Adventures in Asia: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Today we visited Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam.

As in Thailand, we docked well outside the city at a port called Phu My, about a hundred kilometres southwest of HCMC.  Once again, transport from the port was challenging, so we opted again for a guided excursion.  We boarded our bus and left the port at 8:00, traveling along highway, first through an urban setting (not sure the name of this city, but it may have been Phu My), and then through a rural, agriculture region before arriving in the outskirts of HCMC.

HCMC is famous for its traffic, but today was the 41st anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, so it is a public holiday, and our tour guide said only about 30% of HCMC's population remains in the city, with the rest going back to their ancestral home for the holiday.  The number of motorbikes was still remarkable to us, however, with literally dozens and dozens gathering at each traffic light.  They easily outnumbered other vehicles on the road.

Our first stop was a lacquer factory, where we were given a short little tour.

The tour of the actual production facility was really interesting, although a bit rushed.

The best part for me was watching a man work with eggshells, creating a gorgeous picture of a lady in a boat.  His hand movements distributing the crushed shells were incredibly skillful, and he seemed very calm even as dozens of tourists crowded around and past him.

Of course, the primary point of this stop was to sell overpriced lacquerware to us.  The shop was about ten times as large as the production floor, and really was something of an art gallery as much as a show room.

Despite what turned out to be exorbitant prices by Vietnam standards, Andrea and I went ahead and bought two small pieces to take home.  Advice to anyone else visiting a lacquer factory during a guided tour: wait for the souvenir shops in downtown HCMC to buy your lacquer!

On the way from the lacquer factory further into HCMC, we saw preparations for reunification day celebrations.

Our next stop was in front of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, the most obvious reminder of France's colonization of Vietnam.  

The cathedral is next to the main post office, a remarkable building that resembles a major train station.  

We went inside here to look around and mail a postcard.

The place was bustling in a way no post office I have ever been in has been.  It too dates from colonial times.  

But it has obviously been updated to reflect current Vietnamese realities (note Ho Chi Minh's portrait):

Our next stop was the famous indoor market called Ben Thanh Market.

It is a great place, popular with both tourists and locals, and after some hard bargaining I bought a couple of t-shirts.

From the market we drove to Reunification or Independence Palace, the old seat of government for both the French and South Vietnam.  

Famously, the war ended with North Vietnamese tanks crashing the gates of the palace and helicopter evacuations from the roof, in this case, exactly 41 years ago.

It is now a museum, but unfortunately it was closing at noon, just five minutes before we arrived.  We had to settle for photographs from outside the gate.

Out front the street was decorated for Reunification Day.

Next we stopped by the old opera house, close by the City Hall, both other incredible leftovers from French rule.  

Again, note Ho Chi Minh's presence.

The Rex Hotel is also nearby, which is where journalists and American press conferences were based during the Vietnam War.

Finally, just before 13:00, we stopped on Dong Khoi Street across from the Saigon Grand Hotel for three hours of free time.  Really this was the highlight of the tour for me.  We walked back towards the market to eat lunch of Vietnamese subs and Saigon Special beer.

After lunch Andrea did some souvenir shopping, then we walked down to a placed called the Majestic Hotel, another leftover from the French.  On the fifth floor they have an outdoor bar, with a great view of the Saigon River, including the relative wilderness on the other side.

That's where our HCMC tour ended, as we descended to rejoin our tour down the street.

Both Andrea and I enjoyed HCMC and the tour far more than we anticipated.  The mix of French colonialism, rural Vietnamese agriculture, optimistic third world development, and great coffee, food, and beer, all made my experience of HCMC very enjoyable.  It made me all the more excited for our next stop, up the coast in central Vietnam.  

Adventures in Asia: Ayutthaya, Thailand

The Sapphire Princess set sail from Singapore on Monday, April 25, 2016.  She weaved her way through the countless ships of all shapes and sizes anchored off Singapore, and eventually headed north along the coast of Malaysia and into the Gulf of Siam.

We spent two days at sea, before reaching our first port of call.

Sapphire Princess is too big to dock at Bangkok's port, so we docked a couple of hours south at Thailand's largest port, Laem Chabang.

Since we had been in Bangkok just two weeks ago, and since touring on our own from the commercial port would be challenging, we opted for a ship's shore excursion to Ayutthaya, Thailand's old capital city.  Ayutthaya is about 80 kilometres north of Bangkok.  We had twelve hours in port, but sadly about half of our time was going to be spent on the bus (but it was colourful!).

Our first stop, the Summer Palace, was about two hours away.  The Thai royal family continues to use the palace occasionally, but for the most part it serves as a museum.  Luckily for Andrea and me, our tour guide was very laid back, and simply gave us a time to meet, then let us off on our own.  Most of the tour group stuck with him, so that gave us a lot of space to ourselves!

The summer palace is a very idyllic spot, and historically was popular with royalty because it was situated on an island in the river and therefore cool in the summer.  Today, however, it was far from cool, with temperatures once again over 40 C.  Personally I would not bother visiting the Summer Palace if I was touring on my own, but it was a nice place to stop on the tour.

From the palace we drove another half hour north to the ruins of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhol, which dates back to the time that Ayutthaya was the capital (cc. 1351-1767), but remains an active Buddhist temple.

This wat is famous for its reclining Buddha, which used to be enclosed, but is now out in the open air.

For me the most interesting aspect of this Buddha was his feet.

People try to stick coins into the crevices and notches in his feet.

I assume this is thought to be auspicious, so Andrea and I tried too.  I was unsuccessful, but Andrea managed to get one to stick.

There is a large stupa in the middle of the compound, and unlike others we have visited, you can climb a staircase and go inside.

Inside there was a deep pit into which people tossed coins.  There were also Buddhas with gold flakes stuck to them.

Andrea thinks worshippers stick these flakes to the Buddha as an offering, but I am not entirely convinced.  Anyway, we would later see a similar Buddha at another spot in Ayutthaya, but I never noticed them anywhere else.

After the visit to the wat we went for a buffet lunch at a restaurant, and then off to the ruins of Ayutthaya itself.  Ayutthaya was Siam's capital for over four hundred years.  Much of its architecture was inspired by the Khmer, so the ruins resemble Angkor Wat in many place.  The capital was moved south to Bangkok after an invading Burmese army destroyed Ayutthaya in the mid-18th century.  

Ayutthaya is a modern city, as well as the home to archaeological sites from the old capital.  So like Angkor Wat, Ayutthaya is made up of numerous sites spread over a large area, but unlike Angkor Wat, the ruins are scattered throughout an urban area rather than the countryside.  

We visited three places on our tour: Wat Mahathat; Wat Phra Si Sanphet; and Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit.

Wat Mahathat is Ayutthaya's most visited site and dates from 1374.  

Many of the Buddhas at Ayutthaya are headless, because frequently there was gold or jewerly or gems hidden inside, and the Burmese soldiers decapitated the Buddhas to access the loot.

Since there are so many headless Buddhas, there are also occasional Buddha heads.  One such head has been picked up by a Banyan tree over the last centuries and become embedded in the roots.  This has resulted in the most photographed sight at Wat Mahathat:

Wat Phra Si Sanphet was Ayutthaya's most important temple (the one for royalty), and its three stupas have been partially restored.  By now, mid-afternoon, it was so hot that many of the tourists in our group skipped walking around this site, and generally it was pretty deserted.

Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit is right outside the walls of Wat Phra Si Sanphet's compound.  It is actually a modern building, but the Buddha inside is centuries old.  The building the Buddha used to be housed in was destroyed, and the new building built around it in the 1950s.

From Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit we walked back to where we would meet the bus.  We could see another impressive site, and had it been cooler I would have gone over to check it out as well. As it was I retreated into the bus for one of the cool towels they hand out and the comfort of A/C.

From the bus we could see an elephant with a couple riding it, so apparently they do elephant rides at Ayutthaya as well, another similarity it shares with Angkor Wat!

From Ayutthaya we drove three hours southeast back to Laem Chabang, to reboard the Sapphire Princess for 19:00.  

Our Ayutthaya excursion was expensive (over $100 US each), but I am really glad we did it.  Given how popular Thailand is as a tourist destination, I am surprised Ayutthaya is not more well known.