Phu My, gateway to Ho Chi Minh City

We started early today, Sunday with a bus trip into Ho Chi Minh City. Like the other two ports it was humid. We are in the single digits latitude. Travis and I can't imagine what it was like here during the war. I can only hope people get use to it, but in our short time here we did not become accustomed to the humidity. 

In Ho Chi Minh City we first got to witness a water puppet show. This was neat and is a historical form of art. The puppet masters have go under water, and sometimes they have more than one puppet on their sticks. After the puppet show we went through a museum with information about the history of Vietnam, even back to the prehistoric days. It was difficult to understand the tour guide at times, so I'm not sure I got as much out of it as I had hoped, but little by little I'm learning more about this country and area. It makes me want to go home and learn so much more. 

Water puppets

Temple

Next we drove around and saw places such as Chinatown and the old US Embassy where people were rescued during the war. It was interesting. Next was lunch at a hotel with traditional Vietnamese food and entertainment. 

Lunch entertainment 

After lunch we went to the reunification palace where the president of the southern republic of Vietnam lived and worked. They also housed the war effort. It was where Henry Kissinger met abot the war. A neat place, I learned a bit more about the war, but still leaves me wanting more knowledge. 

Reunification Palace

We finished the day at the French style post office and the Norte dame cathedral of Saigon. And a lacquer shop which was interesting. 

Making lacquer ware

We were happy to get back to the air conditioning on the ship and enjoyed an early dinner with our new favorite waiter Enzo from the Philippines and a movie. 

I enjoyed our first and most rural location in Vietnam, Hue. I enjoyed the city culture of Ho Chi Minh City the least. The history of all of the, is wonderful though. And thankfully we did not go to another market, we've had enough markets...not our thing. 

A day at sea tomorrow with packing for the end of the cruise. Singapore on Tuesday and back to free internet! Life's little blessings in 2014. 

Much love!