some serious downsizing of their monetary system.

We finally got to our destination and can see by the mass of tourist buses that this is going to be a busy place.  We follow him as he tries to explain different areas to us but it is a losing battle as other guides are dominating the displays and doing their own explanations.  We can only listen to what they have to say and try to get a glimpse through the crowd as to what he is talking about.  What it amounts to is they have set up different areas to show the design of the elaborate tunnel system which was the Viet Cong’s way of infiltrating Allied forces without being detected.  They built this system of tunnels by hand with a right-angle spade and a wicker basket to haul it out. 

spade and basket

I borrowed this from the internet:

“In order to combat better-supplied American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, Communist guerrilla troops known as Viet Cong (VC) dug tens of thousands of miles of tunnels, including an extensive network running underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of Saigon. Soldiers used these underground routes to house troops, transport communications and supplies, lay booby traps and mount surprise attacks, after which they could disappear underground to safety. To combat these guerrilla tactics, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces trained soldiers known as “tunnel rats” to navigate the tunnels in order to detect booby traps and enemy troop presence. Now part of a Vietnam War memorial park in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), the Cu Chi tunnels have become a popular tourist attraction.

Digging the Cu Chi Tunnels

Communist forces began digging a network of tunnels under the jungle terrain of South Vietnam in the late 1940s, during their war of independence from French colonial authority. Tunnels were often dug by hand, only a short distance at a time. As the United States increasingly escalated its military presence in Vietnam in support of a non-Communist regime in South Vietnam beginning in the early 1960s, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops (as Communist supporters in South Vietnam were known) gradually expanded the tunnels. At its peak during the Vietnam War, the network of tunnels in the Cu Chi district linked VC support bases over a distance of some 250 kilometers, from the outskirts of Saigon all the way to the Cambodian border."

Punji stick trap

Punji Sticks, sharpened bamboo covered with
urine or feces to infect whoever was unfortunate
to step/fall on them.

They had displays of most of the kinds of “booby traps” set for the GI’s.  I tried to get pictures of most of them but they hurried us by so fast, it was a challenge. 

Man traps

I’ll post what I can.   Victor pointed out a sizable crater which he said was from a bomb dropped from a B-52.

When we finally got to where we could get down in the tunnels, time was getting short and they only allowed us to travel to the first exit point, which showed absolutely nothing except how confined and small they were.  I understand, to accommodate the average tourist, they even enlarged them somewhat. 

Sue taking a "selfie" 
in the tunnel

The person ahead of me
entering the "enlarged" 
tunnel

So, after discovering crawling on hands and knees was preferable to “duck-walking”, what I would guess was not more than 30 yards we were forced to exit.  Very disappointing!  I was hoping to see sleeping areas, cooking areas and more, all of which was supposedly available further on and at lower levels.  Most everyone started down the tunnels but some, after seeing how confining they were, excused themselves and did not go in.

When everyone was accounted for, they herded us over to where you could fire 50 caliber machine guns.  I had no interest in that but there were several that did.  So, while they did that, we took advantage of the snack and beverage area to purchase a local beer. 

Enjoying a Tiger beer

They didn’t have a ginger beer for Sue, so she chose a soft drink of some kind.  The 50 caliber rounds were so close they provided ear protection of people waiting which we took advantage of.  The beer was very inexpensive, under US$2.00. 

We bused to our next stop, lunch at a large covered but open-air pavilion. 
It was a seven-course meal highlighting Vietnamese food.  We had two vegetarians at our table who got a different meal which meant more of the meat and seafood offered for us! 

Menu

And on it came.  It was all very good; chopsticks were provided but unused except for the Japanese gentleman across the table who had an enormous appetite as it turned out.  As you can see from the menu, it was a nice variety and all very tasty.

We left full and satisfied, ready for the return trip, retracing our way back through Saigon.  Victor remained quiet, which we all appreciated since he was a talker, we enjoyed the break.  It is a scheduled 2 ¾ hour ride, but we encountered an accident or something mid Saigon and went nowhere for about 45 minutes.  We were going to be late getting back.  Since it was a ship sponsored trip, we were not too concerned.  We were due back at 4:30, all aboard was for 5:30.   We did not get back until just after 6PM!  A long day, and there was even another bus arriving as we were waiting to board.

We have one day at sea, then a series of port calls in Singapore and Malaysia, starting with an overnight in Singapore.  We will be very busy, so there will be no more blogs until I can create something on our six-day voyage to the nation island of Mauritius.