The QV docked at the port of Phu My. We decided to take a bus to Saigon and do a walking tour of the city. It was an ninety minute drive to Saigon. Just to put the name issue to rest. The official name since 1975 is Ho Chi Minh City but all of our guides referred to it as Saigon. Two of our guides made the same statement, “Only government officials in Hanoi call it Ho Chi Minh City.” The name ‘Saigon’ is the original name of the village that was founded on the banks of the ‘Sai’ River in the shade of the ‘Gon’ trees.
As it was quite hot, our first stop was for some iced Vietnamese coffee (Frances had coconut water) at an upscale coffeehouse . Outside the coffeehouse there were hundreds of motor scooters. Our guide explained that motor scooters are part of the Vietnamese way of life. If a young man doesn’t have a motor scooter, he can’t get a girl friend and, if he can’t get a girl friend, he won’t have a wife. Without a wife, he won’t have children and without children, who will take care of him in his old age? So, every Vietnamese man must have a motor scooter … and most women have one too!
Our next stop was at the Saigon Post Office, which was designed by Gustavo Eiffel, and across the street from the Norte Dame Cathedral.
From there we walked to the Opera House.
Then we walked on to Ben Nghe which was an area about a city block wide and four or five blocks wide covered in concrete. The area was deserted when we were there but our guide assured us that it would be teeming with people after the sun set.
From there we went to the Ben Nghe Market.
We made one final stop before lunch at Ho Chi Minh Park.
We were impress by the way that Saigon has been built up since the war. It is a quite modern city with many skyscrapers and high rise apartment building!
After lunch we climbed back in our (thankfully) air conditioned bus for the drive back to Pho My and the ship.