Vietnam

March 14, 2013 – Day 83

We arrived in Vietnam on Wed, March 8th. Our dock was on a bend in the busy Saigon River. This river carries everything from huge cargo container ships to tiny fishing boats, their sputtering motors putt, putting up and down the river with the tides. A constant parade of vessels passed by our ship day and night. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to how the boats/ships decided who went where. They came very close to one another as the river narrowed; and they were not all going in the same direction! Somehow it all seems to work out.

As we ourselves sailed up the river, we passed by huge fish/shrimp farms, individual fishing boats of all types and another unique type of fishing involving huge net ‘fences’ constructed in the river. It appeared that people were living and working on these fence-like structures. As you look closely at the picture below, you can see two men working on the nets. That white box like structure seems to be a shelter for them; suspended like a tree house; minus the tree!

The traffic on the river prepared us for the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City! We were told the population in the city is over 9 million (expected to top 14 million by 2025) and the number of motorbikes is 6 million. I believe it!! People under 18 can drive mopeds and over 18 they drive motorbikes. They are all on the road with cars, buses and trucks. They said, ‘in some countries people drive on the right, in others they drive on the left, in Vietnam, we drive wherever we can!’ The motorbikes even drive on the sidewalks during rush hour – legally! I thought Indonesia traffic was crazy, (and it is), but this is truly insane!

Vietnam is politically a communist country, but in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), it sure looks like a capitalist economy! There is a great deal of poverty, but there is also a rapidly developing urban center. The center of town has well preserved French style architecture while the many new buildings are very modern. They are building their first subway/train system starting right in the middle of the downtown area.

The shiny new buildings and the preserved French architecture is impressive, but this is a very dirty city. There is trash everywhere, on the streets, in the rivers and even out in the sea. They say they are making efforts to clean things up, and we did see signs discouraging the use of plastic, but it looks like an insurmountable problem. They are so dependent upon their waterways for agriculture, the fishing industry and transportation, but they seem to be killing them. It is very sad. I hope they are successful at cleaning things up!

Our ship was docked about an hour from the city, so we were not able to do much wandering around on our own. With the traffic I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to go out anyway! On our second day here, we went on another tour that took us through the city specifically to spend some time downtown after dark. We had an amazing Vietnamese dinner, I’m not sure what all we ate, but it was tasty! Our trip into town also included an art form unique to Vietnam called a ‘water puppet’ show. These puppet shows originated in about the 11th century in the ponds of the rice fields. They were performed during harvest festivals and other celebrations. In our case, Puppeteers, hidden to the audience, control wooden puppets (no strings from above) that cavort through the water on a stage, telling short stories of the people and animals found in the countryside. It was somewhat simplistic and amazing at the same time.

On our third day in Vietnam, we took an all-day excursion out to the Mekong Delta. We were not sure how it was going to go as it required a 3-hour bus ride to get there. It turned out not to be too bad. We got seats towards the front of the bus, the bus was a newer bus and the air conditioning worked quite well; we made a stop halfway, so I was a happy camper.

When we arrived at our destination, we boarded a long wooden boat that had wooden folding chairs, two on each side of the boat. I didn’t count how many could fit on the boat, but there were 22 of us with some empty seats, so it wasn’t terribly big. Thankfully, it was covered to keep some of the sun off us for the duration of the ride.

We sailed around the Mekong River for a while seeing large patches of absolutely huge Water Hyacinth. Our koi would be in hog heaven munching on these plants! Unfortunately, we were told that the amount of water hyacinth was due in large part to the amount of pollution in the water, and sad to say, the river was awfully dirty with lots of trash.

The absolute poverty along the river was heartbreaking. You could see through the shacks further inland and there were some structures that were crude solid structure homes and even some newer, middle class style homes mixed in. But the homes along the river were in bad shape, barely hanging on to the riverbank.

After motoring down the river a bit, we came upon a bunch of smaller wooden canoe type boats and discovered we were transferring to these small boats for a float down some smaller channels. These small boats held 4 people and a person at the back with a small motor and oars/poles to push us along. As we rocked side to side all I could think of is … don’t fall in don’t fall in! I had visions of contracting some awful illness if I came into contact with the water! As a side note, when taking a bunch of senior citizens with varying mobility issues on an excursion, transferring from one rocking boat to a much smaller rocking canoe may not be the best idea ever… but no one fell in, but there were some close calls!

We eventually met back up with our larger boat and then transferred from the canoes back into the bigger boat and continued on our way to a lunch venue. We pulled up to the side of the river to disembark our boat. There was no dock to pull up to, so we pulled up to a riverside shack that had caskets stacked up for sale or delivery. I’m not sure, but I did think the guy might sell a few before we could get everyone up out of the boat! We climbed up on some sandbags, onto a step stool, more sandbags then onto a rickety (like all the floorboards were not attached to a joist) shack. We emerged from the shack onto a dirt pathway that wound its way through some homes along a creek bed. It wasn’t looking promising; I was hoping they would have bottled water…

We walked for about 15 minutes and came upon a nice, open air, restaurant where we had a very nice lunch. Let’s just say I didn’t eat much of the whole fish that was served, ’cause if it came out of that river…… Then it was time to wind our way back to our boat, through the rickety casket shop, down the sandbag steps and into our boat. I was very happy to be seated and on our way back to our bus. The 3-hour bus ride back to the port seemed longer than the ride there, but we’d survived the river and we had air conditioning, so we were happy!

The day before we arrived in Vietnam a very special ceremony was held onboard the Viking Neptune. To honor all passengers who served in the U.S. Military, and their families, at any time between November 1, 1955 and May 15, 1975, a Recognition Ceremony was held. This program, the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration was authorized by Congress is 2012. At the time of the proclamation, President Obama highlighted how we treated our service members who served there saying, “You were often blamed for a war you didn’t start when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor. You came home and were sometimes denigrated when you should have been celebrated.” The Vietnam War 50th Commemoration is our opportunity to celebrate the Veterans’ and families’ service and sacrifice. By Presidential proclamation, the Vietnam War Commemoration will continue through Veteran’s Day, November 11th, 2025. There were 53 service members recognized in the ceremony held on our ship. It was a moving experience to be part of! To all who served, thank you for your sacrifice.