Ho Chi Min City / Saigon, Vietnam – February 7

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

A lacquerware factory/shop – similar to the one we went to in Myanmar. We bought a couple of things here.

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

Our 90 minute flight to Brunei is on Royal Brunei Airways. This is the first time I’ve ever been on a flight that started with a prayer over the plane’s PA system and when no alcohol was served. And speaking of alcohol, Brunei is a dry country – no alcohol in hotels either. Apparently you can bring booze in for personal consumption in a private residence or hotel room. Hmmm, good thing we are getting in late and basically go straight to bed! Smoking is apparently banned also. Our guide tells us because Indonesia is so close many residents drive 20 minutes of so there to buy booze and cigarettes. The group of people we are with make sure to drink up in the Saigon airport.

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!