Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

We were fortunate enough to have been booked at the Majestic Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City. It's a French Colonialist-designed hotel built in 1925 across the street from the Saigon River. Upon arriving, I put on a hotel robe and called the front desk to arrange a massage. My husband left to shoot photos in the street and to ward off what became an alarming number of propositions from young women offering services. Our room was on the first floor, above the ground entrance and adjacent to the spa. When I returned from my massage, my key would not work, which meant I had to go to the registration desk in the lobby, dressed in my robe to get help. Unlike our stay in Kauai last year, at least my hair wasn't a mess and I had all my teeth. There is more traffic in Saigon than in Ha Noi:

On our first day, we went to the Cho Binh Tay Market and wandered the streets of Saigon. Here is a view of the marketplace:

There are a lot of knockoffs in Viet Nam, just like in Hong Kong.

Although you may find this hard to believe, the central post office in Saigon is a tourist attraction. I didn't understand why until we entered this Gothic structure and I spotted the ceiling, shown below:

No trip to Saigon is complete, I suppose, unless one also tours the Cu Chi Underground Tunnels. These are a historic relic, which were a base of Cu Chi District Party leadership in the war. Villagers dug out a series of tunnels where they lived and fought against the opposition. You can see below the small entry. I mean, I'm not very big, but I could not fit in that hole. The guy below is demonstrating how a person would hold the cover above his head before descending into the tunnel.

Some of the tourists from our group decided to enter one of the larger tunnels and navigate their way to come out another hole. I started to go into it, but with people in front of me and people behind me, crawling through a two-foot high tunnel was too uncomfortable, almost a bit claustrophobic, so I backed out, deciding my vacation was complete enough without this experience.

They say these incense can burn for months. You'll find these at many of the temples in Saigon. Worshipers buy them for relatives who have passed on and light them in their honor.

We toured another factory. The Tay Son company produces lacquer-ware, embedded with many different types of material, from eggshell chips to pearls. Each piece has 17 to 20 steps to produce the shining finished product. As with many Viet Nam factories, some of the workers are disabled.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Hoi An, an ancient trading port in central Viet Nam, is known for its silk garment industry and lantern making. On our way, we passed China Beach, on the outskirts of Da Nang. Just pass the old flight hangars, we came upon the pristine and quiet beach. What I found strange about it was there appears to be a lot of new construction going up. Many hotels and resorts are being built overlooking China Beach. I imagine in a few years this area will be overrun with tourists. Here is a photo of China Beach:

Our hotel in Hoi An was the Life Resort. Each of us on the tour had our own little cabanas, with a step-up bedroom from the living room and a front porch, complete with built-in padded benches. The recent storms from last October washed out the road to the resort, so we had to walk dragging our luggage down a cramped dirt road with open ditches. But just around the corner from the Life Resort was the ancient town of Hoi An. Here is a photo of the roof tops shot from a balcony at the Life Resort restaurant:

Another attraction near Hoi An is the Cham Museum in Da Nang. The Champa Kingdom ruled this area from about the 3rd Century AD to the 14th Century AD. The museum first opened in 1919, featuring some of the finest Cham sculptures in the world, brought in from all over Viet Nam by the French. This is Tara, a bronze terracotta:

We were so intrigued and charmed by the Cham sculptures. Many are also made from limestone, such as this one:

We visited the My Son Sanctuary, which is a huge complex of religious monuments and ruins of the Champa Kingdom. This is a place where the Champa came to worship, as they dedicated some of the structures to the Hindu Gods trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, with Shiva being  predominant. Down the hill from the ruins, we stopped to watch the dancers perform:

Another interesting part of our trip to Hoi An was a stop at the silk worm factory. We watched as they made it. First, they put the silk worms on a tray with leaves. Then they turn into cocoons, and from the cocoons, thread is extracted after soaking them in hot water. Here are a series of photos that show how silk is made and the finished products:

You can see that silk is used for many different types of products, including lanterns. This factory makes custom clothing, silk scarves and handbags, too. You can order a silk blouse and pick it up the following day for about $15 US. Many of the garment workers work at night.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

We toured Ha Noi for three days. I even mastered crossing the street without getting hit. You'd be astonished at how much stuff some bicyclists and motor bike drivers can carry on two wheels. Below is a photo of a flower vendor, on the way to the market:

I'd also like to share with you what our tour guide told us about the Viet Nam flag. You can see the yellow star on the red background. Each point of the star means something, and there is an order to it. The red is for blood shed during battles for independence.  Yellow is a color of power. The points on the star represent:

1. Intellectuals
2. Farmers
3. Workers
   
4. Business People
5. Army

We toured Hoa Lo, known as Hanoi Hilton, although nobody lives there now. It was built as a prison by the French. Only a small portion remains today as a museum. The Vietnamese government made a film for visitors about what it calls "The American War." This film specifically addressed the treatment of American pilots who were captured during the war. It claimed the pilots were treated very well and "fed chicken every day" as they sat around joking with each other and playing guitar. I feel an apology is due to our Viet Nam vets. Here is a creepy photo of the museum:

Probably the most distinctive thing I'll remember about Ha Noi is the overhead electrical wires. It's a tangled mess of a system. Apparently, whenever new service is needed, they just run another electrical wire overhead, because it's too difficult to figure out where the wires are supposed to go. We saw one wire lying in the street, with the tip exposed and burning a piece of asphalt.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub and Adam Weintraub

Want to know the main difference between Viet Nam and California? In California, pedestrians (supposedly) have the right-of-way at intersections. Doesn't matter where you are in the country, really, traffic is everywhere, at high speeds and in great numbers. Mostly, Vietnamese ride motor bikes. I heard there are 4 million motor bikes in Ha Noi alone.

But the pecking order is different in Viet Nam. Here is how it breaks down:

1. Buses

2. Vans and SUVs

3. Cars

4. Motor Bikes

5. Bicyclists

6. Pedestrians

You can see that pedestrians fall to the bottom of the totem pole. This means if one wants to cross the street, it's done at one's own risk. You can't dash across and hope to avoid being crushed by a motor bike because fast movement is unpredictable. You must walk very slowly across the street and cross your heart that somebody doesn't hit you. In other words, you must put your faith in the drivers and not the other way around.

You may as well close your eyes for all the good it does you to stare down drivers in the eyeballs. It sort of reminds me of why did the chicken cross the road. Question: Why would a tourist cross the road in Viet Nam? Answer: Because the tourist is stoned. That's the only reasonable explanation. Hey, Sacramento's busy intersection at Howe and Fair Oaks has nothing on Viet Nam traffic.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub