Evening out in downtown Saigon

Main Post Office

There's a lot to do around Tết. Especially at night. People work all day and then go out at night. This time of year there's a Flower Market, when people from other part of Vietnam bring their plants to sell. There are orchids, Mai flowers, kumquats and so many others. People buy them to decorate their houses. A lot of times the Mai trees are a kind of rental, people send them back so they can grow over the rest of the year at a plant farm. They are kind of like Christmas trees, but the trees are not cut down, and are sent back to live.

Roast corn on a stick

Are we there yet?

Lights at night

My flower in the flower market

Kumquat tree

Dragonfruit tree

Visiting the "suburbs" of Saigon

Saigon is a sprawling big city. The place we are staying in is pretty close to downtown, but we were invited to visit a home on the outskirts of the city. It's a new development, so there's a little more space per house to build, but they do seem to build right next to each other. Also your house is based on the land area, not actual square footage, so a lot of people expand by building up.

Road into the neighborhood! The little ramp is for your moped to go into your house.

Mom loves cats! These cats were short tails too.

The front courtyard is the parking area too!

Upstairs bedroom - rather like a futon

Stairs to the upper floor

This is lunch. Seafood hotpot with fresh greens and fish. The yellow bowl has ice cubes for drinks. Mom is making sure the pot doesn't boil over.
Nobody seems to bother with tables or chairs, I think they just take up too much space.

Kids are kids everywhere.

The little neighbor boy probably didn't know he's in the picture!

Tết is a celebration of Spring!

Tết or Lunar New Year is a big holiday in Vietnam. People spend a lot of time cleaning, decorating and getting ready. Then they travel to visit their family. The whole thing can last up to 10 days. Lots of businesses close, even shops close for a few days, at least 3, sometimes up to 6, not like the single day for US holidays. This year it is Jan 26.

This is the year of the water buffalo. People feel that it's going to be a tough year, and that you'll have to work as hard as the buffalo have to to be successful.

This display is a temporary display, currently placed down the middle of one of the main boulevards in Saigon. They build the little brick wall and everything, and it all gets taken down a few days after Tết.

Street sweeper and typical traffic

Chinese Money - represents wishes for wealth

Calligraphers - represents wishes for knowledge and learning

Eating and going out at night in Saigon

Things are so familiar and yet so different. I'm not 100% sure that these are real Heinz products, but they may be. If anything they are from a international subsidiary. One is hot sauce, made in Thailand.

New Years decorations are everywhere, this is inside a mall.

My mom's brother is now living back in VN after living in the US for many years. His life is a bit complicated.

Street vendor for roasted dried squid

Eating clams

Waiting for main course

Seafood Hot Pot - See the little trash pile on the ground!

Back to Saigon

The drive back is fairly long, only because the speed limit is not very high, probably about 50 at most. Driving in VN is kind of scary, there are a mix of moped and trucks and not so many passenger cars. A lot of the roads are two lane, not much median, and the traffic is pretty busy.

It's amazing how kids can fall asleep in any wierd position, here she's half on the seat. And there's no seatbelt laws in VN. So people tend to take the seatbelts out, or push them under the seats. We brought a booster seat, but it really only helps her see out the window. It's good that the average speed is lower, since that makes the impact less forceful.

Dried seafood

Rice paddies

Dragonfruit plants

Mom loves her foods.

Bathroom

Another bathroom

So the bathrooms on this little trip are pretty typical places. They use squat toilets, with a bucket of water for cleaning and flushing. No toilet paper, you take the scoop, wash yourself with your other hand and then dump water down the bowl to flush it. I'm not sure if people wash their hands afterwards at the sinks with soap.

Back in Ho Chi Minh City, we loved that you could buy random foods right outside the front door. Merchants would walk around calling what they were selling, and you just went out and bought it. Some were fairly regular, like the bakery man. Also, there was a woman in the neighborhood who sold Pho from her house, so if you wanted Pho for breakfast, you just send one of the kids over with your order, and a few minutes later you'd have hot Pho at your door. The relatives we stayed with hardly had to cook at all.

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a port city, with a lot of development going on. It's got a lot of international tourists and is rather ritzy now. The beaches are beautiful and there's scuba diving that I want to try some time. But it is January, and rather cool for the beach for us. Not colder than it is in Florida either, but cool.

These guy are had trimming the median trees. The house in the back is pretty nice too.

The Balancing Rock at Hon Chong

Supposedly the hand of God 

My little flower

Examining the local wares

The Champa kingdom is gone but not forgotten!

Pet bird at at restaurant

We are on a road trip to Nha Trang, after our stop at Mui Ne. This whole area was once controlled by the Champa, and was taken over by the Vietnamese slowly over centuries. Their culture was much more heavily influenced by India, and you can see that in their statues and stele. Sometimes I wonder about my own heritage, how much Indic heritage I could have.

Roadside Champa ruins

How they keep their chickens from running around.

Kid powered devices! No padded surfaces for these kids.

Kids love to play under the mosquito net.

Putting up holiday decorations.

Sitting in the park in front of our hotel in Nha Trang.

Monkey in the park

More Champa ruins in Nha Trang

Tháp Bà Po Nagar - Temple to Lady Po Nagar


This is still actively used as a place of worship, for Buddhists now, but it was a Hindu temple. The Hindus seem to have a fondness for phallic objects, which I did take pictures of. Also there are plenty of breast sculptures too, and I brought home a souvenir for hubby that is both phallic and mammary.

Unknown fuzzy critter