Day 48 Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Well today I finally set foot in Viet Nam, a place I did my best to avoid in the late sixties and early seventies. What I found was a vibrant city teeming with life. This city is literally busting at the seams. There are four million motor bikes in the city and I swear I saw all of them twice. Clearly, the infrastructure cannot handle the pace and volume of activity that these industrious people are creating.
The motor bike is the main mode of transportation for most families. I saw entire families on a single bike. Mother, Father and baby riding along in traffic right next to the transports and buses. It probably helps the pace of traffic flow not to have any traffic lights. Everyone just does their own thing within some very basic but seemingly well understood rules of the road. To be fair I did see some traffic lights but they were very few. Not only is family transportation conducted on these motor bikes but the supplies and building materials that can be ferried about is without limit. I hope our pictures do justice to this scene. It is in no way a pedestrian friendly environment. People use the painted cross walks as suggested paths across a sea of on coming traffic. They start from one side and after stopping a few times to let trucks and motorbikes pass continue at their own peril until they reach the other side. Our guide told us that during the "Tet" new year on one day they had 400 traffic fatalities. It all seem to be part of the way of life (or death).
There is other evidence of the burgeoning growth. There are massive bundles of wire that are hung above the sidewalks carrying telephone, power and television signals.
The city it self is a very well manner city without a lot of crime and relatively clean in the central city area. I guess it helps that it is a communist country. This certainly give the people a healthy respect for authority and the repercussions that can arise. We were cautioned that as bad as the offense might be a little money can do wonders. Capitalism is alive and well in the real economy. These people are working hard to make themselves and their country into a thriving economy. This is aided by the fact that the average age of the population is very young and everyone wants to get ahead thru hard work. In my estimation there are not alot of tourist spots that command attention in the city. They push Reunification Hall as a must see, because this is where they marked the fall of the South Viet Nam government that the US was trying to prop up. It seemed to be mostly propaganda because there was little of interest in the building.
So much about what I saw today has yet to be processed since it is thrown at you at such high speed. We will be back in about a week so more at that time.
Tomorrow a sea day.

Chris - Viet Nam - My experience in Viet Nam varied some from Paul's as he spent time in Ho Chi Ming (Saigon) and I traveled through the city to see the Mekong Delta. I had mixed emotions about coming to Viet Nam as I was curious about the landscape and how the people of Viet Nam go about their daily lives, but I must admit it bothered me to be here where all the Viet Nam war authorities still linger in my memory. And I didn't even have any loved ones fight...thank goodness! I didn't realize that Viet Nam was under French influence until the Japanese kicked them out in WWII. Obviously now they are Communist, but a kind of relaxed Communism. They can leave the country as long as they can show a Visa for another country where they are going. They can own their own home and can even get a mortgage from a bank to do so, but interestingly they can not own farm land. The farm land must be leased from the government for 50 years and then it is automatically renewed for 50 more years. They can practice religion and there is a great diversity of religions here. Their main industry remains to be farming at 65% although they are actively recruiting companies to manufacture their goods here. No doubt you have some clothing made here. Mostly because labor is soooooo cheap. They are also working on pumping up their tourism, which started when Clinton lifted the embargo.

I really enjoyed the 6 hours of travel to and from the Mekong Delta as I got to witness so much of the countryside. As we left the ship area we had 2 hours of travel to Ho Chi Ming along a busy highway. Like Paul, I was astounded by the motor bikes. I saw them travel alongside trucks, buses and even an water buffalo driven cart! A good percentage of the drivers wear masks, all sizes and colors. A great number of women are completely covered head to toe on their bikes, including gloves. I was told they want to keep their skin light and want no sun. A tough challenge in 94 degree heat. I was astounded what they can get on a bike. In addition to what Paul said, I saw a guy with 4 dead goats in his basket in the back! Ewww. The highway we were on had no pedestrian walkways and no apparent organized way to cross the street as there are no traffic lights, just an occasional traffic circle. They tended to dodge one side of traffic ... jump the median...and dodge the other side of traffic (much like a Sunday on Hwy. 11 and Webers...before the pedestrian bridge).

As clean as Singapore was, Viet Nam's countryside is that dirty. Litter, tree debris and dirt is everywhere. there are some nicely sculptured medians in the city proper, but the river was covered with litter. Along the side of the highway into the city (the whole 2 hours) are little shanties and shacks selling everything under the sun. Behind the shacks is where the merchant lives. Sometimes in an organized house type structure, sometimes in a lean to. Apparently there is no zoning in the outskirts of town as you see a big, nice looking house next to a shack. After driving through the city we headed south to the Delta area and we saw a change from the previous 2 hours. The highway turned into an interstate where there were no motor bikes allowed and the shanties and city turned into farmland. More tomorrow on the rest of my trip to the Mekong Delta.