We were fortunate that the Silver Whisper is a small ship and could go upriver to dock right in the heart of the city. Most of the larger cruise ships must dock at the mouth of the Saigon River and shuttle their passengers back and forth. The city lies about three to four hours sailing time upriver. That means that most cruise passengers must be bused for at least three hours one way to get in and out of the city.

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City to some) is a vibrant city on the cusp of becoming a real metropolis. However, the population, currently around 8 million, is still sharply divided between haves and have-nots. For a large city in a communist country, it struck me as very capitalist. You can’t walk or drive more than a few feet before someone wants to sell you something. The other issue with a lot of people is that they are gradually losing a lot of the French colonial architecture to more modern buildings.  

Our visit to Saigon as shortened due to our return from Cambodia and Angkor Wat on the first day of our two-day visit. As mentioned in an earlier post, we just chilled out when we got back at about 1:00 PM. We ate lunch, sorted our laundry, took looooong showers, and napped (one of us slightly sounder than the other…). We did rise in time to go to a dinner and show at a local bar/nightclub and restaurant in downtown Saigon.

Saigon at night is spectacular. Perhaps not as much as Hong Kong, but it seemed that the streets were even busier than in the day time. We were first taken to the rooftop bar of the Majestic Hotel for drinks and a local show of music and dancing peculiar to Vietnam. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures and the ones I did get were not all the good.

We were treated to music from a two-stringed violin-like concoction that sounded a little like a cat being dragged back-and-forth through a keyhole. There was also a bamboo contraption consisting of tubes pitched at different notes that was amazingly quite nice to listen to. Finally, a marimba-like instrument made of volcanic lava stones – yes, stones. That stone thing was the most toe-tapping of all. We also saw several dances unique to the Central Highlands of Vietnam that celebrated the rice planting, the rice harvest, the rice meal, and, I think, the rice fertilization process.

 

Greeting the rice harvest on the left and planting the rice on the right.

The violin-like instrument on the left, the bamboo instrument in the center, and the hot rocks on the right.

After the show we boarded mini-vans for one of Mr. Toad’s Wild Rides through the city to a sort-of sleazy alley where several uniformed men we took to be police assisted us into a restaurant. It turns out that the restaurant, the “Mandarine Restaurant”, is one of the better restaurants in Saigon and we were treated to a six-course true Vietnamese meal that was probably one of the best we have had on this trip so far. After dinner we were whisked back to the ship for another really good night’s rest.

The next morning we took a shuttle bus to the center of the city and walked to the Saigon Central Market – a market larger than any we have seen so far. We engaged in a little retail therapy. And came away with a few very nice souvenirs at extremely reasonable prices. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at one of the many custom tailor shops and tried on a few shirts. Bonnie could not find anything she liked, but I found a beautiful light blue silk that I couldn’t resist. The best part was the price. It was handmade in the shop and we spent…oh, oh. I am not permitted to say, except that it was a fraction of what we would expect to pay in the US.

Then back to the ship and on to Bangkok. Stay tuned…