- Getting ready to hit the road!
- Some thoughts on Hong Kong…
- A day in Danang and Hue, Vietnam
- Saigon River and Saigon, Vietnam
- Siem Reap and Temples, Cambodia
- The Floating Village — Kompong Phluk, Cambodia
- Phnom Penh and the road to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Day 2 in Bangkok — Ayutthaya, Thailand
- Singapore
- Langkawi Island, Malaysia
- Phuket, Thailand — or sort of…
- New Delhi, India
- Agra and the Taj Mahal
- The road to — and Jaipur, India
- India — a few closing thoughts.
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Oman (The Sultanate of)
- Luxor, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, Egypt
- Petra, Jordan
- Sharm el Sheik and St. Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt
- Cairo and Giza, Egypt
- Egypt — Some final thoughts…
- Zooming around Israel
- Bodrum, Kusadasi, and Ephesus, Turkey
- Corfu, Greece
- Dubrovnik and Zadar, Croatia
- Venice, Italy — the last hurrah!
Well, I must say it feels a bit weird cruising up the Saigon River at daybreak. The last time I was here was in 1975 as part of Operation Frequent Wind – the evacuation of South Vietnam. The retreat to the South, with the North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong hot in pursuit happened much quicker than expected and things got quite tense along the riverbanks and on the coast. Thankfully, we didn’t have to make an unplanned for trip up the river to Saigon. I suspect that would have been very unpleasant. Instead, we stood off about 7 miles off the coast and waited as refugees poured out on ships, rafts, or any type of flotsam they could get their hands on. After the main evacuation occurred, a second wave of South Vietnamese ships steamed out, loaded (overloaded) with over 10,000 refugees. Three of our ships had stayed behind to pick up stragglers. This was much more than anticipated. It took us around 2 weeks to escort these WW II-era US ships back to the Philippines (normally about a 3 day trip) because the ships kept breaking down. We ultimately had to sink two and transfer the refugees to other already crowded ships. It was pretty sobering, but we made it.
Today the “feel” of Vietnam is both the same and very different. Coming up the river, people still live in small villages and fish and grow rice. The loudspeakers in the villages all blare the same propaganda and rousing music, urging the villagers to work hard for the country. It seems like that old “Commie” routine. But when you get to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), you see that Vietnam is Communist largely in name only. This is a bustling, modern city (and country) that is trying to position itself as the tiger of Southeast Asia. There is much investment in Vietnam and Vietnam is investing heavily in its neighbors (like Cambodia – more in that discussion). Grand hotels, high fashion, racy cars – they are all here. But also the million or so motorbikes that drive like crazy. Yes, there is the inevitable “bad France, bad US” message at the Revolutionary Museum and Unification Palace, but it is pretty localized there and the message does need to be told (especially the continuing effects of Agent Orange [e.g., bad birth defects]). Everyone else seems genuinely glad to see us. By the way, you see everyone wearing masks. We thought that everyone must be sick or they are trying to protect themselves from the pollution. But then you look closer and see that many of the women are wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirts, etc. It turns out that the new fashion is to keep your skin as white as possible, so protection from the sun and the use of skin whitening creams is a must. That seems to be a growing trend around SE Asia.
We only had a couple of hours to tour around. While the city is increasingly being modernized, the French influence is still there.
A few million of our close friends sharing the road with us!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
