Sometimes enough is enough…

#avalonsaigon

#vietnam

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#hochiminh

#checkthisoffourbucketlist

#saigon

Day 1 of our land portion in Ho Chi Minh or Saigon…it seems no one can give me a straight answer on whether we should say Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently the city was renamed in 1976 after the Vietnam War but locals with a sentimental connection to the city pre 1976 still call it Saigon.

We left our luggage outside our cabin this morning at 6:45am and headed to the buffet on the Avalon Saigon for our last breakfast. While the food has been good on the Avalon Saigon, we are tiring of the same repetition at breakfast. The speciality is either rice with chicken and ginger as a porridge (really good!) or fried noodles with vegetables. Of course there is always the western breakfast or cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt or omelettes with baked beans, tomatoes, bacon and sausage. I think 7 days of river cruising on a small ship has caught up to us…enough is enough!

All the crew, mostly from Cambodia, came to say goodbye to us

Our departure from the ship this morning was scheduled for 8am. Since it is very hot and we have a lot to cover this morning, we are starting early! We lost 6 passengers who were only doing the River Cruise portion of the trip, so we were back to our original 22 people who joined the trip in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Lining up for the short bus ride in Saigon on departure day

Some things haven’t changed since we were last here. There are lots of motorbikes o the roads!

We hopped on the bus to be driven from Saigon’s downtown cruise ship harbour to the Park Hyatt Saigon. Our luggage was being transferred from the ship by a truck to the Park Hyatt, but since we would be staying at the hotel for 2 nights, it was a good place to start a walking tour of the city so people could get their bearings for when they had free time later in the day.

Walking in Saigon is just a little bit easier than in Hà Nội. The sidewalks are larger and in District 1 where many of the major tourist attractions and 5 star hotels are, the sidewalks are not cluttered with vendors, scooters or stores spilling out of their dwellings!

Saigon’s famous Opera House

This vintage car is always parked next to the Opera House and is used in photo shoots. We saw a similar photo shoot last time we were in Saigon. We are never sure if they are models or really getting married!

We turned right out of the hotel and made another right onto Dong Khoi street. This was familiar territory for us! Our hotel is literally across the street and down a bit from the famous Saigon Opera House. Of course we know the Opera House because our Viking shuttle bus would drop and pick us up in front of the Opera House in 2023 when we were here before. I have a very keen sense of direction and so when we turned right ono Dong Khoi Street I knew that our Guide Phi was walking us towards the Saigon Post Office, but first we had to walk in front of the Vincom Centre - a large shopping mall that my friend Margaret and I had spent some time in buying face masks the last time we were here!

The famous landing zone where the US helicopters left Saigon on March 29, 1973

Of course on the way to the Post Office our guide Phi showed us the Landing Zone where the last US helicoper took off from when the US troops left Vietnam in 1973.

I wrote about this very spot in my blog back when we were here in 2023.

Photo from 2023 when we were here on our Viking World Cruise. Saigon Post Office in the background.

Saigon Post Office

Gorgeous architecture

When we got to the Post Office we had about 10 minutes to wander around inside and see the architecture which is very French. The Post Office was designed by Alfred Foulhoux, in 1891, but it is often erroneously credited as being the work of Gustavo Eiffel (the guy who designed and built the famous Paris Eiffel Tower). The inside of the Post Office is truly gorgeous and very clearly the work of a French architect.

Notre Dame church which was constructed in 1880, with all of the bricks imported from Toulouse, France, which is across from the Post Office is still under scaffolding which is the same as was when we were here in 2023. Apparently the reconstruction and cleaning of Notre Dame is now supposed to be finished in 2027. I can’t imagine how anything gets done on time in the heat because it takes so much energy even to walk anywhere in the heat in Vietnam!

Our tour bus showed up in front of the Post Office and it was time to board the bus for a ride over to the War Remnants Museum in District 3. The Museum contains exhibits relating to the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War. The Museum was formerly known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes but the name was changed to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression. Following diplomatic relations normalizing with the USA in 1995 the use of the terms “aggression” and “war crimes” were dropped. The building was the US military intelligence headquarters during the Vietnam War.

Grounds of the museum

As we waited for the group to enter the museum we noticed there was US military equipment in a walled yard outside of the museum. A UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, an F-5A fighter and a M48 Patton tank. Apparently there is some controversy as the aircraft are decorated with non-standard “American Air Force” decals and the equipment was actually from the South Vietnamese Airforce, altered for display purposes.

Our Tour Guide Ha told us we should head up to the 3rd floor to see the Relics of the Vietnam War where the famous photographers who were killed in the war have some of their famous photographs published on the cover of Life Magazine and Time Magazine. We did as Ha suggested and after awhile I had had about enough of seeing some of the Agent Orange aftermath photographs. The photos were very graphic and frankly I didn’t need to see them.

I did want to see the one famous photograph though of the Vietnam War that I know most people will recognize. Nine year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc being burned and running as US troops dropped napalm bomb down in Trang Bang district, Tay Ninh province. The girl became known as “Napalm girl” and the photographer Huynh Cong Ut (Nick Ut) received many awards for this photograph including a Pulitzer Prize. The photo was voted 41st of the top 100 most influential photos in the world in the 20th century.

Interestingly Phan Thi Kim Phuc lives in Canada where she is a citizen and she founded the Kim Foundationa International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping child victims of war. She has since become a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a prominent advocate for peace and reconciliation.

How the VietCong carried rice in slings in the jungles of Vietnam.

After viewing the infamous photo I told Richard I had enough and we headed down to the lobby level where there was a new installation about the food and survival skills of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. This exhibit was very interesting and I really enjoyed learning from it.

After 1 hour visiting the War Remnants Museum it was time to get back on the bus for our next stop on our tour. Of course there is always one in every crowd and we had one guy left alone by his wife, who couldn’t remember where the bus was parked and our Tour Guide Phi had to go looking for him. I think he felt pretty embarrassed when the entire bus of 21 other people started clapping for him!

Aisles of Ben Thanh Market

So much retail!

Anything you want can be bought at the market!!!!!

Fresh fruit including Durian (the spiky green fruit in the top of the photo), The smell of the fruit has been described as a combination of sweaty gym socks, sewage and rotting fruit. I passed on the Durian taste tasting again!

Our next stop I really can’t believe Avalon did! We stopped in front of the Ben Thanh Market in Saigon and our Tour Guide Phi walked us through the market for 10 minutes. It was amazing that a) we didn’t lose anyone in the busy market b) people didn’t wander off and start shopping and c) people didn’t ditch the tour and not tell anyone!

After a 10 minute walk through the busy and supremely hot market, we all got back on the bus for a short drive to the infamous Rex Hotel to have a drink on their rooftop patio.

The hotel is famous for the briefings done by the U.S. military every day at 5pm during the Vietnam War from the rooftop patio which were called “Five O’Clock Follies”.

The views from the hotel were very good for photography. I was able to get this shot with the ‘Landing Zone’, statue of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese flag all in the same shot.

The drinks were pretty good too! We each were allowed one alcoholic or non alcoholic cocktail from a branded Avalon drinks menu. I had the virgin mojito and Richard had a Mai Tai.

After we had some nuts and our drinks, it was time to get back on the bus for our next and last stop…a Vietnamese Cooking Class for our lunch!

The Cooking Class was in a building directly behind the Park Hyatt Saigon, and was nestled in a courtyard with a number of nice restaurants. Since we were on our own for dinner tonight it was nice to get our bearings on what might be a good place to have dinner, close to the hotel.

On the menu for lunch today was:  Pork Spring Rolls, Green Papaya Salad with shrimp, Beef Pho Soup and lychee in a sweet syrup.  We would only be making the Spring Rolls and the Salad, since the broth for the soup had been simmering for 12 hours, so it was going to be served to us along with the dessert.

I had told our Tour Director Ha at the beginning of the week that I do not eat pork and everywhere we have gone so far on the trip I have been accommodated.  Unfortunately there was a hunk of ground pork in the bowl in front of me, so I figured I would make the spring rolls and then determine if there was something else on the menu that I could eat (since I am allergic to shrimp too).

We learned the technique of drawing lines with the water after adding the filling so we could fold the rice paper over the filling, before adding a small amount of water to the rice paper so as we rolled it up, it would stick together. The chef came and inspected our spring rolls before we deep fried them in the hot oil and unfortunately I used too much water on my rice paper, so I didn’t score a 9/10 as one person did!  I have never used rice paper before so I will try to make spring rolls in the future since they were easy to use and I know I can buy the rice paper in the International section at the grocery store.  I would use ground chicken or even shredded chicken with the finely diced carrots, and finely diced taro root that we added with some fish sauce in the spring rolls.

Deep frying the spring rolls

Pork Spring Rolls

As we were cooking our spring rolls Richard asked if there was something else that I could have instead of the pork spring rolls.  The cooking school attendants quickly found some vegetarian spring rolls and cooked them in a different frying pan than the pork spring rolls had been cooked in. Richard was happy since he got to eat 5 pork spring rolls and he shared one of his rolls with our classmates.

Next on the menu was a green papaya salad mixture. We thinly chopped the green papaya with a crinkly knife like device, added dried scallions, peanuts, shredded carrots, beef (for me), shrimp for everyone else, onion, Vietnamese cilantro, mint and a sweet dressing.

We had a plastic glove we had to wear to massage the flavors together in a large bowl before plating our portion in the middle of a large plate. The salad was delicious and super tasty!

The beef Pho was next and the meat was very fatty and the broth certainly didn’t taste like it had been cooking for 12 hours. It was very average at best and needed more limes or something to kick it up a notch!

Dessert was interesting. We are not really a fan of the sweetened leechie dessert but I tried it anyway.

Everyone had the option of 2 drinks under Avalon’s menu. By now my back was starting to get sore from sitting so I had to get up and walk around. Richard was losing it because the cooking class was taking so long. Everyone was asking why the cooking class was taking so long and then we figured it out. We were right across the street from the hotel, and the hotel needed until at least 3pm to make sure all of our rooms were ready and our luggage transferred to our hotel rooms!

We walked back to the bus after the cooking school, grabbed our carry on luggage off the bus and lined up behind our Tour Guide Phi to cross the busy street to the Park Hyatt Saigon.

There really is an art to crossing the street in Vietnam. It is not just look both ways and proceed if the coast is clear. It is more like look, see where there is the slightest break in the traffic and then casually point and walk quickly across the road. The pointing is key so the traffic knows where you are going so they can a) go around you b) slow down c) go around you and speed up or d) split the lane they are in and still go around you. It is funny that from our last time visiting Saigon we clearly hadn’t forgotten the art of walking across the street. So many people on our tour were afraid of the traffic and feared for their lives walking across the street. The key is DO NOT RUN if you see something coming at you just keep walking at the same pace and the traffic will figure out which of the A-D manoeuvres they will do while they are driving.

The Group Check in for our hotel rooms at the Park Hyatt was in a meeting room on the Mezzanine level of the hotel. When we entered the hotel the first thing we noticed was the gorgeous display of fresh flowers on a round table in the foyer. The lobby smelled like a fresh picked garden!

The next thing we noticed as we walked up the staircase to the mezzanine level was the lovely bar/cafe in the lobby serving a high tea.

There were many Instagrammers and Tik Tokkers taking selfies, posing, and dressed to the nines in the cafe. I guess the Park Hyatt is the place to be in Saigon!

Our room was ready so after signing the form with our credit card and email address on it (and adding Richard’s World of Hyatt number), we headed to the 4th floor. The room was gorgeous and the entire hotel is decorated in a classic heavy dark wood, French provincial style. Our luggage was in our room and it was time for a brief nap for Richard while I sorted out our luggage and toiletries and did some blogging.

Our plans for the late afternoon were to walk to the Market and see about having some clothing made for me since I never got the opportunity in Hanoi to have clothing made like Richard did. A fellow traveller from Houston who wanted to tag along and who felt comfortable with us getting them across the busy streets, came with us to the market. She ended up getting 2 dresses made and I ordered 4, plus a blouse. The materials we ordered were all cotton. While we were there Richard ordered 5 more cotton shirts. For hot weather vacations there is nothing like breathable cotton! We discovered we did not have the right mix of clothing on this trip because even dresses with elastic in the bodice were just too clingy. Once the dress is soaked from sweat, the elastic part of the dress dries the slowest and remains wet against the skin. Lesson learned. We will know for the future if we do another super hot and humid vacation!

After bargaining for a few things in the market we walked back in the dark to our hotel. Our friend grabbed her husband and we went back across the street to the area where the cooking school was, found a restaurant with an outdoor pizza oven and decided to stop there for a sit down dinner on low tables and chairs.

It turns out that the cooking school made the dough for the pizza, so I ordered a prosciutto, arugula and cheese pizza while Richard ordered a Ban Myh sandwich with some beef on it. Dinner with a beer for Richard and a lime juice and soda water was $15USD!

What a full day! The heat was overwhelming walking around Saigon today. Looking at the temperatures back home in Fort Erie, Ontario we are looking forward to some cooler weather before we head to Florida. On days when the overwhelming heat and humidity, compounded with sweat rolling down our backs, coupled with chaotic busy traffic, plus noisy market vendors shouting “Madam”, “Sir” pestering us to buy their wares, and finally reliving the Vietnam War through very graphic photos makes us say “Enough is Enough”. It was nice to get back to Saigon and get off the cruise ship so we could have some free time with somewhere to go, and things to see. The cruise was an adventurous experience, but we are happy to be back to civilization!

We’ve had a great vacation. Not really a relaxing vacation and if we had more time and Richard did not have to work on Monday we might have planned a relaxing few days somewhere at the end of the trip like some of the other people in our group have planned in either Thailand or Bali. Lesson learned. Don’t try to jam in an adventure vacation in a short window, especially when it is such an active vacation in the heat!

I will write one more blog about our last day in Saigon, our trip home and some reflections on our trip for anyone considering an adventure such as ours.