HCMC ( Ho Chi Minh City) day 2.5

 This morning Al and Steve went out on their own to explore the city. We saw so much yesterday on our tour that Susan and I decided to skip the included tour and get some stuff done here on the ship.The following are pictures Albert took while adventuring.

Al tried to tell me the almost 20 years spent in Wisconsin didn’t influence him.. yeah.. this was his first picture.. and yet in small print it says coffee..its a coffee shop! He looked kinda disappointed 😂

The colonial French styled post office.

Inside the post office

The flooring

Ho Chi Minh portrait

Quite a stunning building 

Reunification palace (prior to the fall, this was home for the non communist president) now it is used for event and government buisiness

Another building that makes quite a statement in the skyline 

The arrow points to a helipad on the upper side of a skyscraper. We remarked about the building every trip into the city.  Well, the guys decided to find the building and amazingly enough there was an observation floor just below the helipad. The pictures are stupendous of the overall city!

The center of the city (district 1) is still called Saigon by most.  as you can see, the city is growing and growing fast. Many passengers who had been here in the past five years said it had grown at an incredible pace.

One historical site that has intrigued 

Al has been the picture in the news he remembers on the fall of Saigon when the last helicopter was leaving the city.  It was reported as being from the rood of the US embassy. That was a wrong description, as the US embassy here never had any roof line that showed above the fence.  One of our guides was kind enough to show him the building where it actually took place. Here’s the yesterday and today shot. What happens was the CIA had occupied the top floor of this apartment building and that was why it was used for the helicopter.

After independent exploring, the guys joined Susan and I for  “Saigon by night”. The tour again took us around to some of the buildings and sites that we had seen previously.  The highlight of the night was the famed Golden Dragon Water Puppets. This is an art form found here in Vietnam where the puppets tell the story of life along the Red River. It is preformed in water by unseen puppet masters who are waist deep in the water behind bamboo drapes.  The puppets are moved by bamboo sticks and strings, all underwater.It was amazing! Even though I didn’t understand the language, the puppets conveyed the story in motion.

Looking down on the stage…the brown water in front of the pagoda

One of the characters

Boy on a water buffalo 

Water spitting dragon

Man planting rice

Enjoy this little video…the fish jump and swim! The work of the. Puppeteers was amazing.

It was a fun way to end the evening. We had sightseeing, dinner ( spring rolls, fried spring rolls, papaya salad,eggplant stew, broiled seasoned fish served with rice and fresh fruit) and a wonderful show. Another good day in Vietnam.