Vietnam

Oh my gosh!!! We left Hong Kong which was extremely modern and came to Vietnam which I would rate as a third world country.

We took an 9 hour tour to Hue. It was a three hour bus ride both ways. Most of my pictures were taken as the bus rolled along. There were motorbikes everywhere. Sometimes there would not be another car, bus, nor truck on the streets----just hundreds of motorbikes. The second thing that we noticed was that the city's streets are very dangerous due to the motorists lack of behavior and lack of traffic law enforcement. Drivers can be seen driving the wrongway up one-way streets, ignoring red lights, not stopping for pedestrians on marked crossings and driving on the footpaths.

On our way to Hue, we traveled across Hai Van Pass which had very beautiful view of the country side. We had to close our eyes as the bus driver would pass another vehicle on a blind curve.


Once we reached Hue we went to the Imperial Citadel where the Nguyen Emperors lived from 1802 to 1945. It was really run down with a lot of moss covering most of the buildings.



We had a great buffet lunch at the Century Riverside Hotel where they had people dressed in their native clothes. These people then played their instruments and sang songs for us.



After lunch we drove to the countryside to visit Tu Duc Tomb. This is where one of the Nguyen Dynasty Emperors had his tomb. The tomb area was meant to be a place of recreation before being used as a final resting place. This place was not kept up every well either.

On our way back to the ship we saw parents taking their children home from school on their motorbike. We noticed a lot of small square buildings that were used for business in the front and for their home in the back. There were street markets where people would buy enough food for one day because only about 1% of the people have a refrigerator. We even saw "water buffalos".




We had one day at sea and then we went to the port of Phu My. There we board the bus for another nine hour tour to Ho Chi Minh City. Most of us know this city as Saigon. We were pass the shock of all the motorbikes but we were still amazed at the traffic. It has been said that if Beijing is "the City of Bicycles", then Ho Chi Minh City is "the capital of Mortorbikes".





We went to the former Presidential Palace that is now known as the Unification Hall. This historic building was made famous when a North Vietnamese tank crashed through its front gates in 1975 signaling the end of the Vietnam War.





Then we visited the Vietnamese History Museum. While there we saw a short performance of traditional water puppetry. We were too hot and sweaty to really enjoy most of this stop. It was about 90 degrees and 75% humidity.




We had a buffet lunch at a nice hotel.

Before we headed back to the ship we stopped at a place where they make Black Laquer work. They had some very beautiful things.


On our bus ride back, our tour guide told us about his life as one of the boat people that ended up in Hong Kong refugee camp for eight years. His father sent him and his older sister. He was only twelve years old and his sister was sixteen. After eight years the Hong Kong government sent him back to Vietnam. His sister had gotten married and she went with her husband to China. One of the things that he told us was that the government now is trying to stop the drug problem. If someone is found with drugs they can be executed by firing squad. The place that they do that is not far from his home and he knows that at least four times this year the government had done this. They do not have any real health insurance. If you can not pay up front for a doctor's care then you don't get any help. They have to pay money every month for each child that goes to school.

WE CAME A WAY FEELING VERY SPOILED AND VERY BLESSED!!!