Visiting Vietnam and Sensational Singapore

Vietnam and

Singapore

DAYS 63-68 – Leaving Hong Kong late in the evening of March 8th, we headed in a southwesterly direction to the intriguing, and very emotional, nation of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  This is only the second Communist nation we’ve ever visited…Russia was the first in 2009.

To get to Ho Chi Minh City we sailed into the Mekong River Delta to reach Phu My (pronounced Foo Me), a port located on the Saigon River.  From the port 600 of our cruise ship passengers traveled with us by 25 motor coaches for 2 hours north to the city of Saigon. 

Our Vietnamese excursion guide was a Catholic, a Communist, and an excellent Communicator!  He told of the differences between the southern Vietnamese people and those from the north…and he was very sensitive to the emotional connection all Americans have with Vietnam.  He basically told us that their government, based in the north in Hanoi, does not get deeply involved in a lot of their southern area daily lives, but that everything was pretty much managed or owned by the Communist government now.

Here are a few photos from Vietnam:

Morning traffic, in fact, nearly ALL the traffic consists of thousands of workers on motorized scooters that totally fill the roadways!  (Real Hondas are $1,500 U.S.,  and you can buy a “Hongda” look-alike for $300 U.S. in Vietnam.)  At 3:30 p.m., the huge trucks carrying the port–area shipping containers are allowed on the roadways, slowing bus and car traffic down to 3 mph for hours.

We visited the botanical gardens in Saigon where they were walking live elephants around for the children to enjoy while they were visiting there.  An adult oil painting class was also doing floral paintings at the gardens.

These are the restored gates to the former South Vietnam Presidential Palace.  Two huge battle tanks, one from Russia and one from China, are on display here…signifying the date in 1975, when the tanks broke through the gates to the United States Embassy and this Palace, to signal the end of the Vietnam War. and the beginning of Communist rule.   We toured the Palace and a few of the maze of underground tunnels and rooms that linked many of the Saigon buildings with each other during the war.  The Palace is now being used for meetings and events held by the Vietnam government.

We started seeing many dragon figures and Buddha figures everywhere while in Vietnam.  There are also many Catholic churches, and we visited one beautiful Notre Dame cathedral in Saigon.

We toured a fantastic lacquer art factory and saw how the craftspeople tediously applied mother-of-pearl, paint, crushed eggshells, and other materials to all types of furniture, wall hangings, platters, etc.  These exquisite chairs and table were quite expensive, and the work that goes into them helps explain their prices!

Dusk as we sail out of the heavy boat traffic in the Mekong Delta and head south toward Singapore.

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A note about the earthquake in Japan….

Upon our return from our Vietnam land excursion late in the afternoon we learned of the horrific earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.  Our cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore places us just west of the Pacific Ocean, in the South China Sea, and, according to our ship’s captain, out of any tsunami danger.  Our hearts go out to everyone who has been involved in this unprecedented natural disaster.

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We arrived in the city of Singapore, in the island Republic of Singapore, early in the morning, March 13th, days 67 and 68 of our voyage.  This is the one of the busiest ports in the world…it is filled with oil tankers and hundreds of container ships.  Singapore is a tiny country at the tip of the slender Malay Peninsula, just 90 miles north of the equator, so the climate is tropical.

When we reached the Singapore port our ship’s log shows we have traveled slightly more than 18,600 nautical miles, and we have consumed 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel and produced 420,000 gallons of potable water!  We average 18 knots per hour.

Without doubt, the nation island and city of Singapore have been the most environmentally impressive port locations we have visited thus far on our cruise. 

The city is spotlessly clean, the country produces its own fresh water, has a beautiful urban monorail system, magnificent high rise buildings, and all energy and communications systems are managed underground.  There is no graffiti, and there are no homeless people because Singapore won’t allow this.  The city is renowned for being one of the safest places in the world to live.  We would have enjoyed staying two weeks here, rather than two days!

Here are a few photos with some of the highlights of our fast-paced exploring of Singapore:

Yes, this is one of the really contemporary new high rise hotel and office buildings in Singapore…look closely at the top horizontal connecting piece…it is a huge interpretation of a cruising ship – it holds a fantastic restaurant seating hundreds of guests, a swimming pool, and many additional amenities - all overlooking the harbor.

As you would expect, there is a very large Chinatown section of Singapore, with all kinds of herbal and healing potion stores and beautiful Chinese clothing.

Large scale public art is found all over the streets and in huge shopping centers throughout Singapore..the art pieces are often whimsical and very colorful interpretive art representing some of the city’s most appealing attractions…hence the tropical flowers.

We visited the Jurong Bird Park, one of the largest open aviaries in the world (4,600 birds and 380 species) and this little female Australian Lory decided that Larry’s hat and sunglasses looked like a great place to land for a little rest from flying around in the trees.

This Mongolian horseman gave a wonderful demonstration of falconry at the Bird Park, obviously a favorite part of the time I spent with hundreds of types of birds…everything from penguins to flamingos, parrots to vultures.

The world renowned Singapore Botanical Gardens had the most extensive orchid collection we’d ever seen.  This little yellow orchid has the common name “dancing ladies”  and if you picture the big yellow areas as skirts, you can see the arms, head, red belt, and even a hat ornament in the figure of a woman in this little floral jewel.

This strange figure is called a “Merlion” and it is the signature logo seen on many Singapore tourism materials.  This figure depicts the head of a lion and the body of a mermaid, telling the story of how a man hunting a lion discovered the harbor that later became the city of Singapore.

And finally, as we leave Singapore harbor, I wanted to share the nearing completion of the construction of the most unusual condominium high rises I’ve ever seen…no, you’re not seeing the tipping over of buildings…these are actually designed to be this way!

Our next blog will be about our ports of call in India…three sailing days away from Singapore.