High 20s – moderate humidity
in front of the lucky apricot tree |
So… this morning we were
expecting to fly to Ho Chi Min City / Saigon and meet the boat that has been
sailing since we left Cambodia. Apparently there was quite a storm and the boat
wasn’t going to be able to port in Vietnam at all. Hmmm, that significantly
altered our plans to SAY THE LEAST! We were at breakfast in the hotel in Siem
Reap about to checkout and board the bus to the airport when we are told we
would be flying to Ho Chi Min City as expected, but would be then flying to
Brunei, overnighting in a hotel there and meeting the boat in the
morning…whaaaaaat?? I don’t exactly have a third day’s worth of unmentionables!
another lucky tree and Ho Chi Min |
smokey temple |
Luckily this land tour has been
coordinated by the cruise so the boat won’t leave without us. There were 2
other people from the cruise that did this trip to Angkot Wat on their own, so
that must have been next to impossible getting back to the boat.
coils of burning incense |
We arrive in Ho Chi Min City
around 11:30 and the flight to Brunei isn’t until 8:00 tonight, so a city tour
of Ho Chi Min City has been planned for us. Our first stop is lunch which is
great. It is all Vietnamese food – most very delicious, washed down of course
with the local beer. The restaurant is huge, and packed and open air-ish. It’s
nice whenever we can eat off of the ship and are able to taste the local food.
decoration for New Year |
The rest of the tour takes us to a Vietnamese history museum – great as I know little about this country.
outside of the temple |
After the lacquerware shop we visit a temple – super
busy because it is Lunar New Year’s Eve.
This place is also extremely smoky because of all the incense worshipers
are lighting. There is a frantic pace about this place. Whereas the Buddhist
temples and really any other religious building I’ve ever been to are mostly
calm, quiet and slow this place is not. Seems like the worshippers get in and
get out…my kind of church! Although this temple seems like the Hindu ones I’ve
visited in the past the guide tells us that it isn’t religion specific and that
people of any and all religions worship here - interesting.
Our final stop is to what is
called a flower market. I thought that meant it would be a place where flowers
are bought and sold – nope…This is a huge pedestrian street completely
decorated (mostly with flowers) for the New Year. This place is packed with
people dressed very nicely taking pictures EVERYWHERE. Although the place is
packed it is very civilized – there’s no bumping or shoving or jostling.
Apparently 2 of the 9 million people
that live here, have left the city for the New Year. This makes traffic light
and moving through the city easy. That being said, there are still a ton of
motorcycles/scooters around. It would have been interesting to see how busy it
would be with everyone back in the city.
monkey decorations for the year of the monkey |
Once we get to the hotel it is
after midnight of a very long day. No problem that this place has no hotel bar…I’d
have no interest tonight.
Chris and I were very lucky to be with a great group of people for the
last 3 days and especially today given the unexpected turn the day took.
Believe it or not, the majority of the people in the group are Canadian!
1 comment:
That would be such a beautiful experience to be anywhere in Asia as they celebrate the New Year!
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